Ask A Creative Director

NEWSFLASH: not everyone enjoys a wiener joke.

With one of DGWB’s latest Wienerschnitzel commercials, “Gotcha”, that bit of news has never been more obvious. There are those who are so unappreciative of a good wiener joke that they’ve even taken time out of their busy schedules to let our clients know how they feel.

The fact is, not everyone needs to enjoy a good wiener joke. But those who do… chances are, they share a few values with our client. A sense of humor, an irreverent style, a willingness to ignore the status quo and push a few boundaries- as well as a few buttons of those who don’t particularly see things their way.

These are the people Wienerschitzel connects with, laughs with, and shares a meal with. And who will likely find more humor in not only this spot, but in "Human Resources" and "To Catch a Hot Dog Lover" as well. To try to court customers who don't share Wienerschitzel's values, or their sense of humor would not only diminish their limited marketing resources, but it would be disingenuous- and rarely will you find people willing to hold a relationship with a brand that’s being disingenuous.

So, to anyone who was offended, we apologize for rubbing you the wrong way. And hope that with a little understanding and tolerance for a world full of unique personalities and points of view, you may understand that while it wasn’t right for you doesn’t mean it wasn’t right. We wish there was a way to make it up to you, and wish you luck finding the types of connections our client shares with their customers.

Hmmm, should I make the logo bigger?

Probably not.

If you're looking to increase the impact of your logo, there are a dozen more effective and more tasty ways of doing it. You could increase the amount of white space around it. Put it into a box. Offset it with a color around it. Have you considered putting it in the upper right corner instead of the lower left? Etc. Etc.

And that's the basic idea behind this blog.

Are you working at an inhouse agency? Are you designing brochures in your garage? Do you work for one of our competitors and just don't trust your boss's opinion?

Well now you can ask questions of myself (Dave Swartz), my partner John Zegowitz, our boss, Jon Gothold, or our esteemed British Design Director, Jonathan Brown. Together, we've got about a zillion years of experience in pretty much every category you can think of.

We won't be able to answer every question, but we'll do our best. With one caveat. We can't help you out-market our clients. So if your question pertains to a client who we feel is competing with one of ours, we can't help ya.

And because this blog is public, you should be forewarned that we'll be discussing our suggestions in a public forum.

Also, this is an experiment. And like all experiments, there's a chance it might go awry. Maybe people don't want our opinion (God knows a lot of people in our creative department don't want em sometimes). Maybe we'll get shut down by the AAAA's for breaking some convention we didn't know about. Or maybe it will become sooooo huge that we can't handle the mass of volume.

Either way, we look forward to seeing where the experiment leads and the floodgates are officially open.

Go ahead. Ask a creative director.