You can singlehandedly help end the recession.

On commercial shoots there's a lot of down time. And during that down time, people swap stories.

One story I heard was about a spot that, I think, was shot for Special K. It involved a woman getting out of bed on her wedding day. According to the story, the spot only ran four times because somebody called Kellogs to complain that it looked to them as if the woman had been sleeping with a dog between her legs.

I don’t know if the story is true, but it’s consistent with a lot of stories I’ve heard over the years. Clients that will pull spots because of one or two complaints.

Granted, as a copywriter I worked at agencies that often took pride is pushing the lines of taste and decency, but now that I direct I still hear them. And now, the stories are a little less apocryphal. Because I hear them from clients themselves.

Let’s assume the story about the Special K spot is true. What happened?

Kellogs clearly had a marketing plan, and that plan involved a certain amount of advertising effort against Special K. If they pulled the spot, what did they do about the media they’d bought? And more important, what did Special K’s brand manager do to continue on the track toward increasing the brand’s market share?

Resurrecting an old commercial wasn’t an option. After all, the agency had convinced the client that the old commercial needed to be replaced.

And not advertising wasn’t an option, either. Departments get budgets that need to be spent. If a brand doesn’t advertise this year, its budget is likely to be cut next year.

I don’t need to know what happened to know what happened. After a lot of discussion, the agency either re-shot the commercial or produced a brand new one.

A new director was hired, the team flew to L.A., and everybody—and I mean everybody from the bell hops at the Four Seasons to the bartenders at the Viper Room made money.

So I had this idea.

Our economy is in the dumps. And you and I are in a position to help fix it. What I want you to do is watch t.v. When you see commercial you don’t like, complain. Call, write a letter, whatever. Just think of something totally inane about the spot that offends you (and it’s got to be something more than, “I did a spot with exactly the same concept for Hertz in 1988.”)

You’ll be getting bad advertising off the air and giving the agency another shot at doing something really great. And you’ll be providing jobs and stimulating the economy.

In fact, I don’t mind if you complain about something I’ve shot. Sure, I’m proud of it. And I realize I’d never be hired to shoot the commercial that was created to replace it. But I’m thinking big picture here. I’m willing to sacrifice my work for the good of the nation.

Besides, maybe I’ll get to bid on the new spot for Special K.