Agencies Won't Hear Your Ideas

A Retrospective Read: This NY Times article is over 10 years old. Unfortunately not that much has changed.

ADVERTISING; Agencies just aren't interested in the ad executive crying to get out of every consumer.

THE next time you think you may have a better idea for an advertisement than a Madison Avenue hotshot, know that even if you do, no one will likely pay attention.

Agencies and their clients, it turns out, are bombarded every day with unsolicited suggestions for commercials and print ads through telephone calls, faxes and letters. The increasing attention paid to advertising in the news media has inspired more consumers to believe that they, too, can come up with creative and lucrative campaigns.

''I think people are more fascinated with advertising than ever,'' said Jerry Della Femina, chairman and creative director of Jerry & Ketchum in New York, a joint venture of Mr. Della Femina and Omnicom Group. ''Once people feel comfortable with something, they say, 'Let's try it.' ''

But when consumers try it, they most likely will not like it, because the answer from agencies and advertisers is almost always ''no.'' Sometimes, the unsolicited idea is returned with an appreciative form letter. Sometimes it comes back marked ''return to sender.'' And sometimes it is ignored altogether.

The main reason for that rejection is fear of legal action from consumers who contend that campaigns created by advertisers' agencies were inspired by or developed from their submissions.

''It's a ripe area for lawsuits,'' said Jim Astrachan, a lawyer who is editor of the Legal Advice newsletter in Baltimore, which focuses on advertising-related legal issues. ''Claims being made today are much larger in magnitude, and the cost of a case is so far in excess of what it was five years ago.''

Mr. Astrachan said he advised his agency clients to establish internal procedures to handle unsolicited ideas so that they never reach executives who make creative decisions. The origin of an idea is thus never in question.

Most do just that. Typically, ad ideas are fielded by a single office like the public relations or legal department. Sometimes, mail room employees are trained to identify and intercept idea submissions.

''We try to teach our people how to spot an advertising idea letter when it comes in, and they send it directly to me,'' said Skip McGovern, a vice president and lawyer at BBDO New York, a unit of Omnicom Group. The agency's policy is to send back a letter explaining that the agency cannot accept unsolicited ideas.

''We have thousands of ideas in the bank,'' Mr. McGovern said, ''and what we don't want to happen is if people submit an idea that we already have and we go ahead and produce the commercial, they think we stole their idea.''

He speaks from experience, recalling a legal battle over the popular Diet Pepsi campaign featuring Ray Charles singing, ''You got the right one baby, uh-huh!'' A consumer sued, contending that the campaign had been based on an idea that had been submitted. The agency won, Mr. McGovern said, but only after a long and expensive legal fight.

Jerry & Ketchum will not acknowledge unsolicited ideas, Mr. Della Femina said, and avoids opening letters that are thought to contain them.

''It's dangerous,'' he said. ''The next thing you know, you are involved in a lawsuit.''

Donny Deutsch, chief executive of Deutsch Inc. in New York, described most unsolicited ideas as motivated by self-interest. The policy at Deutsch is to reply to such inquiries ''with a nice letter,'' he said, explaining the legal qualms.

Several other agencies expressed similar sentiments, as did many big advertisers.

The Coca-Cola Company ''responds to everyone with a policy statement,'' said Bob Bertini, a spokesman, that ''we rely solely on company employees, our ad agencies or entities retained by the company'' for ad ideas.

At Johnson & Johnson, letters are sent to avoid ''possible confusion and misunderstanding about the origin of ideas,'' said Jeffrey Leebaw, a spokesman in New Brunswick, N.J.

By ignoring consumer creations, are agencies and marketers missing out? Most seem to think not.

Mr. Astrachan of the legal newsletter asserted, ''99.9 percent of the unsolicited ideas have no value.''

Mr. Della Femina agreed, describing them as ''all sounding like 'Putney Swope' campaigns,'' referring to the comic 1969 film about advertising that featured wildly satirical commercials.

Consumers ''don't know the clients' problems,'' he added, ''or the marketers' needs.''

Ellis Verdi, president of DeVito/ Verdi, a creatively focused New York agency, said: ''Advertising is a craft, and it has to be learned. It's not something that consumers can do successfully.''

Not everyone concurs.

''Our belief is that great ideas come from all kinds of places,'' said Nick Cohen, chairman and executive creative director of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, a small creatively focused agency in New York.

If someone submits an unsolicited idea that is good as well as ''relevant to the issues the client needs to address,'' he added, ''we might even pursue it and involve that person in some way.''