48 Hours

Started off this morning with a meeting for a client who had signed up with us quite recently. To say that the meeting was disastrous would be an understatement. The client has given his laundry list to which my colleagues have eagerly added their own dirty linen. Bottom line; I’m working on a client about who I’ve little idea, on a campaign I’m not at all convinced, on a deadline that would even make the seasoned engineers in NASA envious.

Not that I wanted any of this to happen. I gave my well-rehearsed set of excuses this morning.

I know as much about the client as I know about interplanetary communication.
All the art directors in our agency are tied up in various projects till the next century.
I have an unavoidable appointment with my Vaastu consultant this Saturday.
That meeting might take the whole of Sunday too.
The Monday morning deadline looks as realistic as India winning the next soccer world cup.

So the considerate set of managers present in the room, after taking into consideration all the pros and cons, took a well thought out, strategically sound decision. I have to do it. I have to find an art director, “Anything can be done in 48 hours” and “I have to make the deadline work”. Even to my seasoned ears, that last bit was shocking. So, here I’m on a Friday evening trying to figure what on earth our client wants to achieve with this campaign. Oh, I did manage to find my art partner. And together we’re trying to make the deadline work for us. If only someone would explain the damn job to begin with.