How Confidential Should Advertising Be?

Russell rightly berates the po-faced agency bleating about confidentiality in relation to this blogpost. Sure, it details an ongoing beauty-contest but, from my reading, it reveals nothing confidential (especially within the agency world) and is entirely harmless.

I'm sure many will recoil in horror at this, but it occurred to me that so long as none of the client's market sensitive data was revealed, it might be interesting if the unsuccesful pitches were made public. I accept that the client's competition might then be aware of the directions they were not going to take, but is that really a problem?

And from the agencies' perspective, it might stimulate interest from a totally different client that found resonance in the thinking involved. [I await for all you insiders to tell me that this would prevent agencies from recycling pitch materials, but surely that doesn't happen?]

Of course, a really forward-looking client might choose to reveal all the pitches during the process and see what, if anything, co-creation and user feedback might yield. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.


ASIDE: It's a little invidious of me to highlight this line that flew out of the screen at me.

"Lots to play for on this one - not only a huge piece of business but also an exciting brief and an opportunity to do some great work."

Call me idealistic but, in a cluttered world, shouldn't every potential execution be seen as a exhortation to do great work? Not just those that might win awards.