The agency that craves press coverage, doesn’t allow its staff to comment on industry sites.
According to Ad Age, Crispin Porter & Bogusky has banned agency staff from engaging in dialogue on sites — whether it’s positive or negative. “We tell everyone do not comment on another agency’s work,” Rob Reilly, worldwide chief creative officer at CP&B said. “I don’t want anyone from our agency to contribute to hurting other agencies… we have enough to worry about on our end that we don’t need to worry about other people’s work.”
Finally, I see why Reilly is blocking me on Twitter. When I first realized that he was blocking me, I stepped back and asked myself, “What the hell did I do?” Now I see I didn’t do anything, it’s who I am, an ad blogger. That AdPulp is not now and has never been Agency Spy-like may be lost on Reilly. But since he can’t comment here, we may never know.
The Crispin policy, oddly enough, encourages anonymous commenting, since staff can’t use their real names.
Ad Age reporter, Rupal Parekh, also thought to ask Jeff Goodby for his opinion on such measures. That sort of policy wouldn’t take hold at his shop, he reasoned.
“I can’t control them,” Goodby said, of his staffers. “They have to have some judgment on their own. It’s not a police state and I wouldn’t want it that way.”
Where’s freedom of speech here? Why issue something like a gag order? If you don’t have anything to hide, this shouldn’t be the case.