Volume 95: Thieving thieves.

1. The thieving thieves who steal other people’s work.

tl;dr: Coinbase brouhaha brings back memories.

Just in case you were living under a rock this past two weeks, Coinbase ran a QR code direct response ad at the Super Bowl. Twenty million people pointed their phones at it, the app crashed, and it became recognized as the “winner” among the ads, whatever that means.

So far, so fair enough, you might think. But you’d be wrong. A few days after the CMO publicly thanked Accenture Interactive for being great partners, the CEO of Coinbase posted a lengthy Twitter thread claiming, among other things, that the work was done internally, that “no agency would’ve done this ad,” and that he’s pretty good at this marketing stuff, even though he has no clue what he’s doing. The Silicon Valley ego truly knows no bounds.

Again, so far, so whatever, until the CEO of the Martin Agency chose to respond by stating that not only was the work done by an actual agency (Accenture Interactive in this case) but that The Martin Agency pitched the QR code idea to the Coinbase team in August and again in October of last year.

Whoo boy.

Here’s the thing. It’s really easy to beat up on marketing partners, especially advertising agencies. Hand on heart, I can definitively state that the worst professional experiences I’ve had have been with advertising agencies and their bizarre blend of extreme ego and extreme obsequiousness. However, we shouldn’t forget that they get the shitty end of the stick all too often. From clueless holding company owners to clients demanding ownership of pitch ideas they haven’t paid for, to “data-driven” short-termism, to a continuing struggle to “prove” their value, and the piece-de-resistance; being told they can’t publicly claim ownership of their own work (The irony that a client chose you because of your case-studies being wholly lost on the majority of clients who then contractually demand that you can’t tell anyone you did the work).

Anyway, much as I find advertising agencies difficult, one of the things I absolutely cannot abide is when someone else claims ownership of your work. Our business is brutal enough, and when you’re only as good as your last cred, having someone else claim ownership of that cred is one of the most demoralizing and destructive things that can happen.

The whole thing immediately made me think of one of the most distasteful pitches I ever experienced, where the client called us out on a case study because “Another agency that just pitched us did that work.” We were just lucky the creative director from the supposedly stolen project was in the room to talk definitively about the work, how it was done, and who it was done for because the way the client interrogated us was frankly appalling. Ultimately, it turned out the other agency in question had done a couple of launch ads, which they felt gave them the right to claim total ownership of everything, including the strategy, name, logo & visual identity system created by us.

So, good on the Martin Agency CEO for calling this out. Shame on the CEO of Coinbase for being a dick, and a note to all of us to be better at both calling out would-be thieves and doing a better job of recognizing the people who do the actual work.

Oh, and as an aside, I’m always scrupulously careful to only talk about work I actually did and to give credit to others whenever I can. It’s the least we can do in a world where the only thing you can lay claim to is your work.

2. ClipArt Fighter 6.

tl;dr: Seriously, Capcom. Come on.

If you’re a person of my vintage, the Street Fighter franchise was a huge deal. Back in the days when the Super Nintendo was the equivalent of today’s PS5, Street Fighter was the game to be good at if you wanted any social currency among your peers.

One of the most iconic things about Street Fighter was the aesthetic, directly referenced through the medium of a flaming logotype. Until now.

For some completely unknown reason, the newest incarnation of the Street Fighter logo no longer looks like it’s going to hurt you. Instead, it looks like a cheap clipart app icon for a developer tool on AWS. (No, seriously, you can buy it for $80 from Adobe). I would call this a part of the Helvetica in Pastels movement, but that would be way too harsh on Helvetica in Pastels. This is just plain old lazy garbage.

If you’re going to walk away from something that your brand is intimately associated with, you’d better have a damn good reason to do so, and the thing you’re changing to better be a whole lot better than the thing you’re switching from. Unfortunately, Capcom answered neither of these questions.

Just think of how much fun you could’ve had with a flaming logotype? How it could’ve worked in motion, how it could’ve interacted with the characters, how they could’ve pushed the cheese factor to 11, and just had a blast with it.

But no. Instead, we get two crappy-looking initials inside a hexagon. FML.

3. Somebody let me loose on another newsletter.

tl;dr: A momentary lapse of judgment from the lovely people at Genius Steals.

If you’re one of the lucky few who subscribe to both the Strands of Genius newsletter and Off Kilter, this is the second time you’ll have heard from me today because assuming everything went to plan, I guest curated the edition that was sent this morning (And if it didn’t go to plan, that’s on me because I’m terrible with dates. Think of this as a preview instead).

Anyway, the lovely Faris & Rosie Yakob and their partner in crime Ashley write a newsletter that comes out twice weekly - the good stuff from them on a Tuesday, and the less good stuff from guest curators like me on a Thursday.

In case you don’t get it, you should sign up and read it here. I chose to write about three things. First, why strategy is a language that we need to learn if we want to be taken seriously at the top table. Second, that critical thinking is now at least as important as curiosity in our snake-oil-fueled world of bullshit. And finally, how we made a massive backward step when we swapped design movements for design systems. (But, I’m hopeful that designers will change that soon.)

Mostly, however, it was one of the ancillary questions, where they ask what your favorite album is that most caught my attention. After feeling a little stumped by the idea that anyone still listens to albums, I couldn't think of just one. But, lightning struck when I answered that anything with a Motown label on it is my favorite because it’s true. But you know what else? It’s not just Motown. Add Stax, Philadelphia International Records, and in more modern times, Daptone and Big Crown, and well, you have some of the finest music ever made, anywhere, to listen to.