I'll stick my head over the parapet to say I've worked with Mike and he's not only a great bloke in that 'awfully nice' English way, but a good thinker.

And before you all dump on his choice of agency, is any one of the larger, more established agencies any better or worse a place for a mature person, especially a really good planner?

and his role on the CBA ads??

"Tetsuya's Head Chef gets a job at Macca's." might be a better way to put it.

Ha ha ha ha!

Planners at SOM, Banjo, Badjar or whatever.

Ha ha ha ha!

He's top, but not an Aussie expat...he's Welsh. And a great bloke.

There was nowhere else to go in Australia.

Read that as you may.

8.11 You're clearly a moron. Get back to your menu panels for Red Rooster.

Mike's one of the best, if he's elected to go to SOM you can be sure that there's big things happening there - especially now that Singo and his crew have left.

10.02 you clearly lack humour. Go back to your folio, I think launchpads due to finish soon – maybe you should try there again.

10:17 your optimism is sweet. He is going there because he is being paid a shxtload. Why would anyone choose to work at the WORST agency in Australia?

There has always been two types of agencies in Sydney.

The 'ooooh... jeeez.... well we can't afford to pay you that much but we'd love to have you on board. After all, our scam awards indicate we are the best!'

Then there is the 'we want to pay you buckets to come on board and help us turn things around. We really are turning things around. Look, see this chair? It's turning around. Watch me, I'm turning around. Isn't that great?'

The second type forced me into early retirement. Lucky I was prudent with my money.

3.05 is the funniest entry i have seen in ages. and so true it hurts. advertising sucks as a career unless you are making great ads. poor mike. i feel sorry that he feels he has to make this choice. hopefully he will last long enough not to have to pay back his removal costs and then go back to a creative agency where he belongs

3.05 Brilliant. You're definitely a sensational writer. Very, very funny (**he says wiping his eyes**). I hope you come back out of retirement!

Oh, trust me, 7:24 isn't the only excellent writer forced forced into premature retirement.

Er, my comment at 10:08 was supposed to say:

Oh, trust me, 7:24, 3:05 isn't the only excellent writer forced forced into premature retirement.

I'm still an excellent writer, but that post-career dementia is a bugger of a thing.

10:08, definitely not. Though I'd hesitate to use the word 'premature'. All kinds of connotations when you put it with the word 'retirement' :)

2:02 I'm relatively new to the industry so tell me why it's the WORST agency in Australia? Have you actually worked there?

Good question 3:41. There are a lot of smartarses in this industry who talk out their posteriors. I have many good friends who have worked at SOM for years and they have a great working life. Hey that might be the key! It's work! It would be interesting to hear how 2:02 justifies the assertion he/she/it has made. If you're interested in the advice of a production company person who observes the self centred egotistical public masturbation of many in adland, you'll remember that this is a communications business and SOM do it better than most.

It's exactly right 10.52. Everybody loves to sledge SOM and the people who work there. And I believe there are 4 reasons why this is so.
1. They work at Banjo
2. They got the sack from SOM (probably because they were crap at what they do.)
3. They can't get a job there (probably because they are crap at what they do)
4. They don't have a clue what they are talking about, they have never met anybody from SOM, wouldn't even know the last ad to come out of SOM and are just following popular opinion so they can while away their hours in the studio by having a rant.

Good luck Mike, if you are wanting to work for a professional agency full of good, down to earth people who want to do great work, then you will enjoy SOM.

3:41 for an unbiased opinion: There are plenty of worse agencies out there than Singletons. Agencies that do horrific work on horrific budgets. But you've probably never heard of them (except advertising advantage). Singletons is just the biggest boring agency in town.

Case in point:

Telstra 'I am you are we are' crap during the olympics.
KFC.
Lucky you're with AAMI.
Huyundai
Huggies
Australian Rugby Union

And basically some international crap they 'adapt' and call their own.

The sad thing is, I've seen many great writers and a few great art directors kill their careers and become unemployable anywhere else after working there.

Interesting reading the pro and con banter regards Mike Daniels return to Aust & SOM. For a bloke with world wide industry / customer acknowledged talent, top shelf business & ethical discipline to choose this move back to OZ just now can only mean SOM are about to shift into some new dynamic directions.

He's only a planner. SOM will be great. They love planners.

Just to add to 11.51...

I work at SOM and think you should hold up the old fashioned perception of the agency.

Why? So the ignorant ones who buy into it never want to work here. I'm up for keeping this agency void of wankers who are too caught up in their own self importance!...

C'mon Fellas, every agency does work its not proud of. Do you see BMF spruiking their work on Aldi on the blog? BWM on the stuff they do for Retravision? The reality is that some accounts are run purely for a commercial return and these clients will never let you develop award-winning work regardless of which agency they're with.

Conversely some agencies never let you develop award-winning work regardless of which client they're with. Not just Singo's.

I admire the passion some creatives, especially on this blog, exhibit. Sometimes, however I think we lose sight of things. It is, really, just a job. And if you've turned down half a billion dollars a year to work at a bank and chose advertising instead, well, you're a fool. Plenty of time to be creative on your private yacht in the Greek islands with a 0.6mm marker and an A4 pad in between merging billion dollar mining companies on your Blackberry (for 10% commission on god knows how many billions of dollars worth of trade).

I love it how we're all taught to do the best job we can. I am a victim as well. A big, passionate, 'ideas' loving foolhardy one. Believer in, well, God knows but He'd never tell me.

But most of the time, I loathe how it isn't reinforced, that it's a job. A job. Only a job. Even our taxi drivers ('il fa pubblicità a autisti') realise the sad reality we can never bear to bring ourselves.

Good luck in Aus mate, sure you'll love it.

Lets hope Mike can keep the customers tills ringing, garner lots of new business,and maybe as a sidelight bonus, a couple of gongs for the industry insecure who measure themselves in this manner. Good luck Mike, the SOM team and thier customers will just love you beeing there with and for them. this is unfortunately a business not a playpen for frustrated Picasso's