"But I thought you said... But you told me to..."You'll utter this to yourself quite a bit as a junior creative.
Here's what happens: Your ACD (Associate creative director aka next in line to be creative director) or CD gives you feedback to change X and put Y here and delete Z.
And, whether or not to fully get it or agree, you do it.
Sometimes, you're like - "Amazing. That changed everything." But there are those times when you present the updated work, they go "Errr, this isn't working. It needs some Z. And the Y shouldn't be there."
Your first thought is probably "Really???" -- But as I've gotten more experience (and patience) I see that sometimes you can't tell if something works or not until you try it.
Creating an ad isn't a direct science. There are several right answers. And even more wrong answers. And everybody, including your boss, will make mistakes sometimes.
We're all just trying to figure out the best mixture of ingredients to create something good - and like with cooking, sometimes you have to try a bunch of different things, a bunch of different ways, before you get it right.
That's why I suggest exploring 100 options. Move X to the left, to the right, make it orange, do every variation of the layout or the line until you can securely say - this one right here, this is it.
Present 2 or 3 options to your boss, showing the best ones of your exploration and ask for feedback.
And if your boss says Move X you can say, "Actually, I tried it, it didn't work. It was missing something. Let me show you..."
And voila. You look like someone who was really thinking, really trying, plus you've opened up an opportunity for you to truly learn - not just do what you're told to do because you were told to do it - but to know and understand next time why this doesn't need Z or X or whatever.
And that's how you grow.
