Jumping the Gun
A client had been communicating with me via email regarding a very detail oriented project. I choose to communicate via email to make sure I had a "paper trail" for unexpected miscommunication. One day I sent an email to the marketing coordinator because we'd surpassed the amount of revisions allowed within the original estimate. She argued the point, insisting they had 1 more round of revisions without charging. The kicker—she copied her boss & my boss on the email. I went back into my old emails and forwarded all the revisions she requested to both of our bosses. She realized she had miscalculated and had to apologize to me and upper management. Moral of the story: Clear Communication + Organization = Healthy Relationship. Disorganization + Miscommunication = Embarrassment! Trust your Account Director!

Playing with toys
In my first job as an account executive with a small NYC agency, I worked on a toy account. The clients were very nice, but there was one of the marketing guys who was not as nice as the others. Whenever he came into town, he always specified which restaurant he wanted to go to (on the agency’s dollar of course) and it was always one of the most expensive in town. Then he would proceed to order the most expensive items on the menu. Probably not unusual, and that’s OK if it kept the client happy and we kept the business. When he tried to hit on me, I had to politely but firmly draw the line. The agency still kept the business.

Up in smoke
But here’s the best story about this client: One day I was at a TV commercial shoot at a house in NJ. This was back in the 80’s when everyone smoked liked crazy. We were shooting in the basement of a house in NJ, when the owner happened to come downstairs just in time to see the copywriter grinding out a cigarette butt into the nice tile floor. She got super angry and let the young lady know her lack of concern for other people’s property was not appreciated. Fortunately, the copywriter was contrite and apologized. Later on, I saw the copywriter, art director and the client all go into the small restroom together. They emerged a few minutes later with enlarged pupils – they had been sniffing coke! I’m no prude but I was surprised to see this happening on the job. Bet some of you have seen (maybe done this) too!

Creative differences of note
The time I had to throw an art director out of my office because he refused to make a truly minor revision to an ad that was requested by the client – got angry and started shouting and cursing – and insisting the ad was perfect as it was. (And, no, it wasn’t “make the logo bigger”)

Finger pointing
The agency head that promised the client board of directors to take personal responsibility to ensure advertising would be produced and delivered within a specific timeframe – then dropped the ball, was late, and tried to blame the client marketing team for the agency’s lapse. Needless to say, the agency didn’t last long.

Caveat emptor
The same agency sent a proof of an extensive set of creative materials that had not been checked for typos and was full of errors. When asked to do the proofing, they replied that the production estimate didn’t include the cost of a proofreader, and insisted the client should do the proofing themselves. You can see why they didn’t last long.

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