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Not much later, Wal-Mart got a new Chief Marketing Officer who thought the retailer needed an edgier campaign – despite the fact that GSD&M's "Smiley Face" campaign helped take Wal-Mart from $11 billion to $312 billion in revenues. After a disastrous process that saw DraftFCB hired and fired (and the CMO ousted acrimoniously), GSD&M was invited to join in a new pitch for the Wal-Mart account. Once again, self-respect prompted the agency to bow out.

It's hard to come up with more examples. Agencies resign accounts to pursue bigger clients in the same industry, something which seems ethically questionable to us. Goodby Silverstein resigned the Discover Card account to pitch Visa, which spends almost four times as much on marketing communications. (They didn't get Visa, so they were out $80 million in billings.)

Rarely, agencies resign when they fail to deliver. Crispin, Porter & Bogusky had the grace to resign the Miller Lite business after doing unsuccessful work for the account. A very honorable way to deal with the fact that their work didn't help the brand.

And, of course agencies often resign publicly when they're about to be fired.

But agencies with the courage to say "We're not going to take that crap. We quit" are a rare breed.

We're very fortunate. BrainPosse's clients are professional and nice, and we like working with them. We've dodged a few bullets by declining the opportunity to work for several clients because of perceived difficulties.

That selectivity is an advantage of the virtual agency model, which has minimal overhead. But what's an agency with a lot of overhead and a big payroll to do?

Start with these five things to avoid in present or prospective clients:

Unlawful. Run, don't walk, to the exit if a client pressures you to break the law. False advertising, illegal lottery promotions, theft of intellectual property (copyright violations), rigged bills (to defraud one party to a joint agreement, such as a merchant swindling a manufacturer on a cooperative ad deal) and kickbacks are all crimes. Agency people could actually go to jail for doing them. And, of course, it's wrong.

Unethical. All of the above, plus stuff like plagiarism, deception (legal, but not really true claims) and expecting the agency to violate the confidentiality of other (or former) clients.

Unprofessional. Pressuring an agency to do shabby work or hire less-than-professional people is foolish for a client. But it can be deadly for an agency which gives in to that pressure. It damages the staff's sense of self respect and professionalism, it can be a serious impediment to bringing in new business and it destroys the agency's professional integrity.

Unreasonable. Every business has occasional crisis needs. But clients who consistently expect a creative team to work over the weekend because the ad manager always forgets to request a project with enough lead time don't keep creative teams for long. (Unless their business has been relegated to less-able members of an agency team who are desperate to hold onto a job.) Demanding 50% share of market with 20% share of voice puts the agency under pressure to circumvent the basic laws of marketing physics. It's not going to happen. Clients who demand excellence are to be treasured. But those who run roughshod over the agency – or the realities of marketing communications – are simply an unproductive liability.

Unprofitable. We're not aware of any agencies that operate as not-for-profit public service organizations. A client who expects an agency to handle her or his account at a loss can only work with very stupid – or very desperate – agencies. And the client will work with a never-ending series of them, as they go broke in turn.

Does that mean agencies should resign clients with any of those five problems?

Two out of five times, yes. There's no reason – and no excuse – to deal with clients who want their agency to do anything unlawful or unethical. First, it's simply not right. And second, you could end up in jail or with a serious case of self-loathing.

Unprofessional is a grey area. Clients who think they know how a job should be done may actually know. Or not. It's worth a look. The client may have found a great talent you might want to get to know, or may be pushing a cousin's brother-in-law's talentless kid onto the agency. A conversation is probably in order before making that decision.

Unreasonable clients may not be aware of the difficulties their demands are causing or the realities that make their requests difficult or impossible to fulfill. Once again, a conversation or two can determine whether the problem is not knowing or not caring. In the first case, help the client understand. In the second, walk away.

Unprofitable clients are simple. Open the books. If they don't want the agency to make money, there's no hope. But if their demands come from their own company's budget pressures, it should be possible to design a system to provide service affordably and not go broke doing it.

Most client-agency relationships are sound, mutually beneficial and functional. Those that aren't should be fixed or terminated. If not, they can rot agencies from the inside as good people become disheartened.

Of course it works both ways. See our earlier article, How to hire – and when to fire – your agency to get the other side of the story.