Epic client fail #1: legal interference.

(The following blog entry was originally posted on Blogger on 07/18/15)

Over the past year or so I've been wanting to post a new blog -- since I only manage to sit down long enough to write about 1 a year -- and post something that's dear to every creative person's heart: the client fails. The bloopers, the miscues, the oversights and poor decision-making.

I've tried to jot down some of these mistakes when they pop into my head. I'm sure there are more, but here's one to kick things off. I'll start with the most recent one and work backwards in the next few blog posts.

Last year my design firm was awarded an assignment to produce some cover wraps and direct mail efforts for a popular entertainment magazine. One of the DM efforts featured a portion of a $10 bill on the envelope's face, and a matching $10 bill on the top panel of the letter/order form inside. Since they were offering $10 off a subscription renewal, it was a no-brainer to lead with $10 bill on the creative. We presented the concept to the marketing team and they green-lighted it.

Then the lawyers got involved.

Their legal department said we couldn't show the $10 bill actual size (which is what we'd done because we were showing less than 1/2 of it). We countered with: the portion of the $10 bill being displayed is less than 1/2, and we aren't showing the back. There would be no confusion or misrepresentation to the consumer that it's legal tender. The lawyer was still nervous. I took matters into my own hands. I called the federal government. Seriously. I called the branch that oversees and approves the use of US currency in advertising and promotions. After being bounced around to several different departments, got disconnected, re-routed and forwarded to half a dozen different phone numbers, I wound up talking to a guy in a government office in Brooklyn about it. He assured me that our approach was within the legal guidelines of displaying US currency. Great I said, we're legally compliant, done deal, I hang up.

I took this back to my client's legal team and still they sharted in their pants. Even after the visual was approved by the goddamn federal government, the publisher's consumer marketing lawyers still said no. They said the $10 bill has to be scaled to 150% or 75% of actual size. I said "Those are the legally approved specs for representing an entire bill, not a portion. The portion we're showing is less than the 5/8 required of banks and merchants for accepting or exchanging a bill, plus we're not showing the back. There is no way a consumer is going to mistake the printed envelope and order form artwork for an actual $10 bill." Still they balked. "Make it 150% and we'll approve it" legal said. Sighs and mumbles of frustration filled the office. We being the dutiful little design firm, we obliged.

We got our concept printed by caving in to a legal department's (or one lawyer's) ignorance of the facts. This is often how smart creative gets turned into dumb creative. It can be the difference between a getting a control and not getting a control. The $10 bill at 150% looked hokey. We never did get the response data on the mailing.

You know the old joke: What do you call 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of a lake? A good start.

As they say, humor always has an element of truth in it.