Portrait of an Advertising Agency

Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Subservient Chicken website for Burger King has achieved over a billion hits since its launch in 2004. Yet its work still polarizes opinion

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Crispin, Porter + Bogusky is an advertising agency that, to say the least, divides opinion. When bestowing its coveted agency of the year award for 2008 on CP+B, the US trade magazine Ad Age sounded almost apologetic, acknowledging that the announcement meant that "any number of curmudgeonly bloggers and envious creative types all over adland are fuming". Its sister title, Creativity, observed that "the agency is unrivalled in the amount and the intensity of antipathy it arouses". Most successful advertising agencies will suffer sniping from others in the industry, often motivated by simple jealousy, yet CP+B's detractors are especially persistent and vocal—but why?

A survey of online commentary about the agency, combined with the opinions of creative directors at rivals (off the record, natch) reveals certain themes. Accusations of facile humour, a lack of interest in art direction or aesthetic qualities, and an aggressive interest in courting the press, both for its clients and its own gains, are all regularly repeated. Another common complaint is that CP+B is simply a 'rock star' agency, fond of its own press but without the work to back it up. A recent rant on thedenveregotist.com claimed that the agency's "recent 'big' ideas were recycled, either from themselves or other work". (Although the author, Felix, also neatly illustrated the dichotomy surrounding CP+B by claiming at the end of his long rant that he'd "still take a job at CP+B. I'm just mad…not insane.")

Certainly the agency appears to enjoy courting controversy. As is typical, it entered 2009 riding on a wave of both admiration and admonishment, caused largely by its recent work for Burger King. Whopper Virgins, the agency's latest spot for the fast food brand, was launched in early December to accusations of insensitivity and even cultural imperialism. People in far-flung corners of the world who were previously untouched by American fast food were featured in a BK comedy taste test. 'Poor, backward foreigners: let's give them some real food' is one possible reading of its message. By contrast, Whopper Sacrifice, a Facebook application also for BK that encouraged users of the social networking site to ditch ten friends and receive a free burger in exchange was being heralded as an innovative step forward in digital advertising (despite being quickly banned by Facebook itself for breaking its privacy rules). Such debate and discussion is nothing new for a company which actively encourages conversation around its clients' work, recognising that creating discourse around a brand can be a vital way of breaking through our over-saturated media. "We ask 'will the press write about it?'," readily admits partner/co-ECD Rob Reilly. "That's our ultimate goal."

CP+B's unconventional approach to advertising has been evident since its early days. The agency was quick, far quicker than most, to realise the benefits of digital advertising, and scored a huge hit with its Subservient Chicken website, created in collaboration with the Barbarian Group, which has achieved over a billion hits since its launch in 2004. Other experimental projects followed, with the agency creating Burger King's Xbox King Games project—a tie-in with Microsoft to create a series of computer games around the BK 'king' character, which were sold only through BK outlets. Both of these campaigns were prescient in predicting the structure of CP+B today, with its heavy emphasis on digital—its in-house digital team is "the biggest at any advertising agency", according to partner/co-ECD Andrew Keller—and also its recent expansion to include an in-house industrial design department. Designs produced by the agency so far range from the invention of Chicken Fries for Burger King to a LED Wi-Fi lightbulb.

CP+B's attempts at creating a one-stop shop for its clients—providing them with solutions in digital and product design, as well as traditional media such as TV—has been heralded by many as representing a model for the ad agency of the future.