Creative Apartheid - An Ad Agency Board Game

Creative Apartheid - An Ad Agency Board Game

Players:

CREATIVE DIRECTORS (CDs)

HACKS

NEW CREATIVES

CREATIVE RECRUITER

Board areas:

OFFICE

         SHARED MEGADESK

         PRESENTATION ROOM (WITH MULTI-PURPOSE SPINNER)

         TROPHY CASE

         STREET WITH PASSING BUS

         VIP PARKING LOT

         COLLATERALSTAN BANISHMENT ZONE

AWARDS JUNKET RESORT

HAPPY-HOUR BAR

FASTFOODIA MALL ACROSS THE STREET

COMMERCIAL-SET CRAFT-SERVICES COUCH FORT

Setup:

Players spin to see who will be the CREATIVE RECRUITER, who assigns the roles to the other players, while promising the very same roles to multiple freelancers in the area. After the roles are handed out, she (or he, but come on) is in charge of trophy distribution and gentle but constant undermining.

As soon as the NEW CREATIVE enters the door with a TALENT & PRODUCTIVITY (T&P) GAME PIECE and a HOUSE & FAMILY (H&F) GAME PIECE, the HACKS in the office compete and collude to figuratively throw him or her under the actual BUS passing back and forth just outside the freight door.

In each round the NEW CREATIVE competes with the others in a PRESENTATION. The player SPINS to see if his or her campaign's work will be placed:

1. On TV (DOUBLE YOUR SALARY, ADD ONE TROPHY),

2. In a PRINT AD,

3. In a WEB AD (LOSE HALF YOUR SALARY, LOSE ONE TROPHY), or

4. In a BROCHURE (LOSE 3/4 OF YOUR SALARY AND 2 TROPHIES, MOVE PIECE TO COLLATERALSTAN, FORFEIT H&F GAME PIECE).

After losing House and Family, the new creative's H&F piece is moved to the street and is run over by the bus for the rest of the game. Creatives in Collateralstan stay there forever, so they have lost, but most do not leave the game board for some reason.

CDs start out with THREE TROPHIES. In fact, anyone who amasses THREE TROPHIES becomes a CD and rushes to their MacBook Pro to put it on their Linked In page. In presentations, CDs spin to add or lose trophies and to win attendance at AWARDS-JUDGING JUNKETS at the game board's exclusive, elevated, molded-plastic AWARDS JUNKET RESORT where they will enjoy immunity from trophy loss in the next turn. If NOT on an awards junket during his or her turn, the CD may have to forfeit trophies to other players. When they are left with only one trophy, the CDs become HACKS whose job is to replace Lorem Ipsum text and protect the agency from encroaching new creatives bearing talent & productivity.

HACKS spin to present along with CDs and the new creatives, in order to get trophies. However if a competing new creative has a T&P piece, the new creative can take the hack's newly won trophy away. (I know!)

CDs can take away any trophy won by another player in the current presentation spin, but must forfeit a trophy to the subsequent spinner who wins one. When hacks lose their last trophy they exit the game as KITCHEN HELP and move their pieces to the recessed, grease-smeared FASTFOODIA across the road. It's kind of sad but that's the way it is.

When it is their turn to spin in a presentation, NEW CREATIVES can choose to trade their shiny new T&P piece for TWO TROPHIES from a CD or HACK instead of taking their allotted spin.

CDs with five trophies AND a T&P piece win the game. However for some reason they always refuse to retire, and stop by late in the morning for adulation from ambitious young ass-kissers and—on Fridays—donuts.

For some reason everyone's House & Family pieces end up under the bus. 

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