AP- Account PLanning- huh...woh kya hai?

I cant help but wonder as to who came up with the concept of account planning as a function that is part of all top advertsing agencies today. As my experience in the marketing function grows, I am compelled to conclude that this is truly THE most non-productive and worthless function in an advertsing agency.
While there are some brands and categories which have tried to use these individuals soleley because of their good IQs...(that is all you need to be in this function, it requires absolutely no other skillsets and abilities) and also sheer laziness on the clients side, on most brands they are used purely to put together some jazzy presentations- (read- only stye and zero substance) for the top honchos of the agencys.

To give you a very specific example, there was an account planning starlet who put together a flashy presentation and had content which was completely based on a “research” that she claims to have done with a pathetic sample size. The findings were so arbit and mostly based on a lot of her presumptions about the TG. (She dared to present this in front of the Marketing Head of the brand she was working on)

I know I cant blame her completely..thats just the nature of the job of an account planner. Its so vague.

One would have to really struggle to find an apt job description of an account planner- I know some of you who read this line will probably want to throw a pice of paper at me containing the job description. But Im almost certain that it will be nothing but just a collection of facncy words put together. It will read something like this “Must have strategic bent of mind, ability to decode a consumers mind”:)..

God help this function. I for a fact know that I would never require the services of an account planner.

Pseudo Creatives

Im referring to a species that is found in abundance in our advertising agencies- the pseudo creatives.
Oh yes..its sad but true that this species rules ad agencies today. They belive that by dressing "differerently", they would be attributed with having "different" thoughts and ideas as well- "Im a lateral thinker you know"
Most agencies today only seem to be encouraging this kind of an attitude with very little accountability resting on the creative team for the success of a campaign- (Its a different matter that if the campaign is a success, even if they are distantly associated with it they waste no time in taking credit for it through agency mouthpieces floating on the net).
So when the accountability levels are almost absent with the creative team, they are hardly ever motivated towards creating successful campaigns and thereby contribute to a successful business in the long term for their clients.
Im yet to come across a creative guy/gal who tries not be someone else. They say "we are just trying to be ourselves". Ok ..so is being sloppy, unkempt and having an unbathed appearance and wearing stained clothes a sign of trying to be oneself..In that case whats so unique about these creative guys. Most of them try to do just that.
God.. will these pseudo creatives for once realize that the world is not made up of fools..specially the world they interact closely with- the corporates and get their act together.
They sure need to be a helluva lot more responsible to the business they are working on. What one needs is their creative output to be different and cool and not them struggling to make themselves appear different and cool...THAT IS JUST SO UNCOOL