Sean Cummins: Hate comment on industry blogs made me think about topping myself
High profile creative Sean Cummins has said that he contemplated suicide and turned to drink over malicious comments made about him on industry blogs.
In an interview with today’s edition of the Weekend Australian Magazine, Cummins – who now heads up Cummins Ross – says he became a target after the multi-award winning Best Job In The World campaign for Tourism Queensland. The campaign by his previous agency Cummins Nitro became one of the most internationally awarded of all time.
Cummins said in the article: “That was when the vitriol started pouring in, all anonymous, on industry blogs. Everything from ‘he’s a bastard to work for’ to suggestions that I hadn’t done the work I’d claimed credit for, to jibes about my personal life and my profile photo.”
He added: My kids were being taught at school not to cyber-bully and yet here were these professionals out trying to really hurt people by doing exactly that.”
He revealed that one effect of the commentary was to lead to him abusing alcohol. He said: “It was such a personal and outrageous character assassination and the collateral damage was enormous. There was a knock-on effect: when you’re not confident, your creative work suffers because you second guess yourself. Then I dulled the pain by drinking. I was erratic and my mood swings were inexplicable to my wife and family. Then my wife went on the website and she was shattered.”
The article does not disclose which website Cummins was referring to. However the main industry websites that allow anonymous comment are Campaign Brief, Mumbrella and to a lesser extend AdNews and B&T. Cummins said:
“Unfortunately, I got to the point where I contemplated topping myself and the ways I might do it. What stopped me was knowing I would leave a lot of people I loved very lost.”
Cummins’ claim to have received a rough ride from industry websites is borne out with a quick search of Google on “Sean Cummins”.
The top article returned by Google on Cummins from Campaign Brief sees the six month old article imply that he was not the creator of the Best Job campaign, saying that description is “interesting”. One comment underneath the article says that Cummins was “not the creator”, while the comment thread also contains an anonymous comment describing Cummins as “a joke”.
The second from top article on Cummins from Mumbrella returned by Google includes a comment thread which was closed for legal reasons after a defamatory comment (which was removed) was posted about Cummins. The incident was one of two that led to comments on Mumbrella being moved from post-moderation to pre-moderation.
And the top article returned from B&T includes a comment saying: “Working with Sean Cummins, probably the worst job in the world, thoughts?”
Cummins will be speaking about his experiences on Tuesday, at the Mumbrella360 conference in a presentation called Cummins vs Anonymous. Tickets have sold out.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
I don’t know Sean, but that Anonymous person is a mongrel aren’t they? And they’re everywhere.
Good on you Sean for standing your ground, if the people making the comments don’t have the guts to put their name to their comments, why should what they think matter!
User ID not verified.
Mr Cummins may wish to put a little less stock in what anonymous detractors post about him on the internet. And remember that any time you do something high-profile, people will make unfounded criticisms.
User ID not verified.
Does someone need a hug?
User ID not verified.
wow. have a winge. grow a set of nuts mate.
User ID not verified.
This industry is full of gutless people and anonymous comments are just one manifestation.
User ID not verified.
Sean, this is so indicative of a country still paralyzed by the tall poppy syndrome. It is no wonder that so many people go overseas for bigger opportunities and to escape the small minded comments of the pathetic few who are being encouraged by those who provide the veil of anonymity for commercial gain. The best revenge Sean is the continued success you have earned. I am sure it makes these sniveling commentators cringe at their own continued failure.
There are many blog posters who make extremely good points and enrich an online debate, without revealing who they are. They simply choose to remain anonymous, many times because they do not have a reason to plug themselves.
“Boz” used to publish many a letter in UK papers without anyone knowing who “Boz” was. It was later revealed that “Boz” was no other than Charles Dickens.
User ID not verified.
Oh the irony of Mumbrella hosting this
User ID not verified.
You see it everywhere, the gutless, faceless nastiness. If they had to put their names to it, it’d be a different story.
User ID not verified.
Anonymous (8:17pm): Of course. I’m sure that you (and possibly even I) make valuable contributions in anonymity all the time. Okay, maybe only you do. But, when doing so, you must notice that there’s a big, obvious difference between considered opinions or feedback, and casual spiteful remarks like, “oh, he didn’t do any of that work himself”, or “total douchebag to work with”. I think Sean’s missed a couple of lessons, generally relating to people being arseholes, and letting results speak for themselves.
Lesson 1: Haters gonna hate.
Lesson 2: Harden up, princess.
User ID not verified.
Regardless of the circumstances preceding, suicidal thoughts are nothing to be laughed at, or considered something that you need to ‘grow a set of nuts’ over.
I’ve lost a colleague to suicide (partly due to workplace drama), and have been in that same state of mind myself. And it’s morons like Dave and Anonymous Vitriol which don’t treat the symptoms seriously enough until it’s too late.
User ID not verified.
Congratulations Sean. Well said.
User ID not verified.
People are gutless and would never say anything to your face, they must be real though sitting behind a computer screen, being awesome and cowardly
User ID not verified.
Topping yourself is a bit extreme, but it does get more attention than simply retiring quietly.
User ID not verified.
Don’t let the gutless anonymous posters get to you Sean. Tomorrow when you wake up you will still have all the awards for Best job in the world and a new agency going places whereas the ‘expert’ anonymous posters will still be bitter, twisted and looking for someone else to target with their lame comments.
Tim – come on, the week of Mumbrella 360 is a great time to get rid of anonymous posters on Mumbrella once and for all.
User ID not verified.
The mocking and snide commentary centered around a man who has taken the courage to admit he was on the brink, and considered taking his own life, is nothing less than shameful.
Opinion on someone’s work; fine. Mocking regarding suicide ideation? Speechless.
User ID not verified.
I think comment sections work much better when you need to sign in with a username and password, instead of using a different name each time. That way serial pests are quickly exposed, and derided by other users.
User ID not verified.
I have said this before and I will say it again. I am not afraid to repeat my comment from a few months back:
Pizza Hut want their tablecloth back.
User ID not verified.
Agree that debate is healthy however what astounds me is the level of nameless vitriolic criticism some people carry on with within our industry. Progress in most forms requires nurturing a healthy open debate and constructive criticism so that a better outcome can be achieved. Lets out the small minded cowards. Its easy to criticise, real change requires more thoughtful consideration of the issues.
User ID not verified.
As someone who has been recently flamed – so I was told – by the omnipresent comments of anonymous bloggers, there’s a simple solution: don’t read them.
User ID not verified.
Wish I could be there – Mumbrella, are you filming this?
“Anonymous” is the bitter jerk off locked in the dark corner office hating on the world.
“Anonymous” will more likely than not will suffer bouts of cancer, an early death, and wonder why.
All that negativity, tsk tsk. It’s actually poisoning.
Thank goodness someone is finally speaking out, and even more so that it’s Sean Cummins. I can hear the roof coming down with the applause already.
User ID not verified.
Good on Sean for being open and honest. I agree with his sentiments and find that the advertising industry is slow on the uptake of some basic acceptable professional social functionality. How about just basic manners?!
It seems advertising is the last industry that has taken sexual harassment seriously, it is still lagging in sexual discrimination, it wasn’t that long ago people were drinking and doing drugs in the office as a standard practice. This kind of behaviour is next and slow on the uptake – cyber bullying.
There are people on this feedback that would be on the edge right now. Not by what they’re saying, but HOW. Calling names clearly qualifies as abusive behaviour. I can’t wait until accountability catches up in this industry as well.
Sean is incredibly brave to do what he’s done and I support his position 100%. The weak ones are those that call names and hide behind anonymity – even just a first name is weak. I’d personally love people to be accountable to their personal brand – anyone that speaks like that in a forum like this if I knew who they were I would never work with them. Many clients wouldn’t either.
I’m looking forward to this industry growing up. Our clients will be grateful at the very least.
User ID not verified.
Good on you Sean. I’m sorry to hear about the pain these cowards have caused you, but pleased to hear you speak up on the subject. In my opinion, someone who refers to themselves as anonymous by name is probably anonymous in life
User ID not verified.
Sean, nice to see someone brave enough to stand up and admit that it got under your skin… Human after all right!?!? Taking pot shots from afar, in disguise, is the sport of the talentless. True talent would have the feedback posed constructively. You don’t have to like everything but personal or petty anonymous comments have no place in a professional publication. As mum used to say… “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” and before you start ‘Anonymous’ – Yes, I love my mum, she’s been good to me and she’s a wise old bird!
User ID not verified.
It is fair enough to post general comments and observations anonymously, but anyone posting personal gripes and criticisms should be forced to identify themselves. Of course, in practice, this means full moderation or no anonymous postings. Various tech forums insist on this, so why not all?
User ID not verified.
I’ve always felt while some might argue for the ability to post on blogs under “anonymous” the noms de plume should be changed to “gutless”.
Anyone with an opinion worth stating will always stand behind it.
User ID not verified.
well done Sean
User ID not verified.
@ Jacob
Hey, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Spiteful remarks should not be made and hiding behing an “anonymous” name are being careless and sometimes heartless is not great at all. I suppose there is a line between what is acceptable and what isnt..?
I hear you loud and clear though Jacob.
Nevertheless, if we were forced to create an account and always post as the same username, we would see comments reduce and the overall debate would not be as comprehensive as it would be if we were not all logged in, as we are now…
I am not sure what Tim and co think about moderation and whether they could moderate these forums a little more when certain topics get a little spiteful?
User ID not verified.
Topping oneself is serious business and anyone contemplating it needs urgent qualified help, not to mention sympathy and understanding. A first step is to discover the underlying problem and put it in perspective. In this instance you might consider that the contemplater could be taking himself and his profession just a little too seriously. I mean copping a bit of nastiness from one’s collegues, especially when they work (or play) in a business as flakey as advertising hardly seems balanced. As a client you would have to worry about knocking back a concept. As a collegue your freedom to criticize could be somewhat limited. You would have to urge this person to seek help, if only with discovering what is really important.
User ID not verified.
These forums ARE moderated, or at least are now. When you post, dont you get the “awaiting moderations before appearing” post?
User ID not verified.
Good on you Sean.
You’ve got more balls than any of the dickless cowardly cretins who slagged you off anonymously.
Anonymous slags are devoid of wit, but full of fuckwit.
In the good old days, it took a concerted campaign of letter writing to scare a client off an edgy campaign. Now all it takes are a couple of anonymous posts.
It makes everyone more conservative – clients & creatives alike.
It’s one of the many reasons why advertising is so fucking boring.
I’m all in favour of anonymous posts if they contain constructive criticism, or criticism done with wit, or if there’s an interesting insider insight, or information that could compromise the poster.
But if all you’ve got to vomit up is anonymous bile, I hope you choke on it.
User ID not verified.
I wonder what the broke solo Mother with two kids who is behind on her rent, has a lousy part-time job with a p___ of a boss, coming home to a cold house with hardly any food in the fridge would say if she read this?
Or the homeless teenager.
Cummins is unhappy that some people question whether, wait for it, an ad campaign, was really his so he wants to kill himself?
He should keep things in perspective and realise there are people out there with real problems.
Maybe next time someone questions whether a creative award should have gone his way, Sean should do what broke solo mothers the worldover do when faced with a challenge; smile, keep going and just get on with it.
User ID not verified.
wow, Pete. You clearly don’t understand mental illness AT ALL.
User ID not verified.
Sean, the “top myself, suicide” card is a really serious one to call in for the “woe is me” sympathy vote.
Reality check. U are an Uber award winning ad guy, rich (i guess), have cool hair, you are a high profile dude in the industry, much feted by the media. When you talk industry people listen.
It is clear however you have an obvious bent for self narcissism.
Suicide and mental illness is a really grave area to be messing with. You may have felt aggrieved for unfair comment, but dude you put yourself so far out there for it. It comes with the narcissism territory.
Your precious world ends when some dick blogs dumb stuff about you? Can i suggest your situation could be a lot worse.
When anyone sets themselves up as some kind of God don’t be surprised if some jealous anonymous snipers want to take pot shots at you. And now I am further amazed you seem to have turned the whole thing around into a self serving gratuitous promotional opportunity.
I don’t know you, don’t know if you deserved the bad blogs or not, but for God’s sake, what you do is not saving the world, and many others much less fortunate have so many bigger life burdens to carry.
As Caretaker said in the movie The Longest Yard, “I can even get you Prozac, hell I don’t know why you white boys get depressed, smile you’re white !”.
Why don’t they have Cannes Awards for best bus/cab drivers, or nurses/teachers.
This video link may give all the industry obsessed commentators rallying for the hard done by Mr Cummings some much needed perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOlTdkYXuzE&feature=related
and there’s this one that could end with the title instead “Don’t blag Sean Cummings”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0SP91D9Js&feature=related
User ID not verified.
Be brave Mumbrella and ban anonymous postings. The internet is a forum, and like any other, we all have a right to express out opinion. But nasty sniping behind curtains is not good for the subject or the industry. Worst of all it cheapens the forum where it is expressed, such as yours. If people / organisations know who it is who is commenting, they can respond fairly to their opponent (and relieve the need for ‘removed by Mumbrella’ policing you need to do to protect yourself).
User ID not verified.
There’s an old saying:
Man who is tall poppy should not google himself.
User ID not verified.
Anonymous – there is a new saying
Man/Women who is anonymous is a gutless fcukwit
User ID not verified.
Anonymity has a place on the internet and it’s a misconception that forcing people to use an identity (of their choosing) will alter things drastically. What does make a difference is effective community management – which goes beyond simply moderating comments. Setting the tone & guidelines in most cases will have a bigger impact on the quality of content – and I see this being the real issue here. There are far too many sites/FB pages accepting comments with little understanding about the bigger picture.
I think Tim’s done a pretty good job considering the scope of his work, so it’s not a dig at Mumbrella per se – building a community’s not easy – and he’s certainly achieved that.
(Disclaimer: yes I run a CM business but I’m genuinely interested in the debate around anonymity vs persistent identity.)
User ID not verified.
If you’re not pissing some people off you are not doing anything right.
User ID not verified.
So ‘fraser’, no surname, no link… is anything other than anonymous?
Ok then. My name is Edwin.
User ID not verified.
Grow a set mate
As a gay man growing up with my teenage years on IRC, being viciously hated and threatened was a part of life.
I can’t count the number of people in chat rooms on IRC who would tell me they would personally bash my head in, or kill me if they were there in person because I was gay.
it wasn’t pleasant, but as a gay teenager, that is your lot at the time – there’s a hell of a lot of hatred in the world. You just have to develop a thick skin.
And really – thinking about topping yourself cuz some people on a message board criticised you in a snarky or nasty fashion when you are lucky enough to have a wife and kids and a good career?!?!?
So some ppl think you are a pain to work for? So what? Just try and be the best boss/person you can be (don’t purposefully be a dick – anonymous reviews from staff are good if you really want to know what people think, but be prepared that you or anyone may not like the results), live a life with integrity, but remember, you can’t be liked by everyone. But don’t use that fact to be a c-nt.
Creative people usually are quite sheltered from a lot of criticism – the suits at any agency don’t tell you half the bad shit clients say about your ideas as they think our fragile ego’s can’t handle it or we’ll have a tantrum. (I know i was a suit for a bit before becoming a creative)
Sorry if I seem a bit hard on you mate, but criticism is part of life and if you are going to be successful, you will be criticised and flamed on the internet, quite often undeservedly.
The internet and social media has extended the nastiness of the playground and high school pettiness into our adult lives.
Take on board what is reasonable and fuck the rest. If you are a person about whom comments have to be deleted here for legal reasons, some introspections may be a good idea.
Most adults on the net realise that its human nature for some people to bitch with no reason so won’t take every anonymous comment as gospel.
A quote below which i use to keep things in perspective…
“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience”. Robert Fulghum
And remember life is not fair – don’t expect it to be and you’ll be a lot happier
User ID not verified.
Wow – so many people out there with the whole “grow a set, mate” attitude. Obviously people who are fortunate to have never personally experienced clinical depression or anxiety.
You can have the “perfect” life – beautiful partner, loving kids, great house/car/job/whatever, beauty, brains, money – you can have it ALL – and depression can come along and destroy your will to live.
It’s not a sign of weakness to admit to having felt like ending your own life, regardless of your circumstances. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t grateful for the wonderful life you’ve been given.
It means that the demon that is depression/anxiety has come along and no longer can you enjoy life.
People who think that depressed/anxious/suicidal people need to just “cheer up” are dragging our society down.
If you can’t say anything nice to someone who is publicly admitting that they have faced suicidal thoughts, shut your f***ing mouths.
User ID not verified.
I saw Cummins’ very heart-felt talk at m360, and Hunt’s rocking presentation, too.
I had not thought about the issue of Anonymous comments much before their talks. I always figured it was par for the course, and to be ignored. However Adam Hunt made me think about it in a new way: It makes clients scared. And therefore less likely to take risks and try brave work.
I’d never thought about this before. And it’s shit.
(Look, I’m sorry for “glass-jawed creatives” – Cummins’ and/or Hunt’s terminology, not mine. Sincerely I am. But scared clients is a much, much worse problem.)
There has to be a creative solution (by which I don’t mean an ad) to the problem of Anonymous comments. I don’t think “Lawyer up people” is the long-term solution, nor is quitting the business.
I have a few ideas of my own (which I’ll email to Mumbrella directly). But Cummins and Hunt are brilliant admen. I bet the two of ’em could crack it.
And for the record “Tom” that links to Swallows’n’Daggers is me, Tom Donald the tattooed fuckwit at The Works. People who know me have always known that’s me. Now the rest of you do. Here’s to transparency.
😛
User ID not verified.
I don’t know many clients who really care if someone slags off their campaign. I am a client and they ain’t going to get scared by such comments.
I don’t think any of the people in the ad/media industry intentionally set out to do ads that some may not like, but that’s how life works.
You may have tried hard, done your best and put out an ad that’s not that great. – No-one rolls out awesome shite every time.
Everytime as a client we roll out a campaign, there are always people who don’t like it in the company and people who will slag it off on the net. I know, one of my campaigns got a bit of a bollocking online , but really who cares – you can’t please everyone.
I used to be a marketing chick at one of Australia’s most loathed clients (can u guess??) and we were an absolute nightmare to work with.
And not because we were scared or timid, but that the setup of the company’s approval required so many ‘stakeholders’ input that essentially its creative by committee, so a lot of the time you get dull boring shit.
Anonymity promotes honesty – if people had to comment via thier real names, then people in powerful positions in the industry would be kowtowed to online rather than just at their own agencies.
Who is going to say they don’t like something, or think it could be better if they had to use their real name and get hired again. Creative directors and newspapers editors are the last bastion of bosses that tend to be massively sucked up to, lest they have a tantrum and fire people or pout non-stop.
I am sure its not nice to have people saying things that you feel are nasty or unfair, but such is the price of success. If you are a senior client or agency chap or chappette, then really suck it up – not everyone is going to love what you do.
Bob and pitch dr above had some valid points – most creative directors tend to be very sheltered people as very few people in the agency ever give them an unvarnished opinion and hold back clients comments from them and dress them up nicely so as not to hurt the CD’s delicate “I am a fucking creative genius, so I can be a dickhead” persona .
I worked agencies and client side so have experience at seeing things from both sides of the fence.
And whilst I agree with Mr Hunt’s comments re constructive criticism being OK anonymously, that’s not the real world.
The internet has democratised things and broken down barriers – people can be criticised who previously could not.
As the solo mother comment also noted, seriously a CD on a $200K plus (and I know many on a hell of a lot more) salary really should try to take themselves less seriously and get things in perspective.
Sure being criticised hurts – we’re human and people should try to be constructive, but hey that’s not always human nature – whining about it won’t change that.
User ID not verified.
A client : well reasoned and realistic. Love your work!
User ID not verified.
Agree.
AdGrunt united with Groucho and A Client.
The Rapture is coming.
User ID not verified.
Australians hate people that do well don’t they?
Kind of makes you want to turn in your passport. But when you see someone who’s been cut down to size get back up and say, for all intents and purposes, “bring it on” it makes you realise there are some decent guys around.
Nice going Sean. Gutsy.
My wife tells me there’s an Arabic saying which translates as “you’ll live to take another blow”, which I suppose is similar to the Anglo “live to fight another day”. I like the Arabic version better. It’s more honest.
Carry on mate. You’re doing just great.
User ID not verified.
Tim, you’re either a virgin or you’re not. Get off the fence!
Either make names compulsory or stop selectively editing anonymous blogs. Your credibility is flagging. In my eyes anyway.
Yours anonymously edited, most of the time.
User ID not verified.