The odd are against us.

I was thinking during this rare weather-induced downtime about how hard it is to produce something good in advertising. After all, despite New York's near paralysis, the advertising trade press and various blogs were up and running. And our television was on way more than usual. As a consequence I was able to see dozens and dozens of ads that would have to improve just to be mediocre.

What I realized was this.

It takes about five or six people doing their jobs well to make a decent ad.

It takes a copywriter, an art director, maybe a strategist and account person, a producer and more. They all have to come through.

But it only takes one person to fuck things up.

One client with more ego than sense.

One person just phoning it in.

One "supervisor" trying to pee in your pool.

And the whole thing is kaput.

We have become an industry--not that different from Hollywood--that does "creative by committee."

Everybody gets a vote.

Every agenda gets its day in court.

We suffer death by a thousand cuts.

G.K. Chesterton said it this way:
"I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees."