What the Producer Said...Hey 19?

My cousin Matthew Kasindorf is a very successful tax and real estate attorney in New York.  While working together on the development of a videogame, he taught me, what has come to be, my favorite word.

Fungible:

being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.

Something (or someone) becomes fungible when it can be easily replaced by something else with the same perceived value.  Example: If I ask you to exchange the $10 dollar bill in my wallet for the two $5 dollar bills in your wallet, then my bill is fungible.

In Hollywood fungible is sometimes the only way movies get made. Will Smith becomes fungible when he passes on a role that goes to Keanu Reeves (Guess before you click). Molly Ringwald goes fungible when she passes on the role that made Julia Roberts a household name (Guess before you click).  It’s just how things work in that industry.

In the advertising agency business, however, it is no fun being perceived as fungible.  More than ever before we are seeing Clients switch out agencies the way Basketball Wives switch out hairstyles.  We have no one to blame but ourselves. With all this bullshit talk agencies do about “culture” we have forgotten about what really used to define and set agencies apart...”Style.” 

Style is that particular approach someone brings based solely on their individuality.  For those who have style, it isn’t just about how they work.  It was how they live.  My son calls it "Swag" . But in any generation it means the same thing. Confidence-based leadership.   

We don’t hire “style” any more. A young David Ogilvy; Rick Boyko; Dan Wieden or Lee Clow, wouldn’t get the time of day from an agency based on the way we perceive talent.  We hire “relevant experience.”  Which is just a fancy term for “fungible.”  We hire someone with the exact experience of the person we are replacing.  We ask…we demand they have no style of their own,  so that they seamlessly mend the tear in our culture.  When you hire based solely on relevant experience, you end up with an entire agency that can be made irrelevant by the next shop filled with relevant experience. Darwin’s theory in reverse.

So, the next time you hear about a Client changing agencies after a year or so, don’t be so quick to lambaste the Client. Because it could be that the agency just experienced what it’s like to become out of style.

 

And…fade to black.