While advertising’s main skill set seems to be “Bullshitting Others,” coming in a close second would be the smarmy pride exuded in co-opting other people’s ideas. The rise of an agency creative relies 95% on their ability to combine being a prolific bullshit artist and a proud phoney. Look around – there’s nothing else to advertising. Other than buying people drinks/dinner/coke and getting into events.

Nowhere is this better evident, than in the mountain of people that take credit for print campaigns based solely on run and gun location shoots, done by a single photographer. Especially when the campaigns are capitalizing on the photographer’s personal aesthetic, which gained them notoriety.

Case in point is Ryan McGinley, the youngest person to show at The Whitney and best thing to precipitate out of the whole Vice era. He shot two print campaigns in 2009, for competing jeans brands. However the look of the Gran Prix winning Wrangler ads are cold and menacing, compared to the sun-drenched open spaces of his Levi’s “Go Forth” print ads.

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