Bob Gill would hate this moment in advertising. Not because it’s loud. Advertising has always been loud. Not because it’s political. Advertising has always flirted with power. But because it […]
Lately, I’ve been writing a lot about bravery. About brands that claim to be brave. About agencies that say they should be brave. About courage as if it were a […]
At some point, smart people stopped finishing sentences. Not because they forgot the ending. Because they learned exactly where the ending led. It didn’t happen overnight. There was no announcement, […]
The campaign is on the screen. Big screen. Clean deck. Sharp typography. The kind of visual hygiene that tells you, immediately, that nothing dangerous is about to happen. Heads nod. […]
There’s a shot I keep seeing. It returns like a bad habit, like an opening scene a director can’t stop re-cutting because they know exactly where the audience will look. […]
There’s a particular tone agencies use when they say, “We’re excited about the future.” It’s the same tone doctors use before giving you news they hope you won’t Google. And […]
Five months ago, in a conference room with fluorescent lights that made everyone look slightly ill, a strategist advanced to slide 42 and announced that a new yogurt would “unlock […]
There was a time and it wasn’t a romantic era, just a less automated one, when difference still had weight. A brand could sound like itself, look like itself, even […]
Five years ago, Grey was closed. The name that once covered half of Madison Avenue vanished into a line item on a spreadsheet. No scandal, no rebellion, just a tidy […]
At some point, without anyone really noticing, efficiency became our shared religion. It started innocently enough, “let’s streamline the process,” “let’s automate what’s repetitive,” “let’s let data guide us.” But […]
