Today a client had the brazen cheek to give feedback on an ad I was involved with. I know. I was apoplectic too. The gist of it was, “We love it but could you tone it down a bit for the audience?”

It will surprise no one to hear that this happens a lot when you work at a creative agency.

In fairness, it’s easy to be all brave and edgy when it’s not your £multi-million logo that’s going to be sitting in the corner. Looking all sheepish if you’ve judged it wrong.

But I still think it’s worth a moment to reflect on the assumptions behind that kind of feedback.

It’s basically saying, “Of course, we get it. But they won’t.”

It says, “As an individual, I enjoyed that. It tickled me. But The Audience is not like you or me. They are faceless, humourless drones. They won’t be entertained. They will be furious.”

I should point out at this point that the audience in this case is essentially regular Joes and Janes – not a fervent ascetist cult. And that the ad in question featured neither nudity nor animal cruelty.

I can understand the desire to avoid courting controversy. But often this protective corporate instinct goes into overdrive. It sees scandal everywhere. It turns a simple, human piece of communication into a soulless, homogenised husk.

(The Client Service Manager will doubtless be giggling at the melodrama of all this – it was a pretty minor change. But it’s the principal of the thing!)

Are these changes made because people genuinely think they’re the right thing to do? Or because of some nebulous sense of corporate rectitude looming over their shoulder like Banquo’s ghost?

I dunno. I just write offensive ads.