a heart with a twist of lemon

i almost was going to the super bowl. almost.

this past summer, the entire creative floor at the ad agency i work at was told that one of our clients had bought a :30 spot during the super bowl. a copywriters dream. everyone watches the super bowl for the ads. the rest of the year, people usually get annoyed by the ads. or fast forward through them with tivo. heck, even i do that. (although i also watch ads online).

i was determined to write the winning spot. all the creatives scattered to develop their ideas. over 100 ideas got cut down to 50 ideas. 50 ideas got cut down to 13. and my partner and i still had 2 remaining in the 13. 13 got cut down to 5. 5 got cut down to 3. and one of our ideas was in the top 3. the hope was to produce all three spots then run the one that turns out best during the super bowl.

a hollywood costume designer went to work on exploring costume options for our spot. there was whisperings that it had the potential to be the next geico caveman, or even the king of burger king. estimates came back on the cost of our idea, over a million dollars. the client wasn't ready to sink that much money into one spot. and so the million dollar idea died.

but this is the kind of stuff i have to get used to in the ad industry. the optimism i have for the world outside of advertising is vast, but within it, my optimism is guarded at best.

with all that said, i still enjoy it.