Someone recently asked me, "What's the coolest thing about being named small agency of the year by Ad Age?"

The answer was, "Being named Small Agency of the year by Ad Age." I mean, c'mon.

Winning that honor three years from start-up, against the agencies we did, was honestly kind of mind-blowing. When they called our name at the ceremony in Minneapolis last year, I was like a geek at a party where the pretty girl says something to you and you look behind you to see if Jose Molla from La Comunidad (who I pegged as the winner that night) is standing there and she's actually talking to him.

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John Hegarty's rant last week on how TV ads are getting worse fails to recognize that advertising is now witnessing its most creative dawn. Never before has marketing been so exciting and innovative. It's why now is such a fun time to be a part of this industry.

I spent a couple years at the Death Star (as it was affectionately known by BBH employees). Hegs was one of the most enjoyable creative directors I had the pleasure of working with in 15 years of advertising. And it was truly enjoyable producing some great advertising for Audi, Barclays and Lynx.

We made slick TV ads, beautifully crafted by well-paid creative teams. Print ads followed an equally well-trodden path. Agencies knew what they had to do to help clients sell more products. Back then, agency life was, well, simple.

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The new season of Mad Men is about to start. For most fans, that means a chance to catch up with their favorite 1960s soap opera, to indulge in the impeccably tailored clothes, to follow the characters' trysts and wonder who'll be written out of the script.

But for ad geeks like me, there's another agenda. We focus on the business side of the show. We're not just noting how they wine and dine clients or how they put out fires. We're watching how they pitch new business. Those are definitely the scenes that keep me coming back season after season, and I can't wait to see which clients Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will be pitching this time around.

Remember the Kodak Carousel pitch and the time machine metaphor? Or when Don changed the entire strategy right before the American Airlines meeting? Or the Jaguar presentation, when he spoke about wanting to own something that's just beyond our reach?

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Reading about the Ford Figo fiasco and the rolling of creative heads at JWT India creative heads, my only reaction was HOLI COW. You see, this week India is celebrating its festival of colors called Holi, but you can bet there are no celebrations in many agencies in this country right now.

I spoke with many of my industry peers in India to get their take on the debacle. Many slammed the credibility of those ads, saying that scam work is not respectable and shouldn't be going on at all. Others didn't think it was all that big a deal and believe the agency's reputation and that of the creatives who were dismissed will not be dinged for the long haul. As the old saying goes, some believe all PR is good PR, and we have seen evidence in both Bollywood and Hollywood that scandals can actually help to elevate personal brands to celebrity status.

But what struck me the most was the mass sentiment of shock and horror over the firings. In the creative community in India, most people view this as an overreaction and believe that those creatives did not deserve to lose their jobs.

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Once again, spec creative work has gotten an agency and its corporate client in trouble. The ridiculous fake ads for the Ford Figo from JWT India led to the firing of at least two people and the automaker spending a good chunk of last week apologizing profusely.

So how do marketers prevent this from happening to them? Quite simply, start kicking ass and taking names. Back in the good old days, creatives would mock up these ads and most would simply disappear. A handful might end up at awards shows, but the resulting controversy was limited to the ad industry and few consumers noticed the ensuing (and empty) apologies and promises to do better.

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As advertisers continually require new media expertise, with both traditional and ever-growing digital channels to connect with consumers, many have increased the number of agencies to manage their communications. But they have also grown more concerned that the agencies don't often work together harmoniously.

In short, collaboration didn't used to matter as much.

Agencies started the idea of creating a holistic platform for advertisers by telling their clients that all their services could be handled by various units within the agency, or holding company, and they devised some nice labels to convey integration. "Under one roof" is a nice selling proposition, but it really doesn't happen easily. Often, the groups are siloed and each responsible for its owned profit-and-loss statement, and media, PR, promotions, direct marketing and other disciplines don't actually talk to each other. Many are set up as profit centers.

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Here's what I'm wondering. Who are all these Yahoos who were supposed to be "working from home" but weren't really working very much at all? And how did they keep their jobs this long?

I'm a Freelancer in advertising. And do you know what would happen if I didn't produce anything on a gig? No more gig. Over. Done. Thanks for playing. Don't call us, we'll call you.

What perplexes me about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decree is that instead of just firing the unproductive, she declared that they must now start coming into the office. Maybe she's just hoping the decision will force them all to quit, thereby saving the struggling company any severance costs. But what she's really doing is casting doubt on the very idea of the modern worker.

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Can money buy you love? It's a worthy question in this modern era of relationship management. What I wanted to better understand is whether connections are as valuable, relevant and long-lasting when they are bought versus earned.

So I set out on an experiment.

My weapon of choice to explore this question was Twitter's Promoted Accounts. I've been on Twitter just shy of four years now, and am by no means an verified "ad celeb" -- I'm not on it all day long, and I don't have a staggering number of followers. But the ones I do have I interact with and had grown the good old-fashioned way, earning each of my 1500 or so followers one tweet at a time. (The fact that I have only tweeted about 480 times over that period rather emphasizes the slow in my slow and steady approach).

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