Today- a good friend called me and asked me to take a line of commentary off my list of ad agencies in Dayton because I was hurting someone’s feelings- a “good guy”- who took what I said about his agency “website” personally. There was nothing personal about it- it was purely a professional warning that what someone clicking on the link expecting something professional, was going to find something, well, plain and simple, terrible.
It’s not a site- it’s an “under construction” Flash animation- something that obviously took some time, and a bit of thought. I’ve never understood “under construction” sites- either put up something real, or don’t do it at all. The thing about this “site” is that it’s been this way for at least five years- and the punch line is “Butt check back soon” with an animated construction worker showing his backside.

We take what we do here pretty seriously- advertising isn’t something for the meek, the scared or the gutless- it’s about working hard- taking calculated risks and figuring out how to work smarter instead of harder, and- it’s competitive- very competitive.
So, when the call came from my friend- and he asked me what I was doing- I told him: I’m probably driving more traffic to this guys site than he could have gotten any other way, and that I was hoping this might get him to actually put a real site up, one that wouldn’t be an embarrassment to the profession that I love. My friend said that I wasn’t being nice, wasn’t being fair- and that I’d attacked someone personally (to me, a personal attack is when I say “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny”). So, I’ve relented and removed the comment- the link is still there for you to find, but it’s up to you.
It’s been said that “good advertising will kill a bad product faster than bad advertising will kill a good product” and this site should have killed this agency long ago- except no one could find it since it was all in Flash- which doesn’t index in Google worth a spit unless the coders really work hard to tag everything. Our list of agencies in Dayton was probably the only way anyone would find it- and, to be honest, we’ve had that comment up for over a year before this guy figured it out.
He can blame me for pointing out how bad his site is- or he can fix it.
He could even come take our Blogosopher seminar and learn how all this stuff works, so he doesn’t have to have an embarrassing site.
Or- he could say, thanks, because like it or not, that little line of text- “this could possibly be the worst ad agency site ever” probably got him more hits than he deserved.

What do you think?

And- if you are wondering why I don’t link to the site- well, I’m being “nice”- you can either start at the top of the list and start clicking- or write me an e-mail and I’ll tell you which one it is.

Note: 21 Dec 2005- the offendsive Flash annimation is now history- so we’ve done our part to improve the world for the moment.