Hitmakers was one of the many trades that folded while I was writing for it. It probably wasn’t my fault.
One Halloween I asked a lot of PD’s I know to share their scariest promotions, or, the promotions that turned into nightmares. Someone at the mag forwarded me an anonymous fax that they got saying, “What a joke. I’ve never had a bad promotion!”
In the next issue I lead with a note to my anonymous fan suggesting that maybe they hadn’t tried hard enough. Because, honestly if you swing enough, you’re going to have some strikeouts.
If I looked back at my biggest disasters (and there would be a lot to choose from), they were all done “as requested” by the client. These were promotions that I should have stood my ground and said, “This isn’t going to be good. Let’s fix it and pitch them something that will work for them AND us.”