Adland, We Need to Talk About Credits

In 2014, it’s not enough to just cooperate. Or even collaborate. If you’re not co-creating or, better yet, co-collaborating, then what kind of loner ice queen are you? Believe the press releases or buzz-laden seminars and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the concept of ‘working together’ was an artifact of 21st century ECDs trying to find something to talk about for half an hour at Cannes.  And that the entire advertising industry is slowly evolving into a big old kibbutz. But if we’re all partnering up and sharing the love, making sweet, sweet creativity with an ever-growing gang of BFFs… please someone answer me this: why does the industry suck so hard when it comes to crediting its collaborators?

As an industry journalist, number three or four on my list of soul crushing daily frustrations is dealing with annoyed post houses/editors/sound houses who have been left off credit lists and then having to fart around in the back end of the website instead of, oh, I don’t know, getting on with stuff. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this one (can I hear a ‘what, what’ from all my advertising journalist homies?). 

I totally get why a company would feel upset about being left out of a list of credits – they’ve poured their time and effort (and often, their own money) into making something happen. And it’s all the more irritating when the agency’s creative strategy has been built around their particular element of the campaign. In this age of co-co-co-collaboration, is it really too much to expect a tiny, two word shout-out on the credits list?

The people who usually get it in the neck are the journalists, because, you know, shoot the messenger. There's also the PRs who are usually doing their best to piece together scraps of information from agencies or companies that are only interested in trumpeting their own involvement in a project and mistake working in advertising for being a Grand Poobah in the Masons. PRs also can come in for an earful when, a publication has decided not to name check every company involved – but that’s a whole different story. 

I’d argue it’s counter-productive to be so stingy about giving credit to the people and companies you work with. Sure, you might want to push your angle but when you leave out comprehensive credits then you frustrate the journalist who wants to break the piece of work as quickly as possible and has to spend all morning chasing for a list. Why wouldn’t you want to shout about the cool people you chose to team up with? And there’s also the risk of winding up people you want to work with in the future.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve had ‘press releases’ from production companies that don’t say which agency the work came from. I’ve had releases about work that so clearly revolves around music and yet the music company hasn’t been namechecked in the credits. I’ve spoken to production companies because they’ve seen their work on our site and they didn’t even know that the work was out, have been left off the credits and are on the back foot for their own PR.

But someone, somewhere must have a list, right? A list of the companies and key players who made the campaign happen? Maybe? I know the industry has a reputation as a bunch of happy-go-lucky-scamps/thwarted movie writers/pissheads but I don’t think the task of keeping a list is beyond us. You could even do it, uh, on an app or something. Or maybe we need to employ more Chief Executives in Charge of List Keeping?

So who’s responsibility is it to make sure the right companies and people are credited? Usually I’d say the agency – and at this point I probably need to say that there are also lots of agencies who do a really good job of credits. You know who you are and we know who you are and we love you. And these days brand marketing departments seem increasingly desperate to wrest control of ad industry PR from their advertising agencies. Which, I guess, is fine as long as they are able to provide the basic information like, uh, who made the advert. My suspicion is that there’s a responsibility black hole when it comes to credits and it sometimes just gets lost in the swirl of activity.

It’s a funny old issue, the credits kerfuffle. It’s something that I’ve always assumed everyone knew about. Loads of people bitch about it privately, but very few people have spoken about publicly.  I wonder if those ‘higher up the food chain’ are even aware how important a small mention in the credits can be to their ‘co-creators’.  I suspect the situation is similar to having a mucky flatmate who never washes up and has sex a bit too loudly – instead of bringing it up in an open and non-confrontational way, you keep it to yourself and it festers and festers until just one unwashed coffee cup sends you into conniptions. 

As queasy as the happy-clappy buzzwords make me feel, there probably is something in the sentiment. The creative industry is an ecosystem – a precarious, occasionally acidic ecosystem to be sure, but an ecosystem nonetheless. And the last thing it needs is more resentment polluting the small-ish pond.  If anything, I think, as an industry we need to stop coming up with ever-wankier buzzwords for ‘cooperation’ and learn the basic practicalities of playing nicely together – saying ‘thank you’.