It's piñata time for CP+B

The last few days there have been two news regarding Crispin Porter + Bogusky that really upset me. I don't know personally anyone at CP+B so there is not an emotional reason to be mad. No, the reason why I am upset is because once again some people, very senior people, have decided to blame it on the agency. In the case one of the best agencies of the world.

First, Goupon announced that they would not continue to work with CP+B and CEO Andrew Mason said "Groupon was too trusting with Crispin to be edgy, informative, and entertaining, and we turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our own decisions. We learned that you can't rely on anyone else to control and maintain your own brand." 

But only a few days after the Groupon Crispin Ads aired on the Superbowl Andrew wrote on his post "I personally take responsibility; although we worked with a professional ad agency in the end, it was my decision to run the ads"

Well Mr. Mason, I think that you should fire yourself. You have worked with one of the best agencies in the world and they delivered they product that you hire them for. Didn't you know Crispin's work? Didn't they talk to you about identifying cultural tensions & changing culture? Didn't you know that these ads were going to be very notorious but also generate debate? I guess you have no idea of advertising and there is no one else to blame for it but yourself.

The other shocking news was the announcement that Burger King will not continue to work with CP+B after one of the most "creatively" productive relationships in the industry.

A lot has been written on the reasons (and even a twitter discussion between Alex Bogusky and Adage threw more fire to the matter) and I am not going to analyze in detail the whys or whynots. Bad targeting, too edge, not relevant for the franchisees, etc. I am sure everyone has an opinion but since I don't have any inside information and I was not there in the client-agency meetings I rather not make an opinion.

My main point is that once again clients take the easy way out blaming their agency for their bad results. Once again, in the Blamestorming game the supplier loses. And the real "losers" stay on their jobs.

Enough. We are not a piñata that you can hit at will. And definitely not to one of the best agencies in the world.  

Clients want agencies to be partners and share the risk. Fine with that until finger pointing begins. But remember, when you point one finger at someone, the other four point at yourself. We share the risk, we share the gold, we share the blame and we share the consequences. Call me naive but that is how I see it !