MonKeyArtAwards

Meanwhile...

WPP, the company whose near buy-out sent Crew Creative into a tailspin, just voted in a compensation package approving $100 million in potential bonuses to its CEO, Martin Sorrell.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Please

If you're like us, you are all too painfully aware that coarse language is the lingua franca of the Internets. Nonetheless, it is something we do not wish to encourage here at MonKeyArtAwards, our genteel oasis in the midst of this beastly cesspit. 

So please, if you will, add a small measure of grace and kindness when posting your comments.

WhiPPed But Good

For those of you following our readers' comments on the Another Anonymous Reader Paints A Bigger Picture post below, you can find some clarification as to who at what WPP is here.

Another Anonymous Reader Paints A Bigger Picture

Dear MonKeyArtAwards,

There are so many things about the tone of many of these comments that bother me. For one, most of them are quick to assert an authoritative sounding diagnosis, when it's clear to anyone familiar with the actual events to see how uninformed those assertions are.

I sincerely empathize with anyone who's part of the collosal damage that's being done, including all the freelancers who've yet to be paid, as well as other entities such as the people associated with the building whose rent hasn't been paid, and many more who've been effected. And there should be a good place for folks to vent their dismay, frustration, anger, disappointment, whatever. I just wonder if there's a way to do that without having to make up lies and unfounded interpretations of what actually happened.

A couple important facts to help clarify:

1) Damon was not out trying to sell himself prior to his departure. He was desparately seeking a way to keep as much of the company together as possible, including saving as many of the jobs as possible and to the benefit of his partners. 

2) He was also urgently pushing for a way to avoid the Ch. 11, so that institutions such as Wells Fargo wouldn't take precedence as creditors over the individual vendor/creditors like freelancers.

3) Just because a guy like that has the dynamism to build a company that employed over 150 people, doesn't mean he had the expertise to make all the intricate financial decisions. He might have known what decisions were being made; he might not have understood the long term implications of those decisions.

4) I probably know a lot of the anonymous commenters in this section. Based on the tone of many of these comments, I can assure you, many of you would have behaved much more deplorably under the same circumstances.

-  Another Anonymous

All Rumors Are True

Crew Creative Advertising, LLC filed a Chapter 11 Petition with the United States Bankruptcy Court on May 26, 2009.

UPDATE: Now we're hearing that CREW's entire AV department has been shown the door.

A Rat Bastard Freelancer Writes

Dear Ms. Trout, 

I don't think I've ever seen your site "light up" as it did over last week's news that a particular executive had been walked out of his own company.   I got so addicted to the hourly play-by-play that I couldn't stop coming back for more. I've seen my share of advertising print drama go down, but we've never had a front row seat like this. Your site could be a great source of damage control. However, I'm baffled that CREW's management hasn't seized this unique opportunity to inform the community exactly what's really happening. 

I mean c'mon!!!! Let hear: Who escorted him out of the building? Police? Partners? Bouncers? On what grounds? He's a partner/owner and it's his business. Somebody please clarify how that is even possible? And I'm sorry, but a founding partner knows what was going on financially in his business. Period end of paragraph. 

Nobody should be fooled into thinking otherwise. Including all of us rat-bastard freelancers!! 

Please start a new thread and help the employees, supporters and detractors of CREW get to the bottom of this mystery. And perhaps help those freelancers who still have outstanding invoices get paid FIRST. 

And if you want to know who I am, I'll be the one toasting marshmallows on the bonfire. 

Mr. Moo V. Nut

Crew Creative Type Thread Meets Downcast Heroes

One of the many key artisans we count among our readers sent us this bit of spoofery along with the tag: "He created a monster he couldn't control."

Click on image to enlarge.

In a feeble attempt at fairness amid all this unpleasantness, we hasten to point out that Mr. Wolf was not the company's sole principal, but he was, for better or worse, the lightening rod.

A Crew Creative Type Writes

As an art director of Crew, I can tell you that Damon Wolf was the heart and soul of this company and that the financial structure of this company was and is a mess, which was not under Damon's control...  

...When he was escorted out of that building, everyone was in tears and gave him a standing ovation... that says a lot about his character and his creativity

Posted by CRE(-W)

This is posted in its entirety in the comments section of Monday's post "A Tale Of Whoa, Dude".

A Tale Of Whoa, Dude!

If you’re like us, this economy has you jumpier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. We're wondering which zombie agency will be next to join the ranks of brave warriors who have fallen on the battlefield of entertainment advertising. Seinigers, DåZu, Spiros, Rod Dyer, Poetic Justice, Ikon, BD Fox & Friends, Faction, Shoolery, et al.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses, 

Out of a misty dream 

Our path emerges for awhile, then closes 

Within a dream.

Meanwhile, Back At The Mill…

Normally, there’s nothing we love more than getting out our big, old wooden spoon and stirring up a piping hot kettle of gossip. But, alas, there is no joy in Mudville these days. We’ve heard from several sources that the entertainment advertising leviathan that shares its initials with a must-have bathroom item is cutting its workforce by fifty. Can that number be right? And can that be just the first round of layoffs? 

And we’ve heard that the dancing banana agency has let some people go as well. 

Not good, says we. Not good at all.

All Rumors Are True

According to Adweak, several agencies have joined forces to create a trade organization to represent their interests.  

AEMA, the newly formed Association of Entertainment Marketing is busy setting about edutaining the entertainment marketing community about regulations applicable to the industry as well as collecting and disseminating economic data and other industry information. 

If you have any “economic data” you’d like to turn over to the politburo, you can visit their website at aema.net (which should not in any way to be confused with aema.org - home of the Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association, a proactive organization dedicated to the advancement of the asphalt emulsion industry.)