Once a specific, visceral comparison is made about a creative asset—like a conditioner looking like "cum"—it can be impossible for the team to unsee it. This type of feedback instantly validates the client's concern and highlights the risk of creating an unintentional, damaging meme, rendering the creative unusable.
Senior clients may bypass formal reporting lines to deliver sensitive or embarrassing feedback directly to junior staff. This can happen when they are uncomfortable discussing a topic with senior managers, putting the junior employee in the difficult position of relaying awkward but critical information up the chain.
A common cost-saving advertising practice of recycling footage from old commercials can lead to unforeseen creative disasters. In this case, CGI-ing a new conditioner product onto old hair footage resulted in a visual that was comically inappropriate and required a costly redo after a week of work.