Ask an Art Buyer: Creative Directors with Bad Taste are Cramping my Style

Joe Photographer writes:

So I was shooting a campaign in studio a couple of weeks ago and was working with an art director and agency I had worked with before. We have a pretty good relationship so there was no issue there. The issue came about when the new creative director showed up and started to nitpick every detail of the shoot. The best example I can give was with the wardrobe. They wanted the teens in the shots to look really contemporary and very hipster cool and my wardrobe stylist had styled them accordingly.

Then the CD steps in and asks for the wardrobe to be changed entirely. He basically walks over to the racks and picks out the wardrobe himself, piece by piece. By the end of it all he had them looking like teens out of an early 90s K-Mart ad. We tried to explain it to him in the nicest way possible but he was thoroughly convinced that this was what all the kids were wearing nowadays. I should note that the CD was in his mid-40s with no apparent style himself…not to be harsh.

What’s the best way to handle those kids of situations where the CD or AD decided to be extremely nit-picky and starts to make decisions that make you shake your head in frustration and disbelief?

Well in my experience, the CD trumps everyone else on set so there’s not much you can do as it’s all going down. But… there may be a few strategies I can suggest.

To start with, it’s important to note that in this very particular example, there will be very little room to get the CD to understand that his ideas are wrong- you will be effectively telling him he has bad taste. Unless you can afford to turn the relationship sour, this is not your fight to make- your AB, AD or even Account Service needs to gently explain that he is not the demographic.

1. IF (and only if) you have the support of the AD (younger, hipper and tired of the lame-o CD mucking with her killer idea), you can also shoot the wardrobe you like. Assure him that you’ve covered off the shot that he styled but that you have lots of time and thought you’d do this other version too, just in case. Then, your AD friend can gather as much support around the office as she can muster, to try and sell through the final shot (featuring appropriate wardrobe) that she likes. This strategy can be employed in any situation where a CD or client is loosing the plot a bit and steering the shoot off the rails. The customer’s always right so ultimately you need to shoot it the way they want but you can also get more interesting versions in the can and hope to sell them through at the next stage.

2. Maybe the client is on set and onside with your view of the world? If that’s the case, involve her early on, to trump the CD’s obnoxious wardrobe choices.

3. This one’s for next time: if you work with this guy again, make sure that every last piece of wardrobe that he’s going to see is something you can live with. When I arrive on set, one of the first things I do (if we haven’t done a wardrobe fitting prior to shoot day), is to weed out any wardrobe we don’t want the client to fall in love with. I literally hide it. Clearly you need to do this with your CD too.

On the other hand, a quote from last night’s episode of Mad Men seems appropriate: You’re not an artist Peggy, you solve problems.