Batman director on client meddling
Published: Sat, 08/05/17
(just swap out making movies with writing ads)
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"When I come in, what I say is, ‘Look. First of all, you’re asking me if I’m interested in this franchise. I am. I love this franchise. I’ve loved it since I was a kid. But here’s the way in which I’m interested in it. And if you’re not interested in it in that way, then that’s totally fine.’ And the good news was, they said, ‘Yeah, we’re really interested in that way.’ And I remember this on Dawn, too. There would be moments where I came in for a pitch that was a certain version of the movie, and somewhere along the way, because they didn’t know me or whatever it was, they’d say, ‘Why don’t we do this?’ And I would just simply say, ‘But that’s not the movie that we talked about. That’s not the movie I want to do.’ And I have to say that they always backed down when it came down to that. And it’s kind of the way that I’ve always done it. And here’s the thing: I’m always happy not to do something. I’m usually looking for the reason to
say no.”
“Well, because the thing is that it’s too hard. You spend too much of your time putting yourself into something, and for it not to work, that’s a nightmare, right? I can fail for every single reason because of myself. I don’t want to fail because of something that I don’t believe in in the first place – because I’m not going to know how to do it. I can respect that somebody else might know exactly how to do it. Like there are plenty of things that I’m not the right director for and I love to go see those movies. I love to see what people can do. But I can only do what I can do, and so I have to work from that perspective for self-preservation. It’s not out of any kind of like, 'Oh, my way or the highway', it’s because that’s the way I have to do it for me to feel confident in my choices. And so, I’m happy to part ways not even in an acrimonious way.”
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More:
The great ad man Walter Bregman (who was a for real “mad man” agency guy back in the 60’s) says you never go off strategy to fit someone else’s last minute brain fart or to appease the client just for the sake of it.
Twas good advice then.
Tis even better advice now.
Anyway, if you want to learn my simple, “slacker-friendly” (not lazy-friendly) 5-step copywriting system, that let me quickly bang out ads clients loved (and customers loved buying from), go here:
http://www.CopySlacker.com
Ben Settle
P.S. If you are a current “Email Players” subscriber, don’t use the above link. Check out the catalog that comes with your issue each month for a discount.