spec
I have made specs and "traditionally" made ads while in advertising on the production end.
Typically (non-spec) it's this: Ad agency has idea, brings it to selected directors (two-four of them) and their respective production companies. They (usually) competitively bid against each other and the pick is paid to actually produce the spot. There is no spec anything in this. You are chosen based on (1) your previous work (2) their response to a series of conference calls and (3) usually a written breakdown of how you'd approach the spot (treatment) and a budget for the cost from the director's company. This is all done on the agency --> prodco level until there is a chosen director and then it is okay'd by client before awarding project.
poopooplatter is pretty dead-on -
A "spec spot" is an tv ad made without any cooperation/input from the company/product being advertised. They are usually made by people in advertising/trying to get into advertising.
One sign of a bad spec is that they are almost always for Coke, Nike, Apple or some other iconic brand such as Porsche. Sexy stuff but the decent specs are more often for unknown brands, i.e., a carpet cleaning service. It is the idea that makes it great, not the glow of the brand. Without knowing and trying not to be unfair, a spec for Apple advertised on CL is probably going to be very useless as a spec to help someone get into or further along in directing or advertising in general. And the better specs are made in conjunction with or with some unofficial help from creatives (the creative team at the agency tasked with generating these ideas) who do work / have worked on the actual brand the spec is being made "for". The creatives have dozens of ideas that were stillborn or otherwise killed along the long road to getting made and many of these creatives would love to be able to have the idea on their reels - so long as they are made well enough to pass for broadcast. If they feel spec in almost any way (well, in any way) they usually hurt the reel more than not if this is to help someone established. A bit more latituded is given to first-timers ("beduting" directors) but probably just 10%. So the agency guys fish for directors (usually able to already display talent but very early on in career and recently signed with production company, or a former agency creative hoping to move to production) to produce them (and get it paid for by either the director and/or her/his company). The specs that are done totally bandito style are also usually especially painful because they lack the insight into the brand that the creatives have eating and sleeping that stuff 24/7 and making the ads you do actually see. They feel very fake.
Finally, the Budweiser Whatsup! wasn't presented to Bud as a finished spec from an aspiring commercial director. Anheuser-Busch's agency at the time (DDB Chicago) saw the short film
True and ultimately a CD (creative director) at DDB took the idea as a whole and pitched it to Bud. They (DDB) then hired the kid who made it (Charles Stone) to redo it (with a lot of backup, I'm sure) and therefore launched his commercial directing career. Stone didn't make it as a Bud spec to show to them - the original film had only the dialog "true" over and over in virtually the exact same setups as in the final 1st TV ad. And that is also usually the
only time an advertising agency will take any "risk" at all in this area - they have to see that you've already done their story. The closer you get (literally) the more likely they can take the massive leap of hiring you for their client their terified of losing. There are many more examples of this, having the agency "lift" an idea in an almost identical manner, hire the same people, and brand it. There is a huge Coke ad that came from a Japanese music video quite literally (using same director) and then our guys Chiat lifted the Postal Service video concept for the Intel Mac launch and got the same director to remake it for their client Apple. But that's been covered here already.
🙂
That was painfully long, sorry.
