Agency CEO Fired by Client for Vandalizing His Own Ads

(MoneyWatch)  Happy Corp CEO Doug Jaeger was fired by his client, the New York Museum of Modern Art, after he bragged about vandalizing MOMA's subway ads.

File this one under "Failing to understand the nature of the agency-client relationship."

MOMA hired Happy Corp to produce a subway ad campaign featuring 57 works from the museum to be displayed around Brooklyn's Atlantic-Pacific station. The images included Andy Warhol's famous silk screen of Marilyn Monroe.

But Jaeger came back later with "Poster Boy," an artist/vandal who alters outdoor advertising, according to New York magazine. The pair convinced subway officials to let them tear down and alter parts of the posters and then do a brief "fashion shoot" with models in front of the remixed images. Marilyn received a nose job bandage, and in another, the client's name was altered from MOMA to WILMA, in a pastiche of the Flintstones (pictured).

Jaeger didn't tell MOMA he was going to do this.

Predictably, MOMA promptly fired Jaeger and took down his images, according to the New York Post.

Jaeger gave this explanation for his actions:

...if someone who is getting acclaim as an artist does something to your campaign, does it make it less valuable or more valuable?

Jaeger appears to have completely misunderstood the agency-client relationship. The basis of the entire transaction is that the agency delivers exactly what the client wants, or at least signs off on. Any agency delivering unpredictable results -- let alone actively destroying its clients work, even for publicity value -- cannot be trusted on the business. Even by a trendy client like MOMA. Jaeger also committed the cardinal sin of advertising -- screwing with the client's logo without permission.

Jaeger's self-delusion didn't end there. He said he intended to sell the new images later. Really? A print of Monroe with masking tape on her face is worth something? Doubtful.

Images: Doug Jaeger's own images of his alterations to MOMA's subway ads. We're sure he won't mind BNET using these without permission, right? 'Cause that's exactly what he did.