Just ignore the commenters

I’ve worked in Australia now for more than 16 years and feel fairly acclimatised, but the antics of our industry still make me stop in my tracks and wonder how we could let this escalate this badly.?

And when I mean we, I mean senior leaders in this industry. And what I’m talking about is the shade that we let people throw at our work, our craft, our staff and even our clients.?

I’ve been at the receiving end of some pretty harsh commentary and even threats of violence, which I always sort of laughed off. My heart breaks however every time I see the crushed faces of all of our people that have put so much heart into the work they have produced, from strategy all the way to production.

Every time we launch a major campaign we now have to prepare the team for the feedback they will receive mostly from anonymous commenters on apparently “reputational” industry publications like Campaign Brief . And from my conversations with many people in agencies and production companies as well as clients, I’m not the only one that feels this way.?

“Oh, but these are only a few disgruntled people, I hear you say….” while I’m looking at 200+ comments on the latest work from Droga5 ANZ for the Uluru Dialogue utilising John Farnham.?

Even worse, the commentary has descended into horrendous toxicity, which really makes one worry about the make-up of our creative community.??

And apparently everyone is cool with that. Super happy to send their execs to the lunches, partake in the “Agency of the Year” awards, because apparently none of this is really bad.?

Really??

Well, let’s find out. I personally believe it’s time to “drop the shade” but what do I know?

Here is a link to our survey that is open for 2 weeks to get some feedback.?

Share this wide and freely and get some opinions. Because apparently everyone has lots of them.?

With love,?

Jasmin?

www.droptheshade.com