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Woke-Washing: The Ad Industry’s Dirty Laundry

Katie Martell

Pouring time and money into glossy woke campaigns, marketers give no credence or respect to the activists who paved the way, many with their lives.

Beige wallpaper

Beige by Design

Lou Nylander

The same people get the same opportunities, hire their mates, promote their mates, and then wonder why nothing changes.

Telephone and typewriter

The telephonist and Harry Potter

Gina Hollands

I was once introduced to a visitor by one of the senior folks in our company as ‘the telephonist’.

3 women looking at a laptop

Humans over headcount

Melissa Moody

What felt riskier was staying in a system that saw me as a checkbox instead of a leader doing great work.

Collage of images

Trauma bonded

Heather Hurd

On my first day, they told me I should use my standing desk more because maybe then I'd lose weight.

A black and white photo of a women intently listening with her clasped hands resting on her chin.

Don't be interesting. Be interested.

Mike Staffa

If you walk on stage and say, "Look at me! I'm a wacky space alien with a banjo!" you’ve dumped a pile of crap on your scene partner.

Best of NWB

two women talking while holding drinking glasses

The utterly unemployable entrepreneur

Angie Moxham

I was very honest with my buyers. I told them I was unstable. Including that, if I was up at 5 am, I was still partying with mates, clients, politicians, and celebrities.

Person sat in dark room on sofa with their head in their hands in despair

Happy people don’t wreck themselves

Sophie Lee

Hundreds of pounds of gear a week, normalised by the ‘well, everyone else is doing it’ narrative.

woman and man holding hands

Holding hands with the agency president

Kevin Lynch

I had been a copywriter in advertising for about three years by then, which was just long enough to know I didn’t belong in that room.

Four clear glass bottles in dim light

Saatchi Kate and Addict Kate

Kate Smith

By all conventional measures, I was highly successful..but by 2004, I was struggling with addiction to alcohol.

Three glass milk bottles waiting on the doorstep.

Fuck milk

John Lyons

This was our first project for a huge household brand. I saw our hard work closing the deal, and my financial projections disappear in front of my eyes.

Big paint brush dripping red paint on a blue background.

All the names above the door were creatives

Dave Dye

Before long, we were having secret chats about what a creative agency for the new millennium might look like.

Two condoms in wrappers

The mother of all mistakes

Bethany Joy

There’s no other single thing that’s had as significant and negative an impact on my career as having children.

Four leaf clover

CEOs called Elizabeth and how to get lucky

Giles Edwards

Luck plays such a significant role in so many successes, yet it seems somehow disingenuous or deceitful, so we look for rational reasons instead.

Spray paint reading "You are dead"

A death-threat-inducing fuck up

Nick Ellis

Although 10 years on, and since the death threats have stopped, there’s part of me that is secretly pleased to have this anecdote. So here goes…

Lady holding a flag that says united states of anxiety

Brave advertising and being a creative goofball

Rob Rooney

Someone along the line becomes afraid of making a statement; afraid of being too ‘out there’; afraid of upsetting their boss.

Book with the words "trust no one" written over the page

Poisoned partnerships, and being the wrong age

Jane Evans

Slow down, you're going to have a very long life, and you will work till you are at least 70. You don't have to work full pelt for nearly fifty years.

Bin with spray paint reading "think before you speak. read before you think"

How not to be an arrogant prick

Stephen Chandler

Lessons learned: don’t be an arrogant prick, never show off, engage brain before mouth, and ALWAYS have empathy and respect for others.

women holding her finger to her lips.

You say it best when you say nothing at all

Tim LeRoy

I forgave him and learned my lesson long ago. I don’t know if he ever did. We haven’t spoken in twenty years.

Little girl who gave zero fucks book cover

Giving zero fucks

Amy Kean

This supposed imposter syndrome isn’t a result of your fragile brain, it’s the structural toxicity of many managers and work environments.

Man with sunglasses on holding a fan of American one hundred dollar bills.

The Contrepreneur

Mike Winnet

THE self-appointed, uninspirational, backwards thinking "leader" currently influencing thousands of below-average people

An eye visible from the shadows

Confessions of a HR Professional

Barry Flack

I spent too long ensuring that the captains of the industry got free rein, encouraging toxic cultures.

Samaritans 'Talk to Us' sign urges people to reach out for help by calling 116 123

Mental illness and new beginnings

Andy Hall

At the age of 39, after developing severe depression, I realised I had been aiming for the wrong career goal.

The Grand Pier at Weston Super Mare

Learning about self worth in Weston-Super-Mare

Alistair Gollop

He wanted me to be in the office every day because of his apparent insecurity and need to be overly controlling.

Two pieces of pink paper in the shape of a heart, ripped in two.

Losing your corporate innocence

Mark Schaefer

That moment marked the end of my innocence in the corporate world. It marked the end of loyalty, the end of trust, and the end of my youth.

Orange sports car

I’m a materialistic, ambitious, status-craving idiot

Tom Goodwin

We don’t think about this stuff because it’s bloody scary. It’s hard. It’s embarrassing. It’s a bit hippy, it makes us feel vulnerable.

Agency Life

Collage of images

Trauma bonded

Heather Hurd

On my first day, they told me I should use my standing desk more because maybe then I'd lose weight.

woman sitting leaning forehead on knee

Is work making you sick?

Shelley Stuart

I found myself having to compete against agency peers on client teams and was often excluded from internal client meetings. This was not what I expected from the ‘pitch’, and I noticed other, more junior staff, being treated in the same way.

A field of yellow tulips with one red flower.

Fitting in is a failure

Natalie Welch

The most useful piece of advice I have heard is "In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible" from Seth Godin.

two women talking while holding drinking glasses

The utterly unemployable entrepreneur

Angie Moxham

I was very honest with my buyers. I told them I was unstable. Including that, if I was up at 5 am, I was still partying with mates, clients, politicians, and celebrities.

Photo of a man wearing a fancy suit and watch, adjusting his tie.

AI couldn't match Don Draper

Jason Patterson

AI would be useless back in the “Mad Men” era. It couldn’t do what Don Draper did. No AI could pull off “It’s toasted.”

Man standing in front of high-rise buildings and brightly lite billboard adverts in Times Square, New York.

Good ads wear in, not out

Seb Mackay

There’s this fallacy that, even if it’s working, an ad should only be run for a couple of months before audiences will get sick of it.

A sea of grey hands coming up out of the ground fighting to emerge. Some have long nails or claws.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Brian Jung

I worked for a mobile tech start-up in San Diego in the early 2000s. This had some rockstar founders. I was part of their round one of hires.

A metal sculpture of an arrow pointing skyward.

Growth, no matter what

Adriana Tica

I nearly killed my digital marketing agency by onboarding the wrong clients. I fell for the stupid “growth or perish” mantra.

woman and man holding hands

Holding hands with the agency president

Kevin Lynch

I had been a copywriter in advertising for about three years by then, which was just long enough to know I didn’t belong in that room.

Four clear glass bottles in dim light

Saatchi Kate and Addict Kate

Kate Smith

By all conventional measures, I was highly successful..but by 2004, I was struggling with addiction to alcohol.

Picture of a man in a suit jacket and blue hat with brown leather gloves and a leather brief case walking away down a London street.

D-list people and upsetting spies

Steve Price

I’ve had some projects that have landed with a bang, but nothing close to nuclear.

Graffiti on a wall showing a little girl painting the words "Big dreams" over and over.

Selling dreams rather than deliverables

Atem Mbeboh

Buzzword-driven strategies that lack substance take away from creating value for clients through meaningful connections with their audience.

Two people shaking hands.

Trusting people to run my agency

Adam Pritchard

When I realised that staff had lied, been lazy, and we were losing accounts left, right, and centre, it sent me into a spiral of anger...

closeup photography of green grass with water droplets.

I thought I was going to have to eat grass

John Lim

There were times when things did get hairy for me when I had no clients, and I wondered about where the money was going to come from.

Small superhero and villains figurines in front of a brick wall

Heroes and villains

Andrew Sidwell

My survival mode is buttfuck ugly. My saviour complex manifested as - most of our people are really shit and can’t do their jobs I need to show them.

Three glass milk bottles waiting on the doorstep.

Fuck milk

John Lyons

This was our first project for a huge household brand. I saw our hard work closing the deal, and my financial projections disappear in front of my eyes.

Man stood up presenting to a meeting room of people

The destructive nature of pitching

Lex Guest

As a client, you’d rather use sandpaper for loo roll whilst suffering a ferocious bout of stomach flu than sit through an afternoon of agency pitches.

Person holding up a mirror to cover their face and reflect back a blue cloudy sky.

True change requires a long hard look in the mirror

Anjali Ramachandran

People pay lip service to diversity, equity, and inclusion without thinking about intersectionality, anti-racism, anti-casteism, or decolonisation.

Lots of different post it notes all with different messages written on them by different people.

Opinions are like arseholes, everybody's got one

Paddy Gilmore

If you work in marketing or advertising, you're surrounded by opinions. Some people don't like green in their logo. Some people don't like sentences beginning with "And" or "But."

Shovel and a wheelbarrow leading against a brick wall.

Millionaire influencers were selling spades in the gold rush

John Keating

I should have tried to educate more people about marketing and seeing through it all to what lies beneath. To make up your own mind.

Career decisions

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A professional people-pleaser

Rachael Simpson

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Mum's get sidelined

Helen Gaskell

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A permanent choice to a temporary problem

Nick Taylor

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Start where you are

Aniya Roslan

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DEI is treated as a trend

Daynah Singh

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Sensationalism is destroying public discourse

Joan Westenberg

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Self deception

Omar Oakes

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