• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 9, 2015

Last week, Toronto-based Zulu Aplha Kilo released a video entitled Spec which mocked the advertising industry's penchant for spec, known to every other human on the planet as free work. That video has since gone viral and amassed over 1 million views since release on November 2. 

With over 1 million views, clearly the video has struck a nerve beyond just the ad industry with freelancers and contractors of all types leaving comments, tweets and posts about the video using the video's hashtag #SayNoTo Spec. 

Following the success of the video, the Zak Mroueh, chief creative officer of the agency, penned a Medium post entitled "Time For Us All to Ditch Spec Creative Pitches." In the post, Mroueh writes , "It’s obvious why spec work is bad for agencies. It’s expensive. It’s time-consuming. It’s stressful. And, let’s face it -- it’s essentially an institutionalized way of getting us to work for free. Several years ago, I was disheartened to see that a creative idea we pitched on spec was picked up by the client and used globally -- without any recognition or compensation for Zulu. Not even an acknowledgement or a thank you. I had nobody to blame but myself for participating in the spec process to begin with."

In addition to arguing spec work is bad for agencies, Mroueh also lays out 5 points why spec work is bad for clients too. His top five reasons include the fact that spec work may not be a true reflection of agency talent because those who create the spec work may never work on the account; it could be a big flashy idea for big flashy idea's sake -- all distracting flash and no meaningful substance; it steals away resources from paying clients; it can hinder groundbreaking ideas because the entire pitch process is out of context with a real client agency relationship and it's bad for everyone's bottom line in that Mroueh argues there's a correlation between agencies that offer spec and those that don't -- those that don't offer spec have a longer lasting relationship with the client.

Mroueh closes the post urging readers to share their comments using the hashtag #SayNoToSpec and to head over to the campaign website  to join the debate.