Pluto, it's right next to Uranus.

Last week a colleague of mine sent me a snapshot of the photo above. This is a fellow creative, now in a position of power and wealth, who despite being an apparent admirer of my work, has not thrown me one freelance assignment.

But that's not what this post is about. If I were to start kvetching about people who don't throw work my way, his name would be at the bottom of a long long list.

Or, as another freelancer finding work scarce, put it, "It's hard out here for a pimp."

But let's get back to the billboard and its snarky headline and its yellow background and its sponsor, a new TV streaming company. It's as if I fell into a wormhole and found myself transported back to 1998.

This isn't the first time our ABC campaign has been ripped off...er, I mean flattered.

Years ago, another company, who I won't name, also took the tracing paper to our previous work. Of course they had the good sense to change the background and used a variety of colors as if no one would notice.

And to be honest, no one did.
Because no one cares.
Including me.

In fact, when I showed my wife, we both snorted and blew it off. And, because she knows me so well, said, "Well, at least you'll get a blog posting out of it."

A false humblebrag you say? Upon hearing about Pluto TV, for the very first time, I did a little digging and found out they are a Los Angeles based company. So I confabulated the flick flacks and rejigged the html filters on my LinkedIn page and located the founders of the company.

Then, in a moment of inspired snarkiness, I sent them each a Linkedin invite to connect.

The algorithm suggested that invites are much more effective when they are supplemented by a personal note and asked if it I would like to add one.

And naturally I did.

I told the plutocrats at Pluto TV that I was happy to see my work in its third iteration. And then I included a link to the entire ABC print campaign and told them to have at the booty. Including this one on the same theme...

And why not?

These old ads are not doing me any good these days.