Advertising today

Yet, despite this abundance of enthusiasm for cultural research, it often feels like it’s easier than ever to slip into the gravity well of banality. Cookie-cutter essays optimized for algorithmic engagement. Hot takes stripped of depth. Fleeting fads interpreted as extreme, paradigm-shifting hyperbole. We resort to dramatic binaries, either... See more

Adaptive literacy is knowing when to let go of what worked before.

Unlearning is harder than learning. Because it means admitting that the thing you spent years mastering is now obsolete. That the knowledge you built your career on doesn’t apply anymore. That the mental models you rely on are actively getting in your way.

Most of advertising is... See more

🌀 People are quietly quitting Instagram (👋 fellow lurkers)

🌀 They're adding friction to break the scroll (deleting apps, muting notifications)

🌀 They're building slower, smaller spaces (on Discord, WhatsApp… and most importantly around 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 tables again)

🌀 They're designing moments to experience, not to optimise for content

It’s not anti-digital. It’s... See more

After all what clients really want (and need and want more than ever) are outcomes , not just processes, deliverables, and assets. It tilts those formative and vital opening conversations decisively - what better condition are you seeking? How would your company be different as a result of this work? What harm would be alleviated? How much would... See more

We can’t articulate what we’re for. “Ideas” and “storytelling” stopped being differentiators the moment everyone claimed them. Strategy got hollowed out. Creativity got reduced to “content.” We became a cost centre pretending to be a strategic partner.

And now we’re all competing in this great grey soup of commodified offerings. Agencies,... See more

So why can’t they admit that while they have a business model, what they don’t have is a commercial model

We can talk about creativity (whatever that is) and changing culture (whatever that is) and all that jazz as much and for as long as we want, but when most agencies are expending precisely zero per cent of their time working out how to transition out of this dysfunctional and doomed way of working to something that is higher value, more profitable,... See more

Systems literacy is reading incentives, power structures, and unspoken rules.

It’s understanding why decisions get made the way they do. Not what people say motivates them, but what the structure actually rewards. Not who has the title, but who has the power. Not what’s in the handbook, but what actually determines who gets ahead.

Most of... See more