Big week for sorries. Huge.

Most are pretty cut and dry: Target apologized for an offensive Halloween costume reminiscent of racist minstrel caricatures. “As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry,” a statement reads on its website.

Meanwhile, leaders at Callaway and Good Good issued dual apologies for an ad that made light of violence against women. Matt Kendrick, founder and CEO at Good Good, a golf media entity that partnered with Callaway on the spot to promote its clubs, explained it was meant to parody a scene from the movie “Obsession,” but “the execution missed the mark.”

But Lovesac’s drama is more of a social roller coaster connected by a track of missed PR opportunities. We should unpack it a little, because it offers a lesson in handling a brand crisis on social.

The sequence of events reportedly went down like this:

Comedian Deric Cahill, who has millions of followers across Instagram and TikTok, posts a complaint video about his Lovesac sectional (referred to internally a “sactional”). He calls the many boxes and manual labor required to construct his couch “corporate terrorism.” These sactionals typically run between $3,000 and $5,000 but can reach much higher prices. His post quickly blows up as many share a similar experience.

@boldfamFour hours later, we have couches again. Upcoming comedy shows: WINNIPEG 🇨🇦 Raleigh, NC Indianapolis, IN Portland, OR Philadelphia, PA Springfield, MO Plano, TX NYC, NY (avail 8/19) Seattle, WA Boston, MA Vancouver 🇨🇦 Chicago, IL San Diego, CA Grand Rapids, MI Mansfield, OH St Paul, MN Lowell, AR Wichita, KS Orlando, FL Tampa, FL Albany, NY Austin, TX Columbus, OH Buffalo, NY Sacramento, CA Nashville, TN Denver, CO Lexington, KY Tempe, AZ Charlotte, NC Fort Lauderdale, FL Houston, TX

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

The creator is contacted by Lovesac corporate via DM. He’s invited to chat about working together on the next piece of this narrative.

But before that meeting happens, Lovesac posts a video to social mocking Deric. It shows an employee pulling together a couch with ease. Words read: “This and not getting the ick from a grown man needing tiny gloves to assemble a couch.”

Share

I think they thought they ate with this video. But the responses say otherwise. “Getting the ick from Lovesac thinking this was a good idea to post,” said one user. Another said: “As a small business owner, thank you for the lesson in what NOT to do when your customer has a legitimate complaint about your product. I appreciate the free lesson.”

Nothing material came of the online meeting between Deric and the brand team.

Then the CEO, Shawn Nelson, posted a video to his personal social doubling-down on the mocking of Deric. He said the customer was indeed entitled to compensation, in the form of “new pair of size small floral-print gardening gloves.” He also made a weird joke about Deric’s wife’s reaction to their new Lovesac couch.

@shawnoflovesacMy response to @Deric Cahill #lovesac

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Shawn went again with a second response that was giant change in tone compared to the first. This time, grounded in empathy and gratitude, he thanked Deric for raising the issue, said the company is working on away to address the complaints, and that “we’ll leave the comedy to you.”

A few things turned this PR opportunity into a large headache for Lovesac.

1. A multi-comms approach: The scattered responses, bouncing from Lovesac’s brand account to the CEO’s personal Instagram and TikTok channels with multiple postings, does not show confidence. More like stumbling around in the dark looking for the right answer.

There’s always immense pressure to respond quickly to these things. But what might be lost in a slower response is gained in a single, unified path that does the job well and once.

2. Tonal whiplash: Lovesac didn’t deliver the same message (or even delivered them from the same person). One minute the brand is ripping Deric apart, then next they’re thanking him for being a customer. Continuity of tone matters because it’s hard to trust someone who switches up like that. It renders the latest response totally inauthentic.

3. Chasing clout over customer service: The public podium changes everything. But it shouldn’t. Lovesac felt pressure to talk to the social audience versus their customer—to win a public argument versus solve a problem.

The bummer is that if handled well, this could have been a moment of opportunity for product education, and the spin of a L into a W. Sure these couches are mega expensive and a shift to put together, but Lovesac comes with a major benefit the competition doesn’t: It’s modular, so can be configured into practically a limitless number of sofas.

Was there a playful way to acknowledge the sweat equity being worthwhile? Probably. It’s definitely a better route than couch-to-couch combat.

📱 👀 Meta calls on TikTok and YouTube to support young users in wake of $17B suit

Meta’s landmark federal trial came to close this week when it agreed to pay more than $17 billion and implement stronger child safety measures.

The suit, which involved 47 U.S. states, was brought against Meta for claims its platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive and can lead to an adverse mental health impact among young users.

Now that’s done and dusted, Meta is using the moment to call on rivals to follow in its footsteps.

In a statement on its website, a spokesperson said: “The fact is that teens move fluidly between dozens of apps a day. All platforms should empower parents and support teens by putting the same measures in place, because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another.

“For meaningful progress to happen, we urge TikTok and YouTube to join us and state attorneys general in adopting this new standard, to ensure teens use social media in a healthy and responsible way.”

Pending judicial approval, in participating US states and territories, the following protections and controls will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook. In Meta’s words:

• Time Limit: A default two-hour daily time limit that teens can only turn off with a parent’s permission. This limit is cumulative across Facebook and Instagram, and time spent scrolling on both apps counts toward the total, including if we detect that someone has multiple accounts.

• Night Mode: A default block from our apps between midnight and 6am. This means teens will not be able to post or view their Feed, Stories, Explore, or Reels, for example.

• School Mode: Notifications will be muted by default between 8 AM and 3 PM. During those hours, teens will no longer receive push notifications, except for direct messages and alerts about their account security or safety.

• Regular Prompts: Teens will receive prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous screen time on Facebook or Instagram. They’ll also receive prompts when their total daily usage hits 60 minutes and 90 minutes. These prompts are designed to encourage intentional use.

• Algorithmic Feed Control: Teens will be able to choose a non-algorithmic feed — one that isn’t personalized by our recommendation systems — as their default. We will periodically remind them of this option, and parents can choose to adjust their teen’s default experience to require this setting.

• Autoplay Control: Teens will be able to turn off autoplay, so that content no longer automatically plays. Instead, they’ll need to take a deliberate action, like a tap or swipe, to see more. Parents can choose to adjust their teen’s default experience to require this setting.

• Hidden Likes: Teens won’t see the number of likes and reactions on posts — both their own and those from others — by default.

• Disabling cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters: In addition to our existing policy to block teens from using cosmetic surgery filters, we’ll now block teens from using extreme makeup filters.

• Age Assurance: We work hard to find and remove underage accounts from our apps and, as part of our agreement, we’re investing in even stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to under-13s. We’re also strengthening the technology we use to identify accounts that may be between the ages of 13 and 17, so we can ensure those accounts are placed in experiences designed for teens, even if they give us an adult birthday. However, to ensure teens are consistently protected across the many apps they use, app stores must provide developers with verified age information. This will allow platforms to put age-appropriate protections in place for as many teens as possible. That’s why we’ll continue to advocate for legislation that empowers parents by requiring app stores to verify age and obtain parental approval before a teen downloads an app.

• Age-appropriate content restrictions: We will maintain our current content standards so that, by default, teens are placed into 13+ content settings, inspired by movie ratings criteria and parent feedback. We will also continue to prevent teens from following or interacting with accounts we consider age-inappropriate. We will work to continually improve these systems to ensure age-appropriate content experiences for teens.

• Unwanted contact from strangers: We will maintain our current practices of defaulting teens into private accounts on Instagram and private default settings on Facebook, and we’ll continue to restrict potentially suspicious adults from contacting them. We will also strengthen our efforts to make it harder for those adults to find, follow, or interact with teens.

• Reporting and ongoing protection from harmful content: We will continue to give teens easy ways to report content that concerns them, and we’ll work to improve our response times. We will also continue our work to protect teens from potentially harmful experiences by regularly evaluating how often teens are exposed to them. We’ll draw on research and expert input to improve our work.

• Strengthening our parental controls: We will encourage parents to set up our supervision tools and give them new controls and insights. This includes notifying parents when a teen links a secondary account, alerting them to interactions with potentially suspicious accounts, and providing periodic updates on their teen’s usage and any changes their teen attempts to make to their protective settings.

Share

Cleanse your palate. We’re leaving you with something totally different from modular couch drama and billion-dollar social fines.

🕵️‍♀️ 💡 Forensic Files Ep 3: Jaws Without The Shark II

This is the third in a sporadically ongoing series about how good ideas die and how to prevent their senseless murder, penned by Mischief Co-Founder & CCO Greg Hahn.

For the many of you who didn’t read Episode 2, “Jaws Without The Shark,” you can find it here. This will all be on the test.

While it’s true that you cannot make “Jaws” without the shark—a metaphorical way of saying, know when the heart of an idea has been removed, which is actually another metaphor now that I look at it—it is also true that you can make “Alien.”

When a client has an issue with an idea that seems like a fatal blow, in this analogy, “We love everything about your script “Jaws”, but can we lose the shark?”, don’t get defensive or closed off. Instead, open a discussion.

Start with three easy to remember words: “Tell me more.”

And then listen.

You may find the real reason isn’t the shark per se, but the fact that it’s terrorizing a beach, and the client’s cousin sells real estate on the beach. (You all still with me on this analogy?)

Once you find the real reason behind the reaction, you might now be able to address it in a way that satisfies the client while still preserving the intent and integrity.

You may no longer be able to make “Jaws,” but you can make “Alien,” which is essentially “Jaws” in space.

The key is understanding what the core of the idea actually is. What’s the feeling you’re trying to evoke? And can you do that in a way that addresses the true problem, rather than simply accepting the stated solution? You may come to see it’s not really all the killing and human predator stuff, it’s the setting.

By understanding the real reason behind the client’s comment, as well as the real idea behind your execution, you’ll be more able to work toward a solution everyone can still be excited about.

If not, move on and remember, on mute, nobody can hear you scream.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

👀 ✍️ Ad trade editor’s honest take about state of marketing in 2026

👕🧘‍♂️ JCPenney hosts Rejuvenation Retreat to heal people from shopping at competitors

🎯 💡 Effectiveness is an ad agency’s permission slip to be creative

⭐️ 📝 Company principles that actually mean something are super rare in today’s world

💼🧑‍💼 Age of the individual office is over

👀 ✍️ Ad trade editor’s honest take about state of marketing in 2026

Jameson Fleming knows things. Spicy things. Gossip so tasty it would make you question everything you thought you knew about the advertising industry.

That's only a slight exaggeration.

The editorial director of Campaign US and MM+M, and former executive editor of Adweek, is a neodymium magnet for marketing stories. He’s sat in the crow’s nest of our sector for more than a decade and leads coverage of the most important topics shaping brands, agencies, the work, and everything in between.

Jameson's written the magnum opus on the creation of Flyers’ mascot Gritty, broken the results of some of the industry's biggest account reviews, held holding companies accountable for inviting Elon Musk to Cannes and even dressed as a horse-racing jockey for your entertainment.

There might be no one better positioned with a full 360-view of adland. So, naturally, we had questions about what he’s seeing.

You’re an industry legend, having sat in the crow’s nest of advertising for more than a decade overseeing some of the most important trade newsrooms. What’s the biggest thing you’ve seen change across our sector in that time?

It has to be the rise of ad-tech and the devaluing of great creativity. Brands put so much time and effort into reaching consumers and they aren’t investing in the big ideas that stop you in your tracks. And you can’t blame them—audiences are fragmented more than ever and reaching a mass audience with a singular great idea is incredibly difficult in the current environment. Creative coverage used to be in the front door into any advertising trade pub.

Is your crew working on any scoop right now you can hint at?

Not exactly a scoop, but we’re working on a retooled Campaign Agency of the Year to be an award every agency will want to win. It’s the only AOY judged by brand marketers, and we’re going to ensure they have all the right information to make an informed decision. Plus, we’re giving the write-ups an upgrade so that we’re telling fascinating stories about winning agencies.

After years at the helm of Adweek, you’re overseeing editorial at Campaign US & MM&M. What do you think is unique about Campaign compared with rival trades?

Campaign is the only trade publication in the US with a truly global reach. Any company who wants to be in front of readers in the US, UK, Asia and so many other marketers should want Campaign to tell their stories. And I’d like to think we also conduct ourselves differently—we’re here to cover what matters and not here to chase gossip for page views. We’re a subscription product, which means the work we do needs to be a resource for you. We’re also not going to hire reporters to cover a new topic just to make a quick buck.

You’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of people at this point—what’s the most memorable one?

It has to be the dozen or so kids from Parkland High School who came to a 4A’s conference to plead with agencies to help them pass gun control laws after they survived a school shooting. I will never forget them or the three hours I spent with them. There’s one woman—who I won’t name out of respect to her—who I still think about to this day, and I hope she’s doing OK with her mental health.

The number one thing you hear is keeping top marketers up at night.

It’s always going to be the pressure to “do more with less,” but the problem is that line is particularly harmful now because misguided views on AI give uneducated leaders extra fuel to expect their marketing teams to do too much with fewer resources.

Even though you talk with so many different people from all walks of life for your job, have you observed a connective tissue between everyone you chat with who works in advertising?

Curiosity. If you’re not curious about what makes people tick, catch their attention, drive them to an action, what’s the point of being in this business? Your goal is to make a stranger do something, and you get to flex your most creative muscles to do it. If you’re not curious, how the bleep could you be good at this?

What gets you personally excited about our industry and where it’s at right now?

Great work is still happening, it’s just harder to find. When you do see it, I find the strategic insights to be ever the more brilliant.

There are around 100,00 agency-like entities in the U.S. alone, and a small number of trade reporters you could count on two hands. What is the key to landing coverage?

I’m going to steal a line from your boss when you guys won an Agency of the Year award. Greg said something referring to agencies like, “If you can’t build your own brand, why would any brand trust you to build theirs?” That line stuck with me years later and I often quote it. It may not be your brand, but you need a leader with a viewpoint or a campaign that you can build around and get on our radar.

Gotta be honest, getting behind the Campaign paywall can feel like trying to sneak into the White House. How should users be engaging with the subscription model?

Unlike the White House, the advertising industry should want to visit Campaign. We’re working on making our reporting easier to read. My best recommendation: we offer enterprise level subscriptions that give anyone with your email domain access to everything. Why go through the trouble of sharing passwords or forcing one person to try to download PDFs of articles when you can give everyone in your company access to us?

You’ve got plans to revamp the Campaign Convene conference—tell us about it.

We’re creating a day of active learning. This is not a passive experience. We’ll have a traditional mainstage with a keynote or two, plus a handful of panels. But I think the big draw should be Campaign Candid Convos. Three tracks of chats with 15 of your peers about the topics worth the price of admission alone (the earlier you get your ticket, the earlier you get to reserve your seat for one of these rooms). We’re going to have a video/podcast studio for the industry’s biggest shows to record in front of a live audience. We’re going to display winning work from the Campaign BIG Global awards. We’ve got a few other tricks up our sleeve, too. Ultimately, this day is for marketers and agency leaders to spend a day learning from each other.

Real talk on AI from someone who’s heard it from all angles. What’s your POV on its use in our industry?

Consumers are growing to hate it in the final product of any work. No brand wants to turn its TikTok comments off because every third comment is asking how much water was wasted to make this ad. This is over-simplifying it, but it’s great for research and any other action involving mass amounts of information, so that’s where I’d be focusing my efforts.

What are you seeing marketers need more (or less) from their agency partners today that changed over the past few years?

I think you’re either chasing more scale and savings with a holding company or a meaningful creative partner with an indie (meaning less red-tape).

What makes you immediately open and read a PR pitch versus ignore it? And what are the most overused phrases or words in releases?

I never know how to answer this. Journalists don’t have magic words that get us to read a pitch. You know what gets me to listen? You take the time to get to know what I care about, know how to talk interestingly about the thing you’re pitching and then if we do work with you on a story, deliver the goods. Quickest way to get me to ignore you is set up an interview with an executive who is brutal to listen to. Hard to trust your judgment after that when there are endless companies out there for me to talk to.

The one story you want to get out there but haven’t had the chance yet.

The dream is still to interview dozens of brand marketers, procurement, consultants and agency leaders and ask the question: If we wiped the entire history of pitching from all of our memories, how would brands actually hire ad agencies?

The question you wish we asked but didn’t (and the answer).

Question: What influences me as a leader and content creator?

Answer: Dropout.TV. All millennials should remember College Humor. That website we all watched in the 2000s and early 2010s is now a streaming service called Dropout.TV. It’s run by Sam Reich, yes, the son of Robert Reich. It’s probably the most employee-first media company in the U.S. As I think about how I want to lead my publications, it’s figuring out how to create an environment where everyone I work with can produce their best work. From a content perspective, you’ll see more multimedia work out of Campaign soon, and Dropout’s gamified improv comedy format is something I’m leaning into. Consider this the beginning of my campaign to get Sam Reich on the Campaign Chemistry podcast.

👕🧘‍♂️ JCPenney hosts Rejuvenation Retreat to heal people from shopping at competitors

Friends—we are all worth more than the underwear we found in the cooking section.

That’s why JCPenney hosted a Retail Rejuvenation Retreat for people who need to heal for surrendering their dignity while shopping at competitors.

Six off-price store lovers were invited for a full day of cleansing, mindfulness, and literal retail therapy. At the end of their enlightenment, shoppers were given a choice of choosing one item for another: An random unbranded pan with a rogue scratch down the middle, or a new Martha Stewart pan collection; a bag of dried lemons and oranges for some reason, or Dolce & Gabbana fragrance; the pair of boots they happen to have in your size, of the high-end ones you were actually looking for.

The retreat feeds into the brand’s new strategy it unveiled last year: Yes, JCPenney. So many people know the chain for great deals. But not enough people know it for runway-ready fashion, quality jewelry and kitchen/homeware at great deals.

“There’s often this sense [among shoppers] that if you’re going to get a deal, there’s some tradeoffs involved,” said Marisa Thalberg, chief customer and marketing officer of JCPenney parent company Catalyst Brands, told Adweek. “We’re pushing up in a playful way against the idea that there are lots of other bigger retailers that seemingly satisfy you with this thrill of great deals, but it’s not always as true as it seems.”

🎯 💡 Effectiveness is an ad agency’s permission slip to be creative

An ad agency is in the business of moving other businesses. The industry can be forgetful of this. There’s a lot of spotlight around craft and cultural resonance that we don’t ask enough: Was this effective?

Jeff McCrory, CSO at Mischief, said: “For us, the only way we get to do the type of work we do long term, is to prove to clients that it’s valuable and it drives their business. So us being really intentional about the strategies that we put in place, being very disciplined around the measurement plan about how we’re actually going to define success and then prove it out—all of those things unlock your ability to do that type of work. It’s your permission slip to be creative.”

⭐️ 📝 Company principles that actually mean something are super rare in today’s world

There are times—like there was this week for me—when you just hit a dead end with something at work. It could be as big as a strategic business decision that has real impact or as small as figuring out the next sentence.

If you are lucky enough to work at a place with real guiding principles then you’ll know how comforting it is to have those to fall back on.

The trouble is, not many companies (ad agencies especially) tend to have a tangible north star that really means something and can be actioned. That’s not surprising. Competition has never been tougher because there is less to go around and more fighting for that same dinner. It’s too easy to loosen your principles and dilute what you stand for to cast a wider net, be all things to all people, in order to win that dinner.

This might win today. But it surely loses every day after.

Some things we believe to be true at Mischief:

1. We are here to make a stir.

2. Indifference is the enemy; The riskiest thing we can do is be ignorable.

3. What we say “yes” to, shapes us. What we say “no” to, defines us.

4. If we focus on what makes us special, the money will follow. If we focus on the money, we will cease to be special.

5. We will never go wrong by doing the right thing.

6. Kindness is not weakness.

7. We’d rather have someone reject us for who we are, than accept us for who we aren’t.

8. We’re better when we are having fun.

9. When in doubt, ask yourself: what would you do if you weren’t afraid?

10. We are a safe place for dangerous ideas.

💼🧑‍💼 Age of the individual office is over

A few guests—journalists, clients, friends and whatnot—who recently visited the Mischief office in Brooklyn all noted the same thing: There are no individual offices.

The Madison Avenue Sterling Cooper are long gone. When people need privacy they use a meeting room, otherwise it’s an open-plan-no-designated-desk situation. It would feel weird to have little executive ego boxes that dissuade the reason we come into the office: To be together.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, partner & head of development at Mischief

Let’s get into it: 👇

🤖 🥘 LinkedIn’s war on AI slop is bellwether for future of online

📰 📻 NPR named one of the best ads of 2026 so far

💡 📲 The most shareable content is created for your audience’s audience

📈 🎯 How to actually get to effective marketing work

💼 ✍️ Ad agency new biz diary: There’s something driving more immediate engagements sans pitch

🤖 🥘 LinkedIn’s war on AI slop is bellwether for future of online

LinkedIn has dropped a new feature—and removed another one—for users in the past week or so, all with the intent of making its app a more human place.

The menu against posts now comes with an option that reads “seems like AI slop” for people to report content that feels like it was machine-generated.

Meanwhile, the platform has taken away its “enhance your post” tool with one that corrects spelling and grammar instead of overhauling words and structure.

It’s a bold move to stem the flow of inauthentic content, of which LinkedIn is a hub for given posts are anchored in long-form essays that can easily be forged to sound more intelligent via AI tools.

“AI slop is a top priority for all of us,” said Hari Srinivasan, chief product officer, LinkedIn Ecosystem, wrote on the platform. “We really care about this. People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives, ideas and expertise.”

AI fatigue among consumers is real. It’s hard to quantify the amount of AI slop running rampant online (largely, probably, because of the amount of AI slop running rampant online), but a highly-cited data point from AI research agency Graphite Growth back in October 2025 claimed there are now more articles online created by AI versus humans.

Such fatigue has become a cultural jumping-off point for brands. Reddit recently unveiled its decidedly-human brand platform (in partnership with this agency, Mischief), called: “People are the best.”

Christina Kothari, Reddit’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing, recently told Marketing Beast: “All the fakeness of social media and the blandness of AI have reminded people how special the conversations on Reddit are. We want to shout that from the rooftops. Reddit really believes that People Are The Best and we’re where they are making the internet more human because we encourage authenticity.”

📰 📻 NPR named one of the best ads of 2026 so far

It’s become a tradition for Ad Age—the marketing sector’s premier trade outlet—to pull together a selection of the best creative campaigns of the year so far each summer.

The 30-strong list is always a source of inspiration. Work includes a campaign from formidable in-house teams across Apple, Squarespace, and Saucony, as well as big brand anthems across Nike and Levi’s by W&K and TBWA Chiat\Day\LA respectively.

Among the creative is NPR’s warrior cry by this agency, Mischief.

In 2025, U.S. Congress cut more than $1 billion in public media funding, effectively shutting down the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and significantly reducing funding for NPR.

This wasn’t just a budget cut. It was an attempt to silence the voices behind NPR: its newsroom, culture reporting, 240+ Member stations, and 3,000 journalists reaching 99% of Americans.

You can try to silence NPR. But you can’t silence curiosity.

NPR came out swinging in response. It needed to plant a flag in the ground—to remind people why it exists and that it isn’t going anywhere.

So the brand transformed its logo into the words at the heart of journalism: WHY? HOW? WHO? Essential tools of curiosity for every journalist and citizen.

The campaign brings forward questions—many from listeners—and connects directly to the NPR programs that answer them. The questions are real and urgent to the moment we’re in, from “How does AI affect my electric bill?” to “Why are groceries still so expensive?” to “Why was ICE created?”

It worked.

In a post-campaign survey, a total of 73 per cent said they believe NPR fights for the public’s right to be curious. Meanwhile, 69 per cent believe NPR’s logo is a symbol of curiosity. Nearly 75% felt NPR is fighting for independent journalism. And after seeing the campaign, 65% said they were more likely to listen to/read NPR.

Most importantly, the initiative turned the NPR logo into a reminder that any attempt to silence curiosity will only inspire more of it.

💡 📲 The most shareable content is created for your audience’s audience

@mischiefusa🔑 When you share something, you’re sharing a piece of yourself that you want other people to see. #content #marketing #social #ideas #brands

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

What makes you share a piece of content with someone?

You likely found it funny, insightful, educational, entertaining etc. But that’s just one part of it.

Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO at Mischief, said recently that when you share something, you’re sharing a piece of yourself that you want other people to see.

In that sense, the best type of shareable content is made for you audience’s audience.

Listen to the full podcast here.

📈 🎯 How to actually get to effective marketing work

@mischiefusaThere’s more than one way to get to a creative answer. Having a strategic process like this allows for more play and experiment to get to that answer. #ideas #creativity #brands #marketing #strategy

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

There’s more than one way to get to a creative answer.

And having a strategic process like the one Kevin Mulroy, ECD & founding partner at Mischief, explains, allows for more play and experiment to get to that answer. It’s this: 👇

Step 1: Figure out what to say.*

Step 2: Decide the most interesting way to say it.

*Play with multiple strategic territories instead of picking just one. Go wide strategically before you go deep creatively.

None of this happens in a silo, BTW. This process has to be in collaboration with the marketers.

Listen to the full podcast here.

💼 ✍️ Ad agency new biz diary: There’s something driving more immediate engagements sans pitch

Mischief @ No Fixed Address is seeing two very different new business approaches from marketers right now:

1. Immediate engagements.

2. Full-spec pitch invites.

In the past, there's also been more of a middle-ground between the two. But that's given way to more of number one. There’s something driving this. It isn't new, but has changed: Speed.

Marketers need thinking yesterday. Most asks have always been fast, but recently they've gone into lightspeed mode.

Competition, product launches, and entirely new categories are pushing this. Most of the brands we speak to want to get the next swing in before their rival, or are led by product team launch dates. Both of those are no more intense than in the new AI category (the category itself isn't new, but agency help within it is). The sector is moving at a speed that is absolutely blinding.

Agencies need to keep up or they will lose out entirely.

The shops best able to match this speed are smaller, more nimble independents where layers and bureaucracy are non-existent and the leadership are on speed dial.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

Let’s get into some Q2 marketing news. 👇

🔥 💩 Wildfires and diarrhea have brands in restraint mode (for once)

🍻 🏈 How Coors Light has flipped an obstacle into its biggest advantage for four years of Patrick Mahomes marketing

𓉸🍺 Forget wine windows—it’s all about Peroni Portals

⚽️ 🏆 The cheeky newspaper ad ribbing FIFA’s VAR

✈️ 🥅 Norwegian’s bet with British Airways is the wholesome thing to happen on brand social in a long while

🔥 💩 Wildfires and diarrhea have brands in restraint mode (for once)

There are two ways for brands to get attention:

1. Find a unique way to enter cultural conversation.

2. Find a way to be unique enough to start said cultural conversation.

A marketer’s life work is chasing that second one. But the first—done right—can earn hard-working moments of consumer clout.

Think about the Empire State climbers last week; Every brand used that same piece of flag real estate to meme their own message. All got lost in the sauce. Brands like DoorDash, however, owned it in a way only it could.

This type of reactive marketing has become the norm. It happens like clockwork now—something dominates the headlines and companies respond en masse to the news cycle (instead of creating it). Low hanging fruit means more people are going to pick it, making it harder for one to stand out. And when everyone is fighting for attention, judgement is at risk of going out the window.

There are so many examples of brands choosing social clout over the responsibility of corporate comms and reputation.

It’s nothing new. Remember DiGiorno’s famous 2014 tweet? The company responded to a trending hashtag, “#WhyIStayed,” citing pizza as the reason. The hashtag was about why people chose to stay in an abusive relationship.

But brands have shown surprising restraint this week amid two of the biggest news stories: Canadian Wildfires with smoke sweeping the U.S., and an outbreak of a parasite found in fresh vegetables causing diarrhea.

It’s been eerily quiet. Almost none have made it about their brands. Which is a good thing. And a welcomed reprieve from what feels like a constant barrage of corporate news-jacking.

SILENCE, BRAND!

🍻 🏈 How Coors Light has flipped an obstacle into its biggest advantage for four years of Patrick Mahomes marketing

Patrick Mahomes: Kansas City start quarterback, golfer, and big-time Coors Light fan.

But there’s one problem with the latter: NFL rules forbid players to promote alcohol.

No one, however, said anything about promoting The Coors Light—a common, household flashlight and definitely nothing more.

Or Coors Light Bear—a novelty bear golf club cover.

Or the Mahomes ice-cold rocky mountain plunge—just a way for fans to experience his version of chill.

It’s also totally legit to film an entire commercial where Mahomes is actually a Coors Light spokesperson, then bury it in a time capsule and release it when he retires.

Until then, other actors can play him to promote the beer.

The marketing judo from Molson Coors is a killer example that an obstacle can actually be the answer, with a cheeky mental reframe.

𓉸🍺 Forget wine windows—it’s all about Peroni Portals

While we’re on beer, did you hear about Peroni Portals?

They’re like those famous wine windows in Florence. Except you don’t need a passport because they’ll be popping up at Italian-style bars and restaurants across America for the month of August.

“Peroni Nastro Azzurro has always been rooted in the traditions, style and spirit of Italy,” said Elizabeth Hitch, Vice President of Marketing, Above Premium Beer, at Molson Coors. “With Peroni Portals, we’re bringing one of Italy’s most charming traditions, the iconic wine windows, to cities across the U.S., giving people a chance to experience aperitivo culture and enjoy a refreshing twist of la dolce vita with Peroni, no passport required.”

Check where your nearest portal is.

⚽️ 🏆 The cheeky newspaper ad ribbing FIFA’s VAR

Hats off to the sports betting brand, Paddy Power, for dishing out this cheeky newspaper ad ahead of the World Cup semi-finals.

It reads: “England vs VARgentina” and is a dig at FIFA’s use of technology, which has changed the composition of this tournament by calling out fouls that wouldn’t have usually been caught and overturning plays.

Turns out Argentina didn’t need VAR to ensure it’s not coming home for England.

✈️ 🥅 Norwegian’s bet with British Airways is the wholesome thing to happen on brand social in a long while

Norwegian offered British Airways a friendly waiver ahead of the England vs Norway game: Whoever loses has to switch out their company logo for the winner’s.

Norway lost, and the airline group stayed true to its word. But they didn’t just change the profile photo—they squeezed every last drop of the public attention they earned through multiple playful posts.

Today, it has more than one million likes.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

Christina Kothari joined Reddit at a pivotal moment.

The platform—commonly and fondly referred to as “the heart of the internet”—is undergoing a brand evolution.

Over the past handful of years, Reddit has outgrown its perception of hyper-niche WWW basement dwellers to the primary source for answers, intel and community.

Christina, whose career include stints at Meta, FitBit and WeightWatchers, led the charge to capitalize on this with a new brand platform called “People Are The Best.”

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. It comes as people are having a hard time discerning what’s real and what’s fake, and AI fatigue reaches new heights.

We sat down with Christina, Reddit’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing, to unpack the campaign, her career, and the challenges and opportunities marketers are facing today.

🌐 “Has AI ever had a colonoscopy? No.” Reddit’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing on why people are the best

🏙 And the winner of the Empire State climbers trend is…

⚽️ Rexona has the World Cup’s most perfect product placement

🇲🇽 El Operativo No Inglés had brands ditching English ahead of Mexico-England game

👖 Levi’s is squeezing every last drop out of the redacted logo drama

📖 Who’s behind the suddenly-awesome Merriam-Webster social account?

🌐 “Has AI ever had a colonoscopy? No.” Reddit’s Global Head of Consumer Marketing on why people are the best

What surprised you the most about Reddit when you joined, in A) its users and B) how the organization operates internally?

The gap between Reddit’s cultural footprint and Reddit’s employee count. From the outside, this brand shows up everywhere: your search results, your group chat, your favorite show’s writers room. So I assumed there was a giant machine behind it. There is not. There is a lean company with very few cooks in the kitchen and a genuinely rare amount of trust. I was given autonomy, which is both a gift and a test: there is nowhere to hide and no process to blame. I love that this brand punches well above its weight.

Why is this the right moment to launch “People Are the Best”?

Reddit has grown tremendously over the past few years. We were once known as a platform for niche interests, and we still have those amazing communities, but now we are part of mainstream culture too. Whether you want to talk about pictures of birds with arms, a major sporting event, or the hottest TV show, Reddit really is the place to talk about anything.

But most importantly…look at the state of the internet. Between social media and AI, people are thirsty for real human interaction. They genuinely do not know what is real anymore. Did their favorite influencer sell out, or do they actually recommend that face cream? Has AI ever had a colonoscopy? No. But the people of r/colonoscopy have, and they will tell you exactly how to prepare for one. (I may have been reading that subreddit right before writing this. More on that later.)

All the fakeness of social media and the blandness of AI have reminded people how special the conversations on Reddit are. We want to shout that from the rooftops. Reddit really believes that People Are The Best and we’re where they are making the internet more human because we encourage authenticity.

What’s the goal of the campaign, and what user perceptions are you hoping to shift?

Most people in the US already use Reddit to some extent. Some are loyal daily users deep in multiple communities. Others land on Reddit because they asked a search engine or an LLM a question and Reddit had the most relevant answer. We want that second group to explore what else Reddit has for them, become regular users, and start coming to us directly for their questions, interests, and passions.

You’ve worked across an incredible breadth of categories, from big social at Reddit and Meta to fitness and wellness platforms like Fitbit and WeightWatchers. What’s the uniting approach you’ve taken to each marketing role?

Three things, every time.

First, I always want to hear the brand’s origin story. Why did the founder build it? What did they think it would become? How has it grown bigger than they ever dreamed? Those stories are set in stone and can never change. They hold the sacred truths of who the company really is.

Second, I want to understand the burning business challenge and how marketing can be part of the solution. At Reddit, we know we want to grow, but it took me time to understand how marketing unlocks that growth: which audiences have the most opportunity and what messages might move them.

Third, I want to understand the product vision. I strongly believe brand and product are inseparable, and that product innovation should help us live up to the brand promise.

What’s the one thing keeping you and other top marketers awake at night?

Culture is moving faster and faster, and the old marketing playbooks need to evolve to keep up. For Reddit specifically, we should have a strong role in pop culture because it is such a big part of the daily conversation on the platform. We have not fully cracked how to integrate into culture on a routine basis yet. I am barely five months into this role, and that is the thing I most want us to get better at. Ask me again in a year.

I’m a brand trying to crack Reddit as a social channel. What’s the secret to showing up in a deeply guarded human space?

Read the top three subreddits in your category every day and you will be the best marketer in your organization. I mean it.

My time at Weight Watchers opened my eyes to this. The Weight Watchers community on Reddit is massive and a treasure trove of honest feedback. We did AMAs there to share our nutrition science and demystify new products, and the community showed up for it. If I could go back, I would have had us participate in adjacent communities too, like the GLP-1 and nutrition subreddits. The lesson: show up where the conversation already is, contribute something real, and do not pretend to be something you are not. Reddit users can smell it.

Anyone starting out as a marketer should do this one thing:

Try content creation. I did not do this because I started my career in a different era, but making content teaches you how digital platforms actually work. It also gives you the ability to call BS on things that take too long or cost too much when you are working with partners.

The thing I did do, and am grateful for: I paid attention to which work gave me energy. The projects I would happily stay up late for. Then I went and found more of that work because I knew that I had to work hard to rise up the ranks and I would only work hard if that work gave me energy.

The best career advice you’ve ever received:

Early career is about learning, later career is about earning. Know when to make the pivot. Early on, I turned down higher-paying jobs for ones that would teach me the fundamentals. Then there was an inflection point where I knew it was my time to lead. I stopped taking jobs to work for an amazing boss and started taking jobs to be one.

Where will Reddit be a year from now?

A year from now, I want people to stop thinking of Reddit as the place they end up and start thinking of it as the place they go first. First for the real review, the honest answer, the community that gets their thing. And you will see us showing up in culture more, because the people of Reddit are already there.

What’s your favorite sub? And what’s the best thing you’ve learned from people on Reddit?

r/PetiteFashion gives me styling advice I never knew I needed for my short body, including brand recommendations and tailoring hacks that changed how I shop. I am currently watching Love Island, so I also have to shout out r/LoveIslandUSA. And yes, as promised: I have my first colonoscopy next week (TMI? We are all friends here), and r/colonoscopy has genuinely been an incredible resource for preparing. Real people who have really been through it.

The one question we didn’t ask but wish we had (and the answer):

“What has Reddit taught you about people?” That the person leaving a fourteen-paragraph answer to a stranger’s question at 2am, with links and caveats and a follow-up edit, is getting nothing for it. No followers, no brand deal, no algorithm boost. They do it because someone asked and they knew the answer.

I have worked on technology platforms at other companies and I have never seen anything like it at this scale. It made me more optimistic about the internet. People really are the best. It isn’t just some campaign line. It’s what is really happening on Reddit. I’m so glad we’re finally saying it out loud and sharing that point of view with the world.

Share

🏙 And the winner of the Empire State climbers trend is…

You saw this, right?

Two people climbed the Empire State Building to the very top (like, you-can’t-actually-go-any-further-very-top), waved a flag with a message of love, and got engaged.

It was awesome. But it wasn’t their moment for long. Brands quickly seized on the opportunity to rewrite the flag’s message for their own. Soon, every company was fighting over the same fake media space. These got swallowed up into the sea of sameness.

But Doordash did it differently.

Social pros ignored the flag altogether, and found a way to bend the moment to reflect a consumer experience unique to delivery services: The text confirmation your order has been dropped off.

Doordash is having a field day right now. Between fast, reactive moments like this, to its FIFA sponsorship, the brand hasn’t missed a beat.

⚽️ Rexona has the World Cup’s most perfect product placement

Rexona’s another sponsor of the tournament, which could have easily gone unnoticed were it not for its killer product placement.

The deodorant brand (called Rexona in Latin America and some European markets but sold as “Degree” in the US and “Sure” in the UK and Ireland), put its logo under each armpit of match officials. It’s revealed whenever they lift their arms, which they inevitably do to indicate key match moments like substitutions and extra time needed.

@rootedinthegameRexona’s logo is under the arms of every match official, just most obvious on the one holding the board. REXONA FOUND THE ONE PLACE A DEODORANT LOGO ACTUALLY BELONGS AT THE WORLD CUP. THE REFEREES’ ARMPITS. . . #worldcup #fifa #marketing #football #advertising

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

The beauty is that it works if the armpits are dry (oh, they must be using Rexona), or if they’re sweat-stained (damn, they could use some Rexona).

So many sponsorships get lost in the sauce. This is a really smart play by the folks over at Unilever.

🇲🇽 El Operativo No Inglés had brands ditching English ahead of Mexico-England game

It started as a social post from Mexican snack brand Vuala.

A masked spokesperson called on fellow brands in Mexico to switch all communication from English to Spanish to show support for their home team ahead of the highly-anticipated England match at the Azteca on Sunday.

Part of the call read: “We call upon our community to invite brands, content creators, and companies of all sizes to participate in the campaign by temporarily adapting their names, posts, or logos to Spanish and sharing this initiative on social media as a show of support for Mexico.”

It spread like wildfire, with big brands like KFC and Uber partaking.

But, alas, a 3-2 defeat means it is still coming home for England fans.

Share

👖 Levi’s is squeezing every last drop out of the redacted logo drama

When you’ve got a good thing going, sometimes you just gotta keep going and going and going.

That’s been Levi’s entire play this World Cup. Since FIFA covered up their stadium logo the brand has been sprinting at full pace to capitalize on the viral censorship.

What started as a cheeky social response—replacing its profile photo with a concealed logo—has ballooned into a content series, merchandise in the “Redacted” T-shirts, and experiential with physical storefronts wrapping its own branding.

It’s been so fun to watch. But all good things must come to an end. And this week the last World Cup match was played at Levi’s Stadium, offering the brand one last moment of cheek.

📖 Who’s behind the suddenly-awesome Merriam-Webster social account?

This heat is unexpected. It’s a dictionary. A DICTIONARY.

Merriam-Webster found some serious pipes over the past week with sassy Fourth of July posts that had people in stitches.

Guess it only makes sense for the keeper of all words to find the right ones.

Social media hero: Reveal yourself.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

Share

Two luxury yachts leave Pointe Croisette in Cannes at the same time.

One is heading for La Guérite, a restaurant where bottles of rosé are served by the jeroboam (which is two sizes larger than a magnum) accompanied by aggressive sparklers. People dance and twirl napkins every time they’re brought out.

The other takes a longer journey to Le Club 55, which offers a similar vibe but with more class because it’s in St Tropez.

Later that day, once the boats are moored back in Cannes, hefty golden trophies are handed out at an awards ceremony with as much production value as the Oscars. Oprah gives an inspiring speech about the power of storytelling. A quick cheers on the infamous Carlton Hotel terrace will follow.

Share

Then shuttles run to the five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. Flaming crepes are made table-side adjacent to the most spectacular views of the French Riviera. The setting is so beautiful that if the seven wonders of the world list was extended to 21 it would probably rank number 17.

You can stay there to see Ludacris perform live or head back to Cannes for the twangy sound of Mumford and Sons as hundreds of synchronized drones light up the sky with a dominance that make you feel silly for ever liking fireworks.

And it’s only Tuesday.

This is a very real and ridiculous day for the one percent who attend Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity—advertising’s biggest conference that runs for an entire week in June and attract more than 15,000 marketers, agency people, creators and (suddenly) mostly everyone who works in AI.

But it’s not the day for the majority of delegates. Nor is it the reason this conference will live forever.

Cannes Lions 2026 looked and felt different to any other Cannes Lions that preceded it.

For one, it was outrageously hot. Like this-festival-should-have-probably-been-postponed hot. France was hotter than mostly any other place on the planet for a handful of those days that week, reaching record temperatures for the country. Air conditioning is not a thing in France. (And there weren’t any ad campaigns at Lions about normalizing AC even though it is widely understood that heat causes more deaths in Europe than gun violence in the US each year.)

A different kind of heat brewed on the ground, though, changing Cannes Lions’ composition quite aggressively. That’s the story of creators and AI. Never before had there been so many of both.

Hundreds of influencers marched the Croisette with the same celeb energy as Hollywood stars (except for Ryan Reynolds, who wasn’t there because he requires a hefty fee to appear even though he owns an ad agency, we overheard).

It was the first year Cannes Lions organizers put an official stamp on a creator presence and had bespoke spaces for them. This will only grow. And it makes sense, because they are now the festival’s new best advertisers—posting Reels and TikToks of FOMO-inducing experiences and VIP treatment in between taking lead interviews with the likes of Wall Street Journal and Forbes once reserved for marketers only.

Meanwhile, AI ran rampant. And the conversation generally remained the same as last year: Yes we’ve moved from hype to adoption but there’s still no end-to-end case study showing how AI identified the problem, found the cultural insight, executed it with original thinking, and produced business-moving results.

People without a pay-to-play space were having to get real inventive about where to eat and meet this year, given the sprawling nature of branded tech spaces. It felt like no inch of Cannes had been left untouched. Quiet restaurants you could once sneak away to and take a meeting or grab a rare bite were now an AI firm you’ve never heard of.

AI is likely the reason more people than usual were sunburned.

This was kind of an issue for us, Mischief, whose main purpose for attending Cannes is to meet people we wouldn’t normally in our home base.

(For reference and for comparison with the above, here’s what an average day looked like for us: Breakfast meet with potential new client, coffee with current client, speaking session with the Effie’s, lunch with current client, afternoon meet with potential new client, pre-dinner meet with potential new client, dinner with current client.)

But when we found those moments of solace—away from the bustle, the razzle and the dazzle—people’s true agenda for coming to Cannes became clear: The deadly effectiveness of creativity. Sounds trite and paid-for by Cannes (it’s not). Bare with.

Every marketer we spoke with has a complex business problem and is seeking original ways to solve it. Not with the flashy things tent-poling Cannes. Showmen/women are trying to package these up as solutions and sell them on the Croisette—commoditizing creativity. But they're merely ingredients that fuel creativity. The right marketers know true originality cannot be commoditized. And they're attending Cannes to find it in the people and the work.

There’s an obvious premium for originality right now. It makes sense; the world has never been nosier, making it harder for brands to be heard. Marketers seek the human thinking and collaboration, not the platform or product or program—and Cannes is one of the only moments in our sector when all corners of the world are brought together in the pursuit of it.

So long as platforms, products and programs are just the infrastructure that let the former flourish, then Cannes Lions will never die.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

Share

Subscribe now

🤖 ServiceNow drops bold campaign calling out gap between AI that suggests and AI that executes

👖 Levis’ response to World Cup censorship is near-perfect social play

👆Agency founder’s advice on how to get hired in this market

🤔 Why creatives shouldn’t use AI to fight the blank page

⚽️ The Miller Time MVP Match Ball is going for $1,000 on the aftermarket

🦁 Come see Mischief in Cannes (if you’re there and you care)

🤖 ServiceNow drops bold campaign calling out gap between AI that suggests and AI that executes

You’ve been witness to the public duke-outs between big consumer AI platforms.

But take a peep behind the headlines and you’ll quickly see the real focus for these companies is on an B2B level—they’re all fighting for their software to be used across enterprise.

ServiceNow knows a thing or two about that, because it’s been helping solve workflow automatic since 2004.

That’s why ServiceNow can actually do the work, instead of stopping at suggestions. And it’s planting a flag firmly in the ground as the enterprise AI platform of choice with a bold new campaign.

In “Don’t Settle for Suggestions,” humorous films imagine a world where people in critical professions stop at advice instead of taking action—from firefighters who don’t put out fires to surgeons who don’t perform surgery.

The campaign expands across NYC billboards, faux print ads in The Wall Street Journal, podcast advertising, and social channels featuring spoof business reviews from frustrated customers who only got served suggestions.

Jim Lesser, Chief Brand Officer at ServiceNow: “You wouldn’t go to a surgeon who doesn’t operate. Or hire a plumber who doesn’t plumb. You’d expect them to do the job. Yet, that’s the reality of much of enterprise AI today. It can suggest. But it can’t act. ServiceNow processes more than 100 billion workflows and seven trillion transactions annually, putting AI to work inside the systems enterprises rely on every day. We give AI the context, governance, and ability to take action across the enterprise. Because businesses don’t need more suggestions. They need AI that thinks and workflows that act.”

The campaign is debut work from ServiceNow’s new creative agency partner, Mischief @ No Fixed Address.

Bianca Guimaraes, ECD & Founding Partner at Mischief: “Most AI companies took a mass consumer approach first with chatbots and assistants, then worked backward into the enterprise. ServiceNow did the opposite. It was built enterprise-first from day one — which means it was designed to actually get work done, not just suggest how to do it.”

👖 Levis’ response to World Cup censorship proves that sometimes the obstacle is the way

FIFA’s censoring everything. We even got a cease and desist letter from their lawyers, but that’s a different story we’re too scared to get into right now.

That censorship is showing up in a shamelessly-overt way across World Cup venues in the U.S. right now—from covering brand names of condiments (yes, really) to shrouding entire stadium logos.

But Levi’s, ironically, is having a very large cultural moment because of it.

The way in which FIFA wrapped Levi’s logo made its logo even more noticeable. Guess they weren’t factoring in all that brand equity that comes with the iconic shape.

Levi’s changed its profile photo on social, and posted the below, which has amassed more than a million likes on Instagram alone.

A great reminder that, sometimes, the obstacle is the way.

👆Agency founder’s advice on how to get hired in this market

“Make yourself famous. It’s that hard and that simple.”

Mischief Co-Founder & CCO, Greg Hahn, sat down with Tyson Kuteyi of Media Mindset to unpack his personal journey since getting laid off six years ago during the pandemic.

What the whole thing here.👇

🤔 Why creatives shouldn’t use AI to fight the blank page

Greg Hahn also sat down (he did a lot of sitting down this week) with Jon Evan from Uncensored CMO to chat about, well, just about everything. And, of course, everything had to include AI. This is a nice take for anyone looking to put the technology into a bit of perspective amid the noisy hype. 👇

⚽️ The Miller Time MVP Match Ball is going for $1,000 on the aftermarket

If you’re looking at this and having a hard time comprehending its majesty, that’s understandable. Totally normal when one is met with soul-shattering art. Like Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man by Salvador Dalí (1943), The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (1831), and—now—Miller Time MVP Matchball by Miller Lite.

Yes, this is real. No, you can’t kick it.

This feat of drinking innovation clocks in at about 1.5 times the size of a regulation ball, holds up to 12 Miller Lites, is fully reloadable, and comes with a display stand (because naturally).

It got immediate hype on launch day a couple of weeks ago.

And the prized item has already found its way on the aftermarket, commanding an eye-watering price tag of around $1,000. Check out these eBay listings. 👇

Is it worth those dollars?

Only you can decide.

(But probably, yes.)

“This summer is a massive moment for soccer and beer fans alike,” said Courtney Benedict, Vice President of Marketing, Miller Lite Family of Brands. “As America’s Original Light Beer, Miller Lite was made for moments like this. The Matchball is our way of celebrating and rewarding the fans who bring the traditions and unmatched energy to every watch party…and a soccer ball that fits a 12 pack? That’s just fun!’”

The idea was created in partnership with Mischief, which is celebrating more than five years working with Molson Coors across multiple brands in its portfolio.

Danny O’Connor, Group Creative Director at Mischief @ No Fixed Address, said: “The best soccer fans have a special set of skills to make the most of Miller Time for themselves and others. So just like how MVP players are awarded the match ball after a big game, we want to award these Miller Time MVP fans with a special ball of their own… filled with beer.”

Matchball is part of Miller Lite’s “Legendary Moments Start With a Lite” platform. The brand strategy reminds fans that the best moments aren’t just watched, they’re shared. It’s all about—as Miller Lite ever has been—bringing people together. A strategy that, honestly, feels more needed today in our age of digital distraction.

🦁 Come see Mischief in Cannes (if you're there and you care)

⭐️ Tuesday June 23

2pm | Palais | Unpacking Effie Worldwide Best of the Best cases: Carley Caldas, SVP Brand Marketing & Media at eos Products, Jeff McCrory, CSO & Partner at Mischief, and Fergus O’Carroll, host of On Strategy Showcase.

⭐️ Wednesday June 24

11am | Tubi Cabana | How eos Made the World’s Most Effective Campaign (Twice): Carley Caldas, SVP Brand Marketing & Media at eos, Bianca Guimaraes, ECD & Partner at Mischief, and Jameson Fleming, Editorial Director at Campaign US.

11.30am | Tubi Cabana | Ask Bianca Guimaraes Anything (Especially the Weird Qs): A totally unscripted and real convo with B that she’ll probably regret. Just a mic and an audience free to ask any question they want.

⭐️ Thursday June 25

9am | Mystery superyacht location | Bianca Guimaraes, ECD and Partner at Mischief, joins agency leaders to chop up the biggest issues and opportunities facing creative shops today.

10.30am | Palais | The Method Behind the Madness: Unpacking How Strategy and Creativity Worked Together to Make the World’s Most Effective Work: Dana Buckhorn, Creative Director at Mischief, Jeff McCrory, CSO & Partner at Mischief, and the Effies.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, Head of Development & Partner at Mischief

✍️ Good old-fashioned human storytelling triumphs over AI, swanky VFX, and mega-expensive talent

🐟 Goldfish buys back rare cracker “schools” on National Smile Day

🤖 What’s with all these James Franco social posts (and is it AI)?

💰 Shopify’s Jessica Williams joins OnePay as CMO

🌶️ Chili’s CMO on how to revive a legacy brand

🗣️ Ask our ECD & founding partner anything (especially the weird Qs)

💡 7 decisions agency leaders made to make Mischief, Mischief

Share

✍️ Good old-fashioned human storytelling triumphs over AI, swanky VFX, and mega-expensive talent

Something tectonic happened in Hollywood this week.

“The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a Star Wars spin-off rumored to have cost more than $165M to produce, fell alarmingly short of box office expectations. In its second opening week, the film barely made it into the top-three films. It was, in fact, the most disappointing reception to a Star Wars film since Disney bought the franchise.

Two other films paved the way.

One was “Obsession,” a psychological horror about a guy who embraces voodoo magic to wish for his long-term crush to love him more than anyone else. It grossed $26.4M on a budget of just $750,000.

Meanwhile, “Backrooms” stands extremely strong as most popular film, grossing an eye-popping $81M on the back of around $10M in production dollars. The horror is born out of a 4chan creepypasta that has gripped the internet for years.

This division shows where the true value lies to viewers: In human storytelling over flashy production, VFX, AI, and spenny talent.

It’s a huge green flag for the creative world. The idea triumphs. How it is brought to life matters, but success doesn’t hinge on how flashy the production is.

Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old “Backrooms” director, took this thought a step further by directly attacking AI.

Asked on CBS Mornings if he’d ever consider using AI, he said: “Absolutely not. Art is a way of processing life. I don’t see the value in outsourcing any element of that.”

🐟 Goldfish buys back rare cracker “schools” on National Smile Day

It was National Smile Day this week. And Goldfish understood the assignment.

The brand is buying back “Schools of Goldfish,” the fun term for when a few crackers get stuck together during the production process.

Lots of folks post these “mistakes” for sale on eBay, some with price tags in the thousands, but most below $100. Of course, none of these sellers probably ever expected to actually sell one. Until now.

Goldfish snapped up more than 30 “schools” in what they’re calling “The School of Goldfish Buy Back.”

Howard Finkelstein, group creative director at Mischief, Goldfish’s creative AOR, said: “There were dozens of listings that we attempted to buy. Three people could no longer find them. One person had never sold anything on eBay before and never expected the listing to sell, and was geninely confused on what to do next. One person said the school broke since posting (we bought it anyway). All in around 30 successful transactions with 30 very surprised sellers.”

Ross Fletcher, group creative director at Mischief, added: “The folks who posted these were probably just doing it for a laugh, never expecting anyone to actually buy them. They assured us that we indeed spread some smiles.”

The Buy Back feeds into Goldfish’s wider strategy of finding big moments of joy in the smallest things. These sellers certainly felt that:

🤖 What’s with all these James Franco social posts (and is it AI)?

James Franco is promoting something.

That has to be the only plausible explanation for a series of mysterious TikTok posts what are going live this week.

Under a new account, jamesfranco2319, the actor is teasing that he’s “found something.” James is wearing the same T-shirt in each video, which bares something cryptic on it. In one, banging can be heard at his door.

No one knows wtf is going on. And some people think it’s AI, inspiring Reddit threads. (We don’t think it’s AI.)

The general sentiment around this is, “ah, sure James, we’ll follow along for the ride, but immediately unfollow is the reveal is disappointing.”

So, early success I guess?

@jamesfranco23192319

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

💰 Shopify’s Jessica Williams joins OnePay as CMO

In sneaky-big CMO move news, Jessica Williams has joined OnePay to lead all marketing.

The company has been quietly building out it suite of products for four years, and has suddenly become one of America’s fastest-growing fintech platforms with more than six million monthly active customers and a valuation of around $4B. That’s billion. With a B.

In the years prior, Jessica has led marketing efforts across Visa, Coinbase, and Shopify.

Check out what she has planned for the brand in this interview with Breaking & Entering. 👇

🌶️ Chili’s CMO on how to revive a legacy brand

George Felix is the turnaround king.

The CMO and his entire team are credited with brining Chili’s back from the dead after it turned off all marketing during COVID-19 (while competitors pushed on, creating an immense relevancy deficit for the brand).

But hey, don’t take our word for it just because he’s a client of Mischief. Peep these wild numbers. 👇

🌶️ 19 consecutive quarters of sales growth
🌶️ Same store sales growth of 23.7% in Q4 2025
🌶️ Turnover from $3.8B in 2022 to $5.38B in 2025
🌶️ Operating Margin from 11.9% to 17.6%
🌶️ Marketing Investment from $32M to $137M

Chili’s is the royal flush in turnaround stories, because it’s not just about the marketing (it could never be). Brinker International CEO Kevin Hochman has performed surgery on Chili’s operations with decisions like dramatically slashing menu items and staffing up where it matters to improve customer experience.

It’s not like George suddenly found career fame at Chili’s—the marketer has a long line of brand successes. He was on Old Spice when they turned around the brand with the iconic “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The insight was anchored in knowing that the main buyers of male personal care were women.

If you’ve never listened to Uncensored CMO, then you’re in for a treat. Listen to host Jon Evans and George chat through the revival which is being hailed as one of the greatest turnarounds in US brand history.

🗣️ Ask our ECD & founding partner anything (especially the weird Qs)

Bianca Guimaraes has been put in a dubious position by her PR team.

In Cannes, she will take to the stage with nothing more than a microphone and be grilled by anyone who wants to ask her a question about literally anything.

They say failure to prepare is preparing to fail. This is true. It also makes for great entertainment.

If you’re in Cannes on Wednesday June 24, come ask Bianca a question at 11.30am at the Tubi Cabana.

Prior to that, at 11am, she’ll be chatting with Carley Caldas, who leads marketing at eos, about landing the world’s most effective campaign two years running, in a conversation moderated by Haymarket Media’s Jameson Fleming.

💡 7 decisions agency leaders made to make Mischief, Mischief

Six years ago this week, Mischief was born.

The pandemic start-up of five (all locked away in their homes behind a laptop screen, not actually meeting IRL until a full year into operation) has since grown into a nearly-150 global agency named the World’s Most Effective Independent twice (Effie Awards 2025, WARC 2026).

To celebrate its birthday, the leaders sat down with Campaign US to talk about some of the pivotal decisions they made to help make Mischief, Mischief.

Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO: “Wow, I guess I’ll go back to the beginning, and say naming the agency Mischief. I think names are important. I wanted to set the tone right off the bat. Mischief serves as a filter, an ethos, a guiding star. And it looks good on a t-shirt.”

Kevin Mulroy, ECD and partner: “Never outsourcing our recruiting efforts. It’s not a decision I made on my own, but one that came naturally to me and Bianca. The people we hire shape everything about the agency—the vibe, the tone of the work, the personality. Bianca and I look for talent, of course, but equally important is bringing in people who are too talented to act like assholes.”

Bianca Guimaraes, ECD and partner: “To build an agency that works for the people, instead of asking the people to work for the agency. Most businesses are built around systems. People are expected to adapt to them. Kevin and I tried the opposite. We don’t have rigid rules around who works on what. A lot of the time we let people choose the kinds of projects they want to spend their time on. If a team is happier doing fewer things, we give them fewer things. We let them work on what’s right for them versus what their title says is right. We don’t assume the same structure works for everyone. It sounds chaotic on paper. Sometimes it probably is. But you can never go wrong by doing what’s right for people.”

Kerry McKibbin, president and partner: “Never running our finances from a place of fear. Saying no to revenue if the partnership isn’t right and trusting something else will come. Rejecting traditional pricing, despite being told we’d never be able to compete without it. Being super transparent with senior business leaders because I wanted them to think and act like owners. And nearly every decision I was told would hurt us has become a source of strength. We didn’t follow the old agency playbook, we built a new one.”

Jeff McCrory, CSO and partner: “Choosing to prioritize effectiveness within an agency built around creativity. Being dogmatic about defining success and the metrics that must move to achieve it. At Mischief, the effectiveness of the work is our permission slip to be creative. God that sounds like such an egghead planner’s answer…”

Will Dempster, EVP head of production and partner:“It was almost automatic to hear what couldn’t be done in production if it didn’t fit the traditional mold, no matter how good the creative work was. From day one at Mischief, the decision for production was always filtered through the lens of, ‘What if this could work?.’ Six years later, that still stands tall, supported by a great team of talented producers who will always find a way.”

Oliver McAteer, head of development and partner: “Treat the agency like a brand.”

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

🎯 Mischief named Most Effective Agency in America

🧘 Have we reached peak wellness optimization culture?

🔥 Bring back YOLOMAWMIT

📰 NPR drops latest installment of “For Your Right to be Curious” campaign

📱 Watching influencers fall off the Creator Cliff in real time has become social’s best drama series

🎞 Inside the gritty cyber world of social clip farming and what it means for brands trying to break through

Share

🎯 Mischief named Most Effective Agency in America

⚠️ CAUTION: EXTREMELY SHAMELESS CONTENT ⚠️

Mischief has been named the Most Effective Agency in America.

It has also been named the Most Effective Independent Agency in America.

At the U.S. Effie Worldwide this week, a total of EIGHT Mischief partners (eos, Chili's, JCPenney, Slate Auto, E.L.F. BEAUTY, Coors Light Molson Coors Beverage Company, Tubi, Goldfish The Campbell's Company) were awarded across a record-breaking 15 Effies.

And, for the first time in history, the Iridium—which recognizes the World’s Most Effective Marketing Campaign—was awarded to the same brand and agency two years running: eos Products and Mischief.

It comes after Mischief was crowned the World’s Most Effective Independent Agency by WARC this year, and the same by Effie’s last year.

We’re here to make the biggest impact on business and culture—and we must shamelessly flaunt the receipts to prove it.

In a world dominated by “faster, better, cheaper,” the case for creative effectiveness has never been more important.

Congratulations to all our partners—this is all because of your mindset for the unignorable.

🧘 Have we reached peak wellness optimization culture?

There’s a great line that keeps surfacing in the comments of TikTok and Instagram Reels: “Less Oura. More aura.”

It sums up general sentiment towards wellness optimization culture today, which many believe has reached its peak.

Hitting 10,000 daily steps, tracking sleep, eliminating alcohol, GLP-1-ing ourselves into shapeless oblivion—it feels like every aspect of our lives is being monitored and enhanced to an overwhelming degree.

But the movement of intense maximization may have run its course. Sentiment seemed to finally swing the other way this week as conversation around optimization culture boiled over.

This was sparked by Steven Bartlett, the young entrepreneur and investor whose podcast seems to be every other video on your feed (talk about clip farming—more on that later), who recently revealed on an episode two glasses of wines “ruined three days of my life.”

He said that, after a year of not drinking, embracing a couple of glasses led to a domino affect of poor sleep, eating badly, not working out, and podcasting terribly.

Steven’s being relentlessly mocked for the comments and drawn ire from people who claim fun has been demonized.

The whole thing has cast a magnifying glass over wellness optimization. Many people are asking, so, hang on; if the whole reason for scoring sleep and graphing glucose is to improve our wellbeing, are we actually getting any happier?

According to the data, no, not really.

Global happiness levels, while rebounding since the pandemic, remain below the historic high of 77% reached in 2011, according to IPSOS’ Global Happiness Report. In the U.S. specifically, the country hit a new low in the 2025 World Happiness Report (from Gallup and other partners), ranking 24th—its worst position ever—after falling out of the top 20 for the first time in 2024. IpsosAdvisory

Young people are driving a lot of this decline. Since 2006–2010, there has been a sharp decrease in youth happiness, particularly in North America, where young people are now less happy than the elderly—a complete inversion of the historical pattern. Today’s younger gen report feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices, and less optimistic about their living standards.

It’s a wellness optimization paradox: Never before has health been so measurable—and never before has it felt so psychologically demanding. Wellbeing has shifted from something we feel to something we need to perform correctly.

Professor (and also apparently serial podcast clip farmer) Scott Galloway has an accidental and now viral retort to the Steven Bartlett’s of the world (ironically said on one of Steven’s podcast episodes): Drink more.

“I think young people need to drink more,” he said. “I don’t see drunkenness—I see togetherness. My advice to young people is to go out and drink more and make a series of bad decisions that might pay off. We need more togetherness, more people, more sex, and more random encounters, and absolutely people need to be in the company of strangers more and more.”

Then again, maybe the issue isn’t wellness optimization. Could be the manosphere and brocasting.

🔥 Bring back YOLOMAWMIT

Related to the above, but deserving of its own sub-header: We’ve lost YOLO. Sure, we lost the word to the Millennial cringe graveyard (probably a good thing), but we also lost the serendipity and fun it embodies.

Let’s not bring back YOLO (because it is rightly buried very deep in the Millennial cringe graveyard betwixt “adulting” and, “so, I did a thing…”). Let’s rebirth YOLO 2.0: YOLOMAWMIT.

You only live once, might as well make it tasty.

📰 NPR drops latest installment of “For Your Right to be Curious” campaign

In 2025, U.S. Congress cut more than $1 billion in public media funding, effectively shutting down the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and significantly reducing funding for NPR.

This wasn’t just a budget cut. It was an attempt to silence the voices behind NPR: its newsroom, culture reporting, 240+ Member stations, and 3,000 journalists reaching 99% of Americans.

You can try to silence NPR. But you can’t silence curiosity.

NPR came out swinging in response. It needed to plant a flag in the ground—to remind people why it exists and that it isn’t going anywhere.

So the brand transformed its logo into the words at the heart of journalism: WHY? HOW? WHO? Essential tools of curiosity for every journalist and citizen.

Now, a handful of weeks after launch, it has dropped a new installment of the campaign: A series of videos that bring to life the questions we ask ourselves every day (and the curiosity NPR helps fuel).

The rally cry is working.

In a post-campaign survey, a total of 73 per cent said they believe NPR fights for the public’s right to be curious. Meanwhile, 69 per cent believe NPR’s logo is a symbol of curiosity. Nearly 75% felt NPR is fighting for independent journalism. And after seeing the campaign, 65% said they were more likely to listen to/read NPR.

Most importantly, the initiative turned the NPR logo into a reminder that any attempt to silence curiosity will only inspire more of it.

📱 Watching influencers fall off the Creator Cliff in real time has become social’s best drama series

Have you heard about the Creator Cliff?

It’s that danger zone when people who’ve amassed some sort of notable following on social take a leap into becoming a full-time influencer.

This can go south fast. Hence the name.

The danger being it moves an account away from lovable authenticity to monetizing relatability. Many social users who suddenly turn into creators and leave a corporate 9-5 to “escape the matrix” end up surrendering half their page to brand deals. Ironically, they find themselves trapped in a new kind of matrix where—to go all in on content creation—they’re forced to push products and messages that feel a bit square-peg-round-hole, but might match their former salary to sustain their lifestyle. The result is an online presence that no longer feels authentic nor relatable.

TikTok’s most famed Creator Cliff may be the account “hubs.life,” which follows a guy in his early 30s via day-in-the-life-style videos. He built a huge following of more than 1M on TikTok alone with content anchored in “normalizing the norm.” He celebrated life’s mundane including your average 9-5 job. Then he suddenly quit that job to become a full-time influencer. This U-turn shook his audience. He’s since lost hundreds of thousands of followers and the comments have become a home for backlash.

@hubs.lifeRelax and unwind #ps5 #ghostofyotei

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

But the cliff can be avoided. One of the best examples is Corporate Natalie.

She rose to social fame with relatable work-from-home skits during the pandemic, and parlayed that into a professional content creation business with a full team behind her. Natalie’s niche helps—it’s easier to monetize corporate content than 9-5 DITL content.

This is an underdog who won, and people are still cheering on. She’s among the most in-demand creators of our time. But these stories are becoming harder to find, which might have everything to do with the saturation of social side quests turning into entire careers.

🎞 Inside the gritty cyber world of social clip farming and what it means for brands trying to break through

ICYMI, there are entire internet milking farms that specialize in flooding cyberspace with fake hype content to spur virality of a brand, product, event, film, or artist.

Yeah.

What do you mean you’re surprised that the last thing you watched on social was probably fake?

Okay so this all kicked off back in March when a now-highly-circulated Substack post exposed clip farming rings masquerading as digital ad agencies to manufacture hundreds of fake fan accounts pushing musician hype.

For musicians, it’s a paid media buy. To the consumer, it’s undisclosed ads.

It’s a cheap media buy, too, because posters are paid by the view. This incentivizes them to create the most hooky, brain-rotty, addictive content. The kind of stuff you read about that’s making society dumber and more lonely.

The conversation has since ballooned into a global unmasking of a stealth ad tactics across all kinds of industries slowly turning our feeds into corporate fabrication. Mix this with the rise in gen-AI and we’ve got ourselves the new season of Black Mirror.

The good news is that if you live online, or are somewhat social savvy, this type of content is fairly easy to spot. But the trouble is it usually serves as the kindling to real virality—genuine accounts and fans pick up the hype baton and carry it over an influential edge. Soon enough, the swell of social chatter reaches a point where journalists deem it newsworthy. Then—boom—you’re in GQ Magazine.

So what does this mean for brands trying to break through?

Well, no, you shouldn’t be thinking about a clip farming strategy to manufacture excitement. That is deception. And now that the jig is up, you’re more likely to be caught out.

But let’s say, for argument’s sake, and ignoring the obvious pitfalls, that a brand did want to engage in clip farming. Something that hasn’t been talked about at all is how long this swell of excitement takes to crest. We’re talking hundreds of fake accounts, and tens of thousands of pieces of fake content. It could take weeks or months for that to break through.

Compare this with a smart strategy and an unignorable idea. No hype. Just something that stops you in your tracks and makes either side of the feed disappear altogether. Because it’s anchored in a real human truth. When the stars align with the right creative and a crispy PR plan, you don’t need kindling—it sets culture on fire explosively and immediately (or around 24 to 72 hours after launch, in our experience).

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

📣 📰 REVEALED: The results behind NPR’s “For Your Right to be Curious” Campaign

🐠 🎵 Goldfish’s response to viral jingle was made in 24 hours without any AI

🧳 ✍️ Ad agency new business is new businessing right now—here’s what we’re seeing

🚗 🔋 Slate wins Newsweek’s Marketing Disruptor of the Year

🌝 🍺 Blue Moon beer is turning blue to make up for the blue moon not actually being blue

🤖 👱‍♀️ Why we should think of AI as replacing tasks (not jobs)

Share

📣 📰 REVEALED: The results behind NPR’s “For Your Right to be Curious” Campaign

In 2025, U.S. Congress cut more than $1 billion in public media funding, effectively shutting down the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and significantly reducing funding for NPR.

This wasn’t just a budget cut. It was an attempt to silence the voices behind NPR: its newsroom, culture reporting, 240+ Member stations, and 3,000 journalists reaching 99% of Americans.

You can try to silence NPR. But you can’t silence curiosity.

NPR came out swinging in response. It needed to plant a flag in the ground—to remind people why it exists and that it isn’t going anywhere.

So the brand transformed its logo into the words at the heart of journalism: WHY? HOW? WHO? Essential tools of curiosity for every journalist and citizen.

The campaign brings forward questions—many from listeners—and connects directly to the NPR programs that answer them. The questions are real and urgent to the moment we’re in, from “How does AI affect my electric bill?” to “Why are groceries still so expensive?” to “Why was ICE created?”

It worked.

In a post-campaign survey, a total of 73 per cent said they believe NPR fights for the public’s right to be curious. Meanwhile, 69 per cent believe NPR’s logo is a symbol of curiosity. Nearly 75% felt NPR is fighting for independent journalism. And after seeing the campaign, 65% said they were more likely to listen to/read NPR.

Most importantly, the initiative turned the NPR logo into a reminder that any attempt to silence curiosity will only inspire more of it.

“NPR feeds a basic, but strong human need — curiosity,” said Greg Hahn, co-founder and chief creative officer with Mischief. “NPR’s power lies in the questions that come from our curiosity and the interesting, unexpected ways journalists help answer them. With a simple reframe, we sought to link the iconic NPR brand with the words so often at the initial spark of curiosity.”

The campaign took home Best in Show for PSA at The International Andy Awards in NYC this week.

Taking the stage, NPR CMO Mishka Pitter-Armand stated that genuine human curiosity starts at birth, and raised a glass “to never outgrowing our right to be curious.”

Check out the full case study here. 👇

🐠 🎵 Goldfish’s response to viral jingle was made in 24 hours without any AI

“YOU CHEDDAR BELIEEEVE IT” 🎼

Grammy-winner Durand Bernarr got a lot of attention for making a jingle about Goldfish on the TODAY Show. 👇

So Goldfish responded with this. 👇

And Durand responded to that, in the comments. 👇

The whole thing was a snappy reactive social moment for Goldfish that went from spotting the clip to going live in 24 hours.

Mischief, creative AOR for Goldfish, whipped up a script for approval and leaned on its production studio The Candy Factory to turn around at lightning speed.

The whole thing was made with zero AI. While AI was at our disposal for the Goldfish song, it was important to us to have natural vocals to mirror the authenticity and Durand’s message. He sang: “100% real cheese, not artificial flavors...” Goldfish responded: “100% real talent, no notes out of key...” Having nothing artificial was key.

One of our creatives locked himself away and let his pipes loose. It’s magical to hear. Ear candy of the sweetest order.

🧳 ✍️ Ad agency new business is new businessing right now—here’s what we’re seeing 👇

🚨It’s busy out there. We’re seeing a full spectrum of new business opportunities, from fast projects to consultant-run pitches and everything in between. Our colleagues and counterparts over at other agencies are feeling it too—the landscape is noisy. That’s a good thing. The versatility of prospects is an even better thing.

🔁 More creative and media integration. Brands that have unbundled now want to bundle. Some want it for efficiency plays, but most just get that the wrong media is highly ignorable and the message is the hero.

🤖 AI dominates RFPs. Brands are asking lots of questions about how agencies are using AI. Three main ways stand out:

1. Overall internal work flow that has freed up more time on the client.

2. Cutting production costs.

3. Creating efficiencies in media buying.

The first one is telling of an urgent marketer need right now (next one). Two is extremely misunderstood. Three is a race to the bottom with no winners.

👥 Brands want top talent on speed dial. The majority of approaches we get includes a question about whether or not the team they meet is the team they get. How could it not be? Brands are feeling bait and switched.

💨 Everyone wants to move quick. Some are panicking because stagnation has caught up with them. Others are racing to the next earnings call. But most also understand that, if you have a bigger problem to solve, there is a need to figure out what you’re trying to say before you decide how to say it. And that does need a bit of time to nail.

❗️Marketers are seeking agency help to make a big business impact by making a big cultural impact—fast and collaboratively in a way that positions them as a powerful business transformation partner, not a creative vendor.

✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨

Did you notice that much of this is the same as it’s ever been?

🚗 🔋 Slate wins Newsweek’s Marketing Disruptor of the Year

You know those car ads: The ones where smooth and speedy tires roll down limitless terrain that no one actually drives on; Where that perfect couple accidentally gift each other new SUVs for Christmas with matching giant red bows; Those sleek interior shots showing off imported leather that’ll stay pure for all of three full minutes for any family with kids IRL.

They’re all aspirational. They’re all unobtainable. They’re all so far off from the reality of owning a new car. Which, by the way, has actually become an ultra luxury (can you even think of anyone who recently bought a new vehicle? I can’t. Plus, you’d kinda feel like a fool knowing thousands of dollars get wiped off its value the moment you leave the dealership).

Something had to change the game.

That’s why Slate exists. It’s an electric vehicle, but, honestly, that’s the least interesting thing about it. The car debuts at an extremely accessible price point, and offers a very very long list of accessories. So, you buy it as a blank slate of sorts (see what they did there?), and built to make it your own.

After a lot of hype and some leaked photos that found its way into press (totally not planned, btw), Slate officially revealed itself last year in the most unconventional way.

Given the vehicle can take multiple forms, from two-seater truck to family wagon, Slate appeared in plain sight days before its official launch disguised as unique and eye-catching fake businesses.

A service for human taxidermy? Yeah. Sure—Slate would be perfect for that. A “Cry Share” to help get your baby to sleep? Why not. A witch-on-demand? That too.

The move just won Newsweek’s World’s Greatest Auto Disruptors Marketing Disruptor of the Year.

The marketer behind Slate’s unignorable launch and rise is Ben Whitla. We sat down with him recently to talk all things.

🌝 🍺 Blue Moon beer is turning blue to make up for the blue moon not actually being blue

The next blue moon will occur on May 31 2026. But it won’t actually be blue. So Blue Moon beer is stepping up instead.

From May 29–31, participating bars across the country will serve Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale reimagined for the occasion with a vibrant blue hue, while supplies last.

Check out your nearest establishment here.

“We can’t do much about the color of the moon in the sky, but we can do something about the one in your glass,” said Elizabeth Hitch, VP of Marketing, Above Premium Beer at Molson Coors Beverage Company. “So for one weekend, we’re making Blue Moon, well … actually blue. Consider it us making good on a promise the night sky can never quite keep.”

🤖 👱‍♀️ Why we should think of AI as replacing tasks (not jobs)

By Greg Hahn, co-founder & CCO at Mischief

On one of the gazillion podcasts I regularly listen to (nine podcasts if you don’t count True Crime) I heard a framing around AI that really struck me: “Don’t think of AI as replacing jobs, think of it as replacing tasks.”

That’s a really interesting way to look at it. The question then becomes: what is your job?

As I mentioned in an earlier Ad Age article, the introduction of riflery didn’t necessarily replace the archer. It replaced the archer who saw the job merely as pulling back the bow and releasing an arrow at the target. There is a whole other set of human skills that rely on intuition, judgement and experience that go into being a lethal warrior. Everything else is just mechanics.

If I were to assemble an army to storm something back in the day, I’d go with the person who had “knows what it’s like to fight for your last breath” on their CV.

At a creative agency, I see our job as solving business problems with creativity through a uniquely insightful lens. This comes from information, i.e. facts, data, research, combined with human understanding, gut instinct, and the illogical logic of the surprisingly obvious.

The people who believe AI will replace agencies are placing all the emphasis on the facts, data, research side of the equation. The task oriented side. The side whose primary benefit is efficiency.

Too much of the agency world conversation has become about efficiency. What’s ignored in the boardroom and cocktail conversations about AI replacing ad agencies, are the elements of impact and effectiveness. These are areas where humanity plays the lead.

Recently, I gave AI the writing test Nora Ephron’s high school journalism teacher gave her class.

On the first day of her journalism class, the instructor gave the students a set of facts and asked them to write a headline to the piece.

The facts were these:

The school’s principal announced that the entire faculty would travel to Virginia next Friday for a colloquium on new grading methods, and speakers would include the anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Louis Hall, and the California governor.

I gave AI these facts and asked it to write five different headlines. Here’s what AI returned:

1. Faculty to Attend Virginia Conference on Modern Grading

2. Principal Reveals Faculty Trip Featuring Mead, Hall, and Governor

3. School Faculty Bound for Virginia Colloquium Next Friday

4. Experts to Address Teachers at Virginia Grading Seminar

5. Margaret Mead Among Speakers at Faculty Education Conference

Perfectly acceptable, if you see your job as organizing the facts in a perfectly acceptable form.

But if you see your job as a journalist, as someone who takes the facts and puts them through the lens of a human. One who intuitively interprets the facts and their true meaning in the minds and feelings of your very human audience, you know that the better headline to the Faculty Trip story is:

“There will be no class on Friday.”

Same facts. Entirely different understanding of what matters.

Without looking back, which headline do you remember?

That’s a perfect example of Interpretive Wisdom—a term I just made up.

Interpretive Wisdom comes from millions of years of human evolution, gut instinct, and lived experience.

“Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein was the Doctor. Wisdom is knowing Frankenstein was the monster.” - source unknown.

In a good agency, Interpretive Wisdom is dosed with marketing experience, imagination and discipline.

Informed Interpretive Wisdom, an even more complicated term I just made up, where it gets even more interesting. It’s using all the immense knowledge and efficiency of AI at the beginning to fuel the very human power of strategy and creativity. The result is impact.

That’s the promise of AI: doing the tasks so you can do your job. And that’s what the narrative needs to keep in mind: The difference between a task and our job.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

⚽️ 🍻 How Miller Lite’s MVP Matchball feeds its bigger brand strategy of bringing people together

📺 🔑 Tubi CMO’s 3-step advice on how brands can make unignorable work

🧳 ✍️ New business is new businessing right now for agencies

🦁 🏆 Inside Cannes Lion’s new awards submission process

🤩🤝 Ever wondered what a day in the life of an agency account person looks like?

Share

⚽️ 🍻 You don’t need to be a soccer fan to love Miller Lite’s MVP Matchball

If you’re looking at this and having a hard time comprehending its majesty, that’s understandable. Totally normal when one is met with soul-shattering art. Like Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man by Salvador Dalí (1943), The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (1831), and—now—Miller Time MVP Matchball by Miller Lite.

Yes, this is real. No, you can’t kick it.

This feat of drinking innovation clocks in at about 1.5 times the size of a regulation ball, holds up to 12 Miller Lites, is fully reloadable, and comes with a display stand (because naturally).

“This summer is a massive moment for soccer and beer fans alike,” said Courtney Benedict, Vice President of Marketing, Miller Lite Family of Brands. “As America’s Original Light Beer, Miller Lite was made for moments like this. The Matchball is our way of celebrating and rewarding the fans who bring the traditions and unmatched energy to every watch party…and a soccer ball that fits a 12 pack? That’s just fun!’”

The idea was created in partnership with Mischief, which is celebrating more than five years working with Molson Coors across multiple brands in its portfolio.

Danny O’Connor, Group Creative Director at Mischief @ No Fixed Address, said: “The best soccer fans have a special set of skills to make the most of Miller Time for themselves and others. So just like how MVP players are awarded the match ball after a big game, we want to award these Miller Time MVP fans with a special ball of their own… filled with beer.”

Matchball is part of Miller Lite’s “Legendary Moments Start With a Lite” platform. The brand strategy reminds fans that the best moments aren’t just watched, they’re shared. It’s all about—as Miller Lite ever has been—bringing people together. A strategy that, honestly, feels more needed today in our age of digital distraction.

If the idea feels simple, that’s because it is. Someone once said the best ideas are those that feel obvious only after they’re done.

Miller has worked hard to position itself as the beer that brings people together. Earlier this year, we sat down with Sofia Colucci, CMO at Molson Coors, for an in-depth chat about meeting consumers at occasions and the portfolio’s marketing strategy at large.

Sofia said at the time: “Today, the definition of a ‘great experience’ can be a little unclear. Does it mean engaging with something in person? Following your favorite celeb or TV show? It’s all a little gray. Regardless of channel, we want to find smart ways for our brands show up where our drinkers are. That can be with traditional campaigns, like we’re doing with Miller Lite, or through festivals, events, and our many alliance partners across the world of sports.

“It can also be through the right partners. To many, fandom is an experience. So, it’s all about finding the right fit to bring that to life and translate it into an experience for our followers.”

Only last week, Coors Banquet dropped its latest piece of buzz for fans of the beer and the Yellowstone franchise. It unveiled bottle-opener spurs for those awaiting the release of spin-off Dutton Ranch.

📺 🔑 Tubi CMO’s 3-step advice on how brands can make unignorable work

Nicole Parlapiano, CMO at Tubi, has helped evolve the brand from a little-known app in 2022 to a top streaming platform today with more than 100M monthly viewers.

Here’s her top 3 pieces of advice for creating an environment that allows unignorable marketing work to thrive.

@mischiefusaNicole Parlapiano, CMO at @Tubi, has helped evolve the brand from a little-known app in 2022 to a top streaming platform today with more than 100M monthly viewers. Here’s her top 3 pieces of advice for creating an environment that allows unignorable marketing work to thrive. 1. It’s all about the brief. Spend time on it. Sharpen it. Make sure we’re figuring out what we’re trying to say before we decide how to say it. 2. Ask if a perceived brand weakness can actually be its biggest strength. People thought Tubi’s lack of high-end IP (like headline-making shows) and endless library of content were a barrier to entry. But this is what makes it unique—nowhere on the planet is there a better place to explore your interest-based content niche. Like Stranger Things on Netflix? Cool. Come to Tubi when you’re done and find 71 shows about teenagers on sci-fi adventures in 70s America. 3. Protect the idea. Don’t get tactical too early. Stay in the bigger picture. It’s so easy to think negatively about how legal could kill something. Don’t go there. Nurture early thinking. #ideas #marketing #tubi #cmo #creativity

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

1. It’s all about the brief. Spend time on it. Sharpen it. Make sure we’re figuring out what we’re trying to say before we decide how to say it.

2. Ask if a perceived brand weakness can actually be its biggest strength. People thought Tubi’s lack of high-end IP (like headline-making shows) and endless library of content were a barrier to entry. But this is what makes it unique—nowhere on the planet is there a better place to explore your interest-based content niche. Like Stranger Things on Netflix? Cool. Come to Tubi when you’re done and find 71 shows about teenagers on sci-fi adventures in 70s America.

3. Protect the idea. Don’t get tactical too early. Stay in the bigger picture. It’s so easy to think negatively about how legal could kill something. Don’t go there. Nurture early thinking.

🧳 ✍️ New business is new businessing right now for agencies

Hey, so, it’s busy out there. We’re seeing a full spectrum of new business opportunities, from fast projects to consultant-run pitches and everything in between. Our colleagues and counterparts over at other agencies are feeling it too—the landscape is noisy. That’s a good thing. The versatility of prospects is an even better thing.

It feels like no one trend is ruling. Which is bizarre, because there’s usually some trend the industry get fixated on, especially when it comes to new business: “Pitches are being taken away from consultants and procurement-run!” “It’s moving to project vs AOR!” “The budgets are being slashed!” These things aren’t necessarily true today today. Not right now, at least.

What does remain true: Marketer need for agencies that can make a big business impact by making a big cultural impact—fast and collaboratively in a way that positions them as a powerful business transformation partner, not a creative vendor.

🦁 🏆 Inside Cannes Lion’s new awards submission process

There was some cough drama cough around case studies submitted to Cannes Lions last year. You may remember. For those new here, TL;DR: Cannes Lions is the ad industry’s biggest awards show. It was actually created as an add-on to the Cannes Film Festival (taking place right now). People loved the ads before the movies so much that organizers spun off a whole other event. Pretty cool.

Anyway, last year’s drama centered around fabrication of elements of case studies used to prove out effectiveness of the work entered into awards. Cannes reacted with new rules for submitting, which includes a more rigorous approvals process.

Erica Watts, awards director at Mischief, said: “At Mischief, we’ve always seen awards as a way to show the industry and future partners the real impact creativity can have in solving problems and driving business.

"So we see this added layer of rigor around Cannes this year as a really positive thing for our industry. It reinforces the importance of tangible business metrics as success indicators.

"That said, this year’s process felt pretty cumbersome, especially with the new authorization layer and taking the final brand approvals out of entrants hands. It puts a real burden on agencies already spending a lot of time and money on entries, particularly those without a dedicated awards lead.

"It’s a trade-off between stronger oversight and more coordination. But we see this as just first-year growing pains and we look forward to working with Cannes to help the process get to a more democratic and efficient place.”

🤩🤝 Ever wondered what a day in the life of an agency account person looks like?

Probably not. But let’s pretend you have, and you’re dying to see it. Well, mam, sir—you’re in luck. We present to you The Adventures of Danny Bisson, account executive at Mischief.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, partner and head of development at Mischief

✍️ Unpacking the long-term brand strategy that has eos winning with Gen Z

🍨 Rula & Van Leeuwen turn ice cream into actual therapy

👂 Top CMO’s advice on how to unlock very brave brand marketing ✅

💻 Have you heard of screeshing? ✅

📱 Facebook is reachmaxxing and suddenly a boon to creators and brands everywhere ✅

🤠 These Coors Banquet x Dutton Ranch spurs are the only fashion item you should be concerning yourself with right now

🏆 Adweek 100 Rising Stars work at Mischief and we’d like to brag about it

Share

✍️ Unpacking the long-term brand strategy that has eos winning with Gen Z

“Winning the Iridium Effie once is an extraordinary achievement—winning it twice is a rare demonstration of sustained effectiveness at the highest level,” said Traci Alford, Global CEO of Effie Worldwide, who bestowed the world’s most effective campaign award upon eos last week.

She continued: “eos and Mischief @ No Fixed Address have created work that not only disrupts and resonates, but continues to deliver measurable impact over time. It is a powerful example of how creativity and effectiveness, when aligned, can drive enduring business success.”

Never before in the Effie’s history has a brand and agency won the Iridium back-to-back. Judge’s lauded eos’ fan-led strategy, unignorable voice, and ability to smartly outshout competitors with bigger wallets.

“It was the strongest example of consumer centricity that we saw,” said Barbara Asin, CMO of McDonald’s Latin America and Iridium jury Co-Chair. “They were up against major competitors with significantly larger media investments, and yet still, they were the ones who succeeded in doubling penetration and increasing the market share over time.”

We break down eos’ long-term, brand-building success below. And in a separate post, we chat with Carley Caldas, SVP, Marketing & Creative at eos, to unpack how her team helps create a safe place for these dangerous ideas to thrive.

But here’s a cool video if you don’t feel like reading a lot of words:

The Opportunity

eos (evolution of smooth) wanted to revolutionize the dated shaving category and capture a whole new generation of young women.

The Insight

Polite, precious and utterly unhelpful—the women’s shaving category was ridiculously disconnected from women’s shaving reality. Let’s get real about shaving and hair…everywhere.

The Solution

Start an on-going honest, raw, fun and useful conversation about shaving inspired by what women actually need.

The Results

• #1 Shave cream brand in unaided awareness among Gen Z women

• Doubling of eos’ entire shave cream business

• eos’ dramatic rise accounted for half of total category growth in 2022 (making it the fastest growing women’s shave cream brand)

• Total sell-out in Target stores across the U.S. after being #1 shave cream brand of choice for women and men

Some fun eos has had in recent years includes that time it invited people to donate their pubes with “Pubes for the Planet”:

And “Vagnastics”—a new workout sweeping the nation:

Then, of course, “Bless Your F******* Cooch”:

And then “Skin So Soft, Even Soft Things Think it’s Soft”:

How about “Smoothness When You Need it Most”:

Don’t forget about the time eos made commuters think about their HR person’s hooha hair:

And then when eos wanted to talk about another one of its products—Natural Lip Balm—it gave people the chance to redo their first kiss the way they imagined it:

Speaking of other products, eos recently went big with a new line of body wash, and these brave marketers recruited the world’s harshest critics to test it out:

Then went into body mist that smells so good you might mistake it for cake:

And had fun with it on the Super Bowl stage this year:

Share

🍨 Rula & Van Leeuwen turn ice cream into actual therapy

Introducing Therapy in a Pint: Now with chunks of self-reflection.

Behavioral health platform Rula and Van Leeuwen has teamed up to turn ice cream into literal therapy.

These limited-edition tubs are available from select Van Leeuwen store across the country for May Mental Health Awareness Month. There was also a mobile truck that saw to a huge line in NYC’s FiDi this week.

The pints are empty, save for a QR code to redeem a therapy session from Rula. (And, of course VL will serve up a scoop of your favorite flavor.)

It’s a collab that fuels Rula’s brand platform, which is all about how getting access to affordable and quality mental health care is easier than talking yourself out of it.

This activation comes swiftly after Rula launched its debut campaign with Mischief (we serve as their creative and media AOR).

👂 Top CMO’s advice on how to unlock very brave brand marketing

Receive this sweet ear candy curtesy of Marisa Thalberg—a top marketer behind some of the world’s most unignorable and effective brand work for companies including Taco Bell, Lowe’s, and JCPenney.

Her advice for achieving successful outcomes to chewy business challenges is simple to say but harder to do in practice: Asking questions that reframe how one would approach the problem.

Nice.

💻 Have you heard of screeshing?

It’s short for screen sharing. Like, “hey, can’t talk right now—I’m screeshing.” Which feels only marginally shorter than spelling out “screen sharing,” and a lot longer than using “SS.” But you do your thing corporate America.

📱 Facebook is reachmaxxing and suddenly a boon to creators and brands everywhere

Did you hear about this? People are saying Meta is juicing the Facebook algo to increase user reach. The reality, however, is more nuanced.

What Meta has actually done over the past 12–18 months is heavily rework Facebook’s recommendation and ranking systems using AI. The result is some creators and brands are seeing dramatically higher reach while others are seeing organic reach collapse. That’s because follower count matters less than content performance.

The biggest shift is that Facebook now behaves much more like TikTok: Content is distributed based on predicted engagement, not just who follows you.

Late last year, as Facebook was tuning up its AI-driven recommendations, the platform said it saw a 7% lift in organic feed/video views.

Meanwhile, Facebook launched its “Creator Fast Track,” which literally gives selected creators boosted reach on eligible Reels.

Something more mechanical and simple is happening, too: We opened our Instagram app the other day to be met with a notification that asked if we wanted to duplicate-post every Insta Reel to our Facebook page, with just one toggle. This set-and-forget switch is surely causing a deluge of Facebook content.

But reach is increasingly uneven.

Facebook is rewarding short-form video/Reels, original content, watch time, shares/sends, comments with conversation, fast early engagement and retention.

It is suppressing reposted content, engagement bait, link-heavy posts, low-retention videos, generic brand creative, and corporate-looking content.

This might explain why some marketers think Facebook reach is back, while others feel like organic distribution has died.

For brands specifically:

• Organic reach for polished brand pages is still generally weaker than it was years ago.

• But personality-driven content, founder content, creator partnerships, and entertaining Reels can suddenly scale very hard.

• Facebook is rewarding content that feels like creator media more than traditional advertising.

This is good news if you’re in the business of creating something original and unignorable.

Share

🤠 These Coors Banquet x Dutton Ranch spurs are the only fashion item you should be concerning yourself with right now

There’s no wrong way to open a beer, but this feels like the right way from now on.

Coors Banquet and Dutton Ranch present: Earn Your Spurs. The only spurs built for cowboys, and cowboy fans.

This is the latest in a series of collabs with the Yellowstone franchise. A little while back, Coors Banquet dedicated the inside of its tops to episode recaps to build hype for a new season.

@mischiefusaThere is only one way to get ready for the return of @Yellowstone: Coors Banquet Recaps. #yellowstone #coors #coorsbanquet #recaps #dutton #duttonranch

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

🏆 Adweek 100 Rising Stars work at Mischief and we’d like to brag about it

Nithya Charles & Henry Coffey
Junior Art Director & Junior Copywriter, Mischief @ No Fixed Address

Already stars: Landing at Mischief straight out of ad school in April 2025, this duo had already racked up the awards. Henry Coffey’s Brandcenter at VCU team were the first to win two Black Pencils at the D&AD New Blood Awards for “Ads for Rats,” while Nithya Charles won a Young Ones Gold Pencil for a gamified online stunt for Subway, as well as a D&AD New Blood Pencil for Yahoo’s “No Exclamation Needed,” which called out gendered expectations around professionalism.

Hit the ground running: Their first brief became the viral Capri Sun Solstice Pouch with 974 million total impressions and 331 earned media placements. Then in October, they created an ‘80s-infused throwback national commercial for Outback Steakhouse with a jingle lauded across the ad industry.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

Greg Stuart started talking well before he emerged on stage.

He was already halfway through his second sentence when he appeared in a nice white two-piece suit ensemble in the little doorway cut into the digital backdrop that would frame all talks happening at POSSIBLE in Miami this week.

“Why not?” Greg, CEO at Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA), asked an audience of hundreds. It was rhetorical. No one answered.

An AI video of a superhero-clad marketer standing in a boardroom played on two giant screens next to him. He was making a point about why most CMOs don’t get a major seat at the CEO table to help drive real business decisions. (That’s kind of counter to what we know about our own clients’ intimate involvement with company leadership, but let’s allow it for the sake of good storytelling.)

“If growth is the focus—and it is—and marketing is the growth engine, this should not even be a debate. Yet it appears that it is,” said Greg.

He went on to point fingers at trust: “Trust in marketing has always been fragile. Now I realize that’s uncomfortable and I don’t know that I necessarily like to come up here and say that to a room full of marketers, but if I asked you to reflect for a moment, it might be the best news I could share today.”

Share

This isn’t new for Greg. Opening the conference—now in its fourth year—with provocation has become his POSSIBLE brand.

In its debut year, he declared marketing is where the medical profession was in the mid-1800s. The following year, Greg said marketers were too busy to do better—drowning in deliverables and moving too fast to stop and ask, “is this the most powerful way to drive the business?” Last year, he claimed marketing actually isn’t a profession at all. Meaning, marketers are not educated in the same way other professions like architects and doctors and engineers are.

TL;DR: Marketers are Medieval, too busy to fix it, and not really a true profession after all.

“I’m as shocked as you are that I get invited back,” he quipped, to unison chortles.

This year he had a different message: Marketing is no longer opinion. Marketing works. And we’ve got the goods to prove it—prove that powerful strategy and original creativity can solve real business problems and drive companies forward. Yas Greg, go off king.

Greg displayed a slide that showed how effective marketing can increase a company’s market cap by more than 20%.

“So. The future of marketing is in your hands. That’s the good news everyone,” Greg closed abruptly and sauntered off stage carrying the same mystic with which he arrived.

It was a positive and energizing warrior cry for the industry at large.

And in the days that followed, a series of talks would ride this wake across Miami’s glamorous (and outrageously expensive) Fontainebleau and Eden Rock hotels. It’s the first time POSSIBLE sprawled itself out to a neighboring hotel, owing to the explosion in attendees—around 7,000 this year up from 5,500.

The extra space didn’t do much to spread out the throng of conference-goers, though. The main lobby areas were like a nightclub from your early 20s and at one point I counted 51 people in line for a coffee. (I was one of them.)

Food was few and far between, too. Chez Bon Bon, a tiny cafe that offered the only real grab-and-go option must have done a year’s business in three days. Good quality, it must be said. I enjoyed a chicken wrap and chocolate-covered nuts (the only items left) for a princely $57, post-tip.

The main expo was overstimulation final boss: Robots giving out merch, backpacks with screens rolling ads, panels taking place in hallways. It. Was. A. Lot.

Share

Content at POSSIBLE covered everything from AI’s impact on advertising to the creator economy, and media’s shifting landscape to big creativity.

Mischief took the main stage at Inspiration Hall with our partners JCPenney and Tubi to talk about how the riskiest thing a brand can do today is be ignorable. 🚨 Self-glaze alert 🚨

In a conversation with Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi CMO, Marisa Thalberg, EVP, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, Greg Hahn, Co-Founder and CCO at Mischief, moderated by Jon Evans of Uncensored CMO, we unpacked the mechanics of building multi-year, long-term brand platforms for unignorable creative that drives business.

One idea that emerged from this session was the importance of playing angel’s advocate. Greg said: “We have a phrase at Mischief: Play the angel’s advocate. In that first round, don’t find reasons why something’s not great or legally bad—find ways to make it work.”

There’s tons of content around the session on our social channels if you’re keen to learn more. (Watch it all now if you wanna be cool.)

Outside of those weirdly-large conference rooms, POSSIBLE told a different story. One of less creativity and consumer brands, and more of ad tech. Pop-ups and cabanas for DSPs, SSPs, DMPs and other unrelatable acronyms swallowed hotel pools. You had to feel sorry for the sunbathers and families whose vacations were shared with cackling bros and unwieldy lanyards.

POSSIBLE’s perception challenge is that it is an ad tech event. The reality is different. You just have to see past the sponsorship banners housing more than 100 software tool companies you’ve likely never heard of. Ad tech’s not the problem, though. I’d say its lack of integration with the conference’s creative side is. At worst it feels like they’re competing. But these are kinks that’ll be worked out with each year.

Ad tech’s dominance is reflected in the attendee make up, of which just 32% are marketers. We believe that number to be inclusive of creative and media agencies, too. So the amount of actual brand marketers in the room is dwarfed by any other bucket of conference goers.

On the beach, a huge battery farm-style space housed tables and chairs for speed-dating meets. I met a guy who said he’d buy me champagne if he closed a deal in that bull pen. I never saw him again. And I wasn’t in the mindset of paying $34 for a glass.

Over on the west side of South Beach were a row of super yachts luring people at night with its ad tech bioluminescence.

Notably absent from the week were celebrities and creators. Which was refreshing. A small handful of the latter, ones focused on the advertising sector, showed up for the first time to see what POSSIBLE was all about.

“I’m impressed, it’s spread out but also very contained in a good way—I’m liking it so far,” said Ashley Rutstein, of Stuff About Advertising. “I heard it was an ad tech conference so I was expecting it to not feel as creative—but it is. It kind of feels like a nice chill Cannes.”

The likeness to Cannes is something we heard a lot. We overheard many other things, too. Mainly stuff that had nothing to do with POSSIBLE itself, but the fanfare around it.

There’s no doubt about it: POSSIBLE’s popularity has exploded and its steep rise in such a short space of time from industry newbie to tentpole event is undeniably impressive. And it shows no sign of slowing down. On opening day, the president revealed plans for POSSIBLE Europe, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2027.

It’s quickly beginning to feel like one of those permanent annual calendar holds—not for the content, and not for the opportunity to buy or sell, and not even for the Miami heat. But for the connection.

As trite as it sounds, the real value of POSSIBLE is being with a lot of great people all at once, in person.

I don’t think the industry truly found its IRL event footing again after the pandemic. So much of our lives have since shifted permanently online. It makes these moments of connection more scarce, sacred and important.

Through the noise of DSPs, AI, and efficiencies, POSSIBLE inadvertently reminds us all of the real reason this industry is so special: The people.

And if that costs you a $57 sandwich and some chocolate-covered nuts, then it’s a bargain.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, Head of Development and Partner at Mischief

Share

Subscribe now

👽 If aliens exist, I promise they don’t look like Gen Z

👶 Huggies imagines every public surface as a changing table in new campaign

🏆 ANDY Awards live judging is the closest thing we have to advertising reality TV

🧾 It’s that time of year to file your Goldfish parent taxes

🎯 Mischief partners land 15 Effie Awards for most effective marketing

😱 Who hid human-sized cutouts of our creatives all over the office for jump scares?

👽 If aliens exist, I promise they don’t look like Gen Z

By Kevin Mulroy, founding partner and ECD at Mischief

I’m a little worried Gen Z won’t like this article. They like the punchline in the first three seconds. They only read articles recommended by influencers. They probably won’t think it’s written sustainably enough.

No way they made it this far with those miniscule attention spans, what with the social media and video games.

I wonder if I should ask Gen Z what they like before I start writing. Go straight to the source. God I am so inconsiderate (how Gen X can I get). Does anyone know how to Survey Monkey 70 million people?

Here’s the good news about Gen Z: they are not the impenetrable alien species we need to study in a lab to understand. Here’s the bad news: the Gen Z experts you’re paying to tell you “what Gen Z likes” are largely full of shit.

Early in my career, the seemingly inscrutable generation was the Millennials. We spoke about this generation as if it were a giant, monolithic, multi-tentacled advertising repellant built to destroy the auto industry (they don’t buy cars!) and poison the workforce (they’re lazy!). Marketers and consultants were all Amy Adams in Arrival, staring gape-mouthed at the creature behind the glass, scrawling onto a marker board “what…makes…you…laugh.”

Then, like magic, all the characteristics attributed en masse to Millennials were transferred to Gen Z. They have no attention span! They all need participation trophies! They don’t buy cars! This undying human habit has more to do with older generations dumping on the youth than offering insight into any specific generation. Consider this searing rebuke of the younger generation: “They are always reckless…their minds are unstable, and they are quick to follow desire.” Sound familiar? It was written by Euripides in 428 BC.

In Bobby Duffy’s book, the Generation Myth, he makes the argument that humans share more characteristics based on shared cultural events (WWII, Civil Rights, the Pandemic), or geography (consider the values of a 19 year old in Shreveport vs San Francisco) than birth year. And when you step out of the hypnotic glow of marketing consultants, it seems silly to think otherwise. As Duffy puts it, “While most people would feel uncomfortable saying that older people can’t concentrate, that Black people are cynical, or that women are addicted to praise, it’s acceptable to brand entire generations with the same attributes.”

Yes but what about those attention spans? Gen Z hates ads. Guess what, so do I, and I make them for a living. But I love great ads, and so does everyone else. People like what entertains them. Consider Ad Age’s recent reporting of Gen Z’s reaction to Hellman’s Super Bowl commercial this year, featuring a spoof of an 85 year old musician’s song, that was released 57 years ago, starring a 47 year old comedian:

“I am a certified mayonnaise hater personally but this is one of the best ads I’ve seen in a hot minute. The nostalgic pull paired with the fun cameos was so well done and the branding was absolutely incredible.”

Followed by:

“This bit is SO funny to me because they took a song beloved by everyone and genuinely made it work for all audiences. It’s pure nostalgia and energy. For sure will go down as one of my favorite Super Bowl spots of all time.”

Followed by:

“Humor of this video feels geared towards Millennials and Gen X.”

Huh. It’s almost like they’re individual humans, with different tastes, who like what they like.

In fact the only sweeping generalization you could probably make about the 70 million members of Gen Z is they are lousy at self-reporting, with well-documented gaps between intent and action, just like the rest of us. If someone asked whether you care about the environment in a survey, what would your answer be? Does that mean you’re taking a rickshaw down to Daytona Beach for spring break? Of course not.

That would be so Gen Alpha.

Share

👶 Huggies imagines every public surface as a changing table in new campaign

My kid is just coming out of the diaper years. We tried all the diapers. Like, all of them. Huggies was superior by a mile.

It has a cheeky little poop pocket (not TM, not real innovation name), that secures even the gnarliest of blowouts.

Huggies always gave me the confidence to venture outside of our four walls which, you know, is a big mental load when you’re a new parent.

And when you’ve got that confidence, you start seeing the world differently. Like-every-public-surface-could-be-a-table differently.

Mischief @ No Fixed Address worked with Huggies to bring a universal insight to life in a debut campaign together.

Thanks for everything, Huggies.

Share

🏆 ANDY Awards live judging is the closest thing we have to advertising reality TV

Every year, adland’s top agency creatives gather in a palatial room somewhere exotic (this year Spain) and livestream themselves judging campaign work.

It’s the closest thing this industry has to reality TV. A bit low on the drama. But still fun in an anything-can-happen kinda way.

Nothing happened.

The work was cool to see though. Give it a watch if you need to remind yourself why you’re in this business.

In the meantime, here’s a screen shot of Bianca Guimaraes, Mischief founding partner and ECD, talking about the importance of having a powerful idea over craft (in a world where high craft has suddenly become more democratized with gen-AI).

🧾 It’s that time of year to file your Goldfish parent taxes

Now a totally real thing: Parents can file their Goldfish taxes to see how much they owe their kids—and get free crackers if a return is due.

Goldfishparenttax.com invited parents everywhere to file on April 15. It plays on the universal insight that we’ll generally slip a couple of cheeky snacks we’re shelling them out to kids.

People loved it. Literally.

🎯 Mischief partners land 15 Effie Awards for most effective marketing

Mischief is here to make an impact.

On business.

On culture.

On history.*

We're very proud and other LinkedIn words to have earned 15 Effie Worldwide awards with eight of our partners in Chili's, Tubi, JCPenney, The Campbell's Company, Slate Auto, Molson Coors Beverage Company, eos Products and E.L.F. BEAUTY.

Check out the full list of this past year’s most effective marketing. The top tier winners will be announced at an event in late May.

Mischief recently unpacked its Tubi case study in long-term brand-building. Check out the deets here.

*We don't dream small

😱 Who hid human-sized cutouts of our creatives all over the office for jump scares?

Yeah this should have been an internal email but we’re gonna air our dirty laundry.

Who did this? What it someone in production? Feels like production. Who else would know where to procure card of this quality? (It holds strong in the AC breeze.)

K thanks bye

By Oliver McAteer, partner and head of development at Mischief

Anyway here’s what’s happening in our made up industry this week:

📰 Ad Age Editor-in-Chief on its evolving content strategy to help “shape” (not just document) the marketing industry

🤖 OpenAI didn’t buy TBPN for its tech media platform

🌎 Artemis II is the greatest PR for world peace in recent years

📣 Advice for young creatives navigating production today

🎯 Mischief’s Bianca Guimaraes on her career, how to make culture, and the power of strategy

👩‍💼 Mischief president named to inaugural Adweek Agencies Vanguard list

💡 The riskiest (and most expensive) thing your brand can do is be ignorable

📰 Ad Age Editor-in-Chief on its evolving content strategy to help “shape” (not just document) the marketing industry

Exciting time to be an ad trade. Important time to be an ad trade. Actually, thinking about it, surely the most important time to be an ad trade.

Never before has our industry seen such swooping and pointed attacks on its relevance. Creativity is taking fire from a chorus of “better, faster, cheaper.” Juniors are entering adland with headlines hanging over them about how AI could do their jobs. An ocean of technological slop has flooded our lives with noise.

Yet, never before has creativity been more needed.

It’s an ad trade’s job to—not just hold our sector and its people accountable—but champion creativity as the true antidote to business challenges. Because marketing done right has the power to cut through that noise and supercharge sales, change brand perception, and tip share price.

As Ad Age nears its 100th birthday, the publication faces an evolution of its own, fueled by an explosion in communication platforms and others using them to report on ad news. To that end, the stalwart recently launched its Substack. But this is just one tool to help service a greater mission of helping shape the marketing industry, versus just documenting it.

We caught up with Jeanine Poggi, Editor-in-Chief at Ad Age. Jeanine has risen through the ranks over nearly 15 years, starting as a TV reporter.

Adland isn’t the only industry undergoing immense transformation. The way in which people get their news has been shifting for some time. How is Ad Age managing its content strategy to stay relevant—and what critical role is this nearly-100-year-old stalwart playing today?

We’re focused on being indispensable, not just informative. That means going deeper on insight, being more useful and building a real connection with our audience at different stages of their careers.

Ad Age has always documented the industry. Today, we’re also helping shape it through our reporting, our events, our data and our community. Trust is our currency, and that matters more than ever.

A brand new Substack is part of the above. Tell us about it. Why Substack and how will it be different to the website, print and social verticals of Ad Age?

Substack gives us a more direct, personal connection with readers. It’s less about scale and more about voice and intimacy.

It’s different from the website because it’s more perspective-driven, faster and more conversational. And different from social because you actually own the relationship with the audience.

There’s been an explosion in creator-led channels discussing all things adland. Do you think today’s journalists have no choice NOT to be camera shy and get in on this action?

You don’t have to be everywhere, but you do have to meet audiences where they are. The best journalists today aren’t just reporters—they’re translators, curators and, in some cases, personalities. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to be on camera, but being adaptable is now a critical part of the job.

So you’ve been at this for a while. Like around-15-years-a-while. What is the one thing with the marketing industry you’ve seen not change in that time? And, on the flip side, what has been its biggest change?

The thing that hasn’t changed is that this is still a relationship business. You can layer on all the data, AI, platforms, but at the end of the day, decisions still come down to trust. Between clients and agencies, between CMOs and their teams, even between brands and consumers.

The biggest change is fragmentation—of media, of attention, of culture. There’s no longer a center of gravity. That’s forced marketers to operate in a much more fluid, real-time way, but it’s also made it harder to build anything that lasts.

Favorite marketing move of all time?

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign. Because they stuck with it. They built a platform, not a moment, and that consistency is what gave it credibility

Okay. What’s your real take on holding companies versus independents? The industry loves to pit them against each other. The reality is more nuanced.

The industry loves a clean narrative here, but it’s not that simple. Holding companies offer scale, resources, and increasingly, strong data and tech capabilities. Independents offer speed, focus and often better creative environments.

What I’m seeing is that clients don’t actually care about the structure, they care about outcomes. They want flexibility, accountability and access to senior talent. The winners are the ones who can deliver that consistently, regardless of model.

What are you hearing from CMOs that you weren’t a year ago?

What I’m hearing now, much more than a year ago, is less about marketing itself and more about the realities of the job.

CMOs aren’t asking for more inspiration or campaign breakdowns — they’re asking for help navigating how their role is changing in a very real, operational way. Things like how to structure teams in an AI-driven world, what they should actually own across the business, how to work with the CFO or show up in the boardroom and how to prepare the next generation of leaders.

Overall, it feels like the conversation has moved from “what’s next for marketing” to “how do I actually do this job right now.”

Speaking of CMOs, that’s a role in constant flux—what does it take to be one in today’s world in your opinion?

You have to be part strategist, part operator, part translator. You’re translating marketing’s value to the CFO, to the CEO, to the board.

You also need a tolerance for ambiguity. The playbook changes constantly, and you don’t always have perfect data. The best CMOs I talk to are comfortable making decisions without complete certainty and standing behind them.

And what do you see marketers needing from their agencies today that may not have been the case a few years ago?

Models that are working are flexible by design. The idea of a static AOR relationship is evolving.

What marketers need now is integration without friction. They don’t want to manage five different partners who don’t talk to each other. They also need partners who understand their business. not just their brand, and can move quickly.

What is your favorite showcase of AI in marketing (not workflows—real work) that has a tangible, outsized impact on client business?

One of the most interesting responses to AI right now is actually brands choosing not to use it, at least in certain areas. Aerie is a good example, continuing to emphasize un-retouched imagery and real people.

In a moment where everything can be generated, authenticity becomes a differentiator. That’s not a rejection of technology but a strategic choice about where it belongs. And in some cases, that restraint can have just as much impact on the business.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

It was early in my career, when I was interviewing for an internship at WWD on the financial desk. I had never taken a business class and didn’t even know what an earnings report looked like. I was very honest about that in the interview, and the editor—who later became my manager—told me not to focus on what I didn’t know.

He said that as a journalist, much of what we cover will be unfamiliar, and what matters most is the willingness to learn and stay curious.

That’s the advice I still carry with me—and I think it’s more important than ever: stay curious and keep asking questions.

The one question we didn’t ask by wish we had (and the answer):

What worries you most about where the industry is headed?

That we optimize everything to the point where we lose originality. There’s so much focus on what works that we risk losing what’s interesting. And in the long run, the brands that win are the ones that people actually care about, not just the ones that perform well in a dashboard.

🤖 OpenAI didn’t buy TBPN for its tech media platform

Instead, it bought the founders and hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays because they know how to tell a compelling story.

Technology can do a lot. But it’ll always need humans to sell it.

At least, this is the positive lens we’re reading this news through.

Just before the Easter break, The Wall Street Journal broke that TBPN had been acquired by OpenAI. This is the hottest show in the tech world right now. It only started in 2024, and is a pretty formulaic, hosting three-hour lives most days with tech’s most prominent figures. John and Jordi come from the Silicon Valley start-up/investor world, so were naturally armed with a thick rolodex which instantly drew top guests.

It’s niche, fast-paced, hyper-digital news delivery. And what’s obvious is how much the hosts love their industry.

Sounds like a couple of guys we know in the ad industry.

Okay, we’re just gonna say it: This is like Omnicom buying Breaking and Entering Media.

🌎 Artemis II is the greatest PR for world peace in recent years

Interstellar fly-bys, moon crater measurements, scientific observation mission. Yeah. Sure. You keep telling yourself that, pal.

The longer Artemis II is in space, the more we’re convinced this is actually a PR stunt for world peace.

And it’s working.

Pilot Victor Glover spoke with CBS News' Mark Strassmann about Easter Sunday and what that means to him when looking at the Earth from space.

It’s going viral for all the right reasons. (We need more of those kinds of reasons.)

📣 Advice for young creatives navigating production today

Below is an excerpt from Little Black Book coverage of this new event series. Hit here to read the whole thing.

The PrePros is a new cross-agency event series focused on helping young creatives better understand the production process. Founded by creatives Rachel Frederick and Patrick Burke, its first session took place last week at Mischief’s New York office, bringing together voices from across the process—from agency production leads to editors, directors, and producers.

LBB> Where do you think the industry is currently falling short in how it prepares creatives for production?

Bianca> We’re focused on teaching concepting, craft, and taste. But production, the part where ideas actually live or die, is still treated like a downstream skill. A big part of it is structural: budgets are tighter, so you can’t afford to send multiple creatives to set, which means junior talent misses out on the moments where you actually learn how things get made. Timelines are so compressed that there’s less room for learning on the job. Everything has to move fast, with the most experienced people making the calls.

Read more in LBB.

🎯 Mischief’s Bianca Guimaraes on her career, how to make culture, and the power of strategy

How brands show up in culture comes down to two steps:

1. Figure out what to say (strategy).

2. Decide how to say it in the most interesting way (original creativity).

Thought Mischief’s Bianca Guimaraes did a good job of explaining this as a mariachi band started celebrating someone’s birthday in the background.

Listen to this sweet ear candy on The Ad Podcast with Dylan Conroy.

Bonus content 👇

👩‍💼 Mischief president named to inaugural Adweek Agencies Vanguard list

Check out how Adweek describes this list—it’s almost Marvel-ish.

“The most impactful agency executives are a force of nature, powering their employees and organizations to new heights while being an indispensable font of ideas for their clients.

“From prioritizing office culture to scoring big wins for clients, these C-suite stars are setting the standard for effective leadership and paving the way for the next generation.

“They are the Agencies Vanguard.

“Our inaugural list features the standout leaders, advocates, and growth drivers in an industry landscape that demands bold action every day.”

Then call Mischief President & Partner Kerry McKibbin the superhero of cashflow, culture, and biz-ness.

She’s the reason behind strong operations that are fueling standout creativity. Kerry’s helped drive 22% year-over-year revenue growth in 2025, with 16 new business wins, all without a pitch.

Meanwhile, client retention hit over 90%, while staff retention reached 88%—rare stability in a volatile market.

For Kerry, disciplined business management isn’t separate from the work—it’s what enables smarter risks, stronger partnerships, and creative that delivers.

💡 The riskiest (and most expensive) thing your brand can do is be ignorable

That’s the name of a panel happening at POSSIBLE in Miami at approximately 3:15pm on April 27.

Be there. Or be a rhombus.

It’s a conversation with Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi CMO, Marisa Thalberg, EVP Chief Customer & Marketing Officer, Greg Hahn, Co-Founder & CCO at Mischief, hosted by Jon Evans, Founder of Uncensored CMO. Here’s what they’re talking about 👇

What’s the riskier move: Spending millions of dollars on something people ignore? Or taking a chance on something that causes a stir but gets people talking? It’s never been harder to breakthrough and easier to fall into the trap of safety. These marketers chew over the ingredients that go into the right kind of risk that pays off in a big way.

Now feels like a good time to focus on why we (the collective “we”) are here in the first place. Because (what with all the “faster-better-cheaper” AI propaganda, mass agency consolidations, and big data efficiency talk flying around), the value of creativity has never been more scrutinized.

Marketing—creativity—done right and well, moves business. It drives sales, tips share price, increases subscribers, changes perception, solves a problem. And this at scale is the engine that turns a family wagon into a super car.

This week, we wanted to take a closer look at a long-term brand-building case that does just that.

Share

📺 Unpacking Tubi’s multi-year marketing playbook that helped make it a billion dollar brand

💡 What inspires Mischief ECD & partner Bianca Guimaraes about advertising in 2026

🌡️ Ad agency new business tempt check

🎥 “The room had so much soul”: Free production series debuts for adland’s young professionals

🤖 Why everyone is suddenly a salesperson for Claude Cowork

🚪Tales from an ad agency storage closet

📺 Unpacking Tubi’s multi-year marketing playbook that helped make it a billion dollar brand

Got a spare ten? Sure you do. What else are you up to. Take a gander at the above. We’re inviting you behind the scenes of Tubi’s majestic long-term brand strategy that has taken it from little-known app in 2022 to a top streamer today. (Plus, you get to see what our new business deck looks like, and that’s kinda top secret stuff.)

❗️PROBLEM: WTF is Tubi? In a crowded streaming category with minimal differentiation, no one had a clue what the offbeat streaming platform was, let alone what it had to offer.

🕵️‍♀️ INSIGHT: In a streaming category reliant on the prestige of its titles, Tubi needed a different way to win. With 300,000+ movies, TV shows and other titles—dwarfing other streamers by a mile—Tubi isn’t necessarily the place for the hot new show. It’s the place for unparalleled exploration of interest-based content.

Meanwhile, society is moving away from monoculture. The fragmentation of media and entertainment has minimized moments of shared culture and edged us to a place of content hyper-personalization.

💡 SOLUTION: Tubi has everything for someone. It’s about falling down the rabbit hole of hyper-niche content that feels specific to you.

If it’s In You, It’s In Here.

This multi-year platform is the north star that unites creative across Tubi’s key verticals in B2C to introduce the brand to the world…

…B2B (with a film series only marketers would understand)…

…Sports to remind fans Tubi’s there when the game ends…

…The long-awaited UK launch of Tubi…

…Reminding people of a major product benefit…

…And another…

…B2C again to double-down on who you are as a brand…

…Like, really double-down in a way that signals to advertisers that Tubi's playing in the big boy/girl leagues now with giant partnerships…

…B2B again when you need to hammer home why brands should be advertising on Tubi…

…Because FOMO is very much alive and well for those who don’t…

How many verticals can ladder up to one uniting brand platform and creative message:

📈 RESULTS:

• Record high monthly active users, surpassing 100M for the first time this year.

• One billion hours of total viewing time.

• Share of total TV viewership more than doubled since February 2023, resulting in a +120% increase and outpacing the +34% growth in the overall streaming category.

• Tubi accounted for 2.2% of total TV viewing time across all platforms and cable in January 2026, according to The Gauge report from Nielsen.

• +600% increase in media RFPs for brands to place advertising on Tubi (the company’s main source of revenue)

• Became $1B rev brand in 2025.

Share

💡 What inspires Mischief ECD & partner Bianca Guimaraes about advertising in 2026

Crazy time to be in the industry. But the most exciting time to be in the industry. Bianca lays down just one reason why in this publicity piece for The ANDY Awards disguised as an interview.

Tune in to ANDYs Live Judging on April 15 to hear Bianca and the jury break down the year’s most standout work in real time.

The ANDYs is the only show that gives you a true front row seat inside the judging room, where top creative leaders debate, challenge, and ultimately define this year’s Gold winners, which is pretty cool.

🌡️ Ad agency new business tempt check

Some general things of note from the Mischief @ No Fixed Address observation deck this year so far👇

1. Hunger for bold and breakthrough still rumbles: There will always be—regardless of any macro-economic environment—the type of marketers out there who believe now is the best time to invest in unignorable creativity. The right brands triple-down while others retreat.

2. But you’ve gotta prove smart strategy and actual business impact: Anyone can make noise and get impressions. Noise is not breakthrough and impressions are not a measure of success. What’s the long-term strategy that pays off sales, perception and relevance over many years?

3. Budgets remain a casserole: We see opportunities with dollars in the handful of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, to multi-multi-millions. Despite the constant headlines of dwindling marketer budgets, it does remain unpredictable with good and bad surprises. What is true though is (like there will always be marketers who believe in breakthrough creative to impact business), there will always be a brand willing to financially back it properly.

4. Procurement grows more flexy: Conversations between finance and marketing leaders are less siloed. And there’s a willingness to upturn decades-old compensation models for newer ones (less rate cards more deliverables-based). Which is great any agency-client relationship that wants to spend less time arguing over hours burned and more time talking about how to make the work better.

5. Search consultants are busy: Bit of a U-turn to last year’s narrative of more procurement handling pitches than consultants. Third-party agency-brand search teams are stacked. Many are handling multiple big reviews right now.

6. Size of the prize is more versatile, though: Consultant-led pitches for smaller projects are thriving too. Less remit, less money, but still the same pitch process lift and ask for spec work.

7. In-house is in-housing: The majority of these reviews are coming with an element of in-housing, which the consultants are advising on in tandem to the pitch. Things we’re seeing being brought in house this year are media, lower-funnel work, and social. The pendulum always swings here. And whenever we see in-housing we see just as much outsourcing from others.

8. It’s never been more important to be known before you are needed. (Nice quote from Greg Hahn.) For an agency to even have a chance, you’ve got to be in mental consideration before a marketer even considers putting their business in review.

9. For agencies, the PR math doesn’t math: There are more than 100,000 ad shops (creative, media buying, pro, ad-like entities) in the US alone. I can barely count on two hands the number of ad/business journalists who’ll help spotlight an agency in a way that has a real impact on presence and growth. Agencies have no choice but to own their narrative by building out their own media ecosystem. It’s a yes-and.

Share

🎥 “The room had so much soul”: Free production series debuts for adland’s young professionals

Mischief was a packed house this week as a free lecture series for ad industry debuted to teach creatives about production.

Entering the industry in the Zoom era, there are so many young professionals who missed out by not being on set and working with others in person. The PrePros aims to course correct this, sharing that knowledge about what happens after ideas leave the deck.

The first event kicked off at Mischief on Tuesday March 31. It included a panel with Terri Timely, director dup at Park Pictures, Annie Perri, editor at Work Editorial, Will Dempster, head of production and partner at Mischief, Jackie Kelman Bisbee, co-founder at Park Pictures, Christoper Grove, executive producer at Park Pictures, Danielle Balanov and Tati Lanier, both senior producers at Mischief, and Bianca Guimaraes, ECD and partner at Mischief.

One attendee described the room as having “so much soul.”

🤖 Why everyone is suddenly a salesperson for Claude Cowork

The most powerful campaign for an AI brand right now isn’t fancy work you’ve seen at the Super Bowl—it’s collective gassing about Claude Cowork from everyone on your social feed.

Tell me we’re not the only ones who are currently witnessing an explosion in organic hype around this. Sure, there are the paid partnerships. But genuine chatter is outpacing anything sponsored right now.

Simply put, it’s a desktop automator that launched earlier this year. If Claude is a thought partner like ChatGPT, Cowork is an execution partner. It runs in the background on your desktop and can plug into all your applications like Gmail, Canva, Slack, etc.

People are using it to automate their day-to-day work grind like sorting and sending emails, turning data into entire spreadsheets and presentations, and gamifying websites. One example on the latter saw a person upload their resume to Indeed and used Cowork to ask the website to match it to the most high-paid jobs and sought-after skills in their chosen area.

These tasks, individually, are nothing new for AI. But Cowork’s simple user experience and ability to orchestrate high volume tasks has people going nuts.

It’s worth noting, though, that these people appear to be falling into three buckets: Entrepreneurs/founders of scrappy companies that do not have admin/operations help, low/mid-tier employees in massive firms who can hide behind automation, and content creators.

@sabrina_ramonovClaude Cowork setup guide for beginners. Most people don't know Claude has 3 modes: Chat, Cowork, and Code. Cowork is where it gets wild. Here's how to set it up: 1. Go to claude.ai/download and get Claude Desktop 2. Click Cowork mode 3. Add plugins (pre-built skills for marketing, SEO, content creation) 4. Type /slash commands to run your imported skills 5. Connect your tools (Gmail, Canva, Notion) via Settings > Connectors 6. Set up recurring tasks with Schedule 7. Browse Ideas for pre-built workflows you'll import instantly Skills + Connectors turn Claude into your AI employee. Skills define the job. Connectors give it access to your tools. This is 10x productivity over ChatGPT and it's free to start. Full tutorial on my YouTube, link in bio. What's the first skill you'd set up? Drop it below. #claude #ai #aitools #productivity #entrepreneur

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Share

🚪Tales from an ad agency storage closet

Behind a scary door in a tight corner of Mischief HQ lies our mythical storage room.

In it are relics of bygone campaigns, like this old pizza delivery signage from important work with RepresentUS that shined a light on the corrupt-but-legal practice of gerrymandering.

❗️PROBLEM: Politicians are rigging elections all across America by creating voting districts that capture more people aligned to their party.

🕵️‍♀️ INSIGHT: Gerrymandering is a complicated, nationwide issue that threatens 70% of the country and nearly 188 millions. We’d need to simplify and contextualize its impact—that your neighbor one block away could be unrepresented—
in terms people might understand.

💡 SOLUTION: Rig pizza delivery, offering corrupt slices only to those within gerrymandered voting districts—and not a single house over the border.

📈 RESULTS:

• 35% of those who engaged with Gerry’s used our dedicated hotline to call on their local government for change.

• +1 billion in earned media, with hyper-local coverage that drew out politicians to food trucks to campaign against gerrymandering

• U.S. Dept of Justice later sued State of Texas alleging that the gerrymandered or redrawn map infringed the voting rights of minority voters.

Here’s the case study:

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, partner and head of development at Mischief

💆‍♀️ Getting therapy is way easier than talking yourself out of it, says Rula in new campaign

💡 Sometimes, innovation is just a simple reframe

🤖 OpenAI’s choice to discontinue Sora 2 says everything you need to know about the gen-AI landscape

🍌 This AI fruit drama channel has society hooked and doomed

💼 50% of CMOs feel pretty confident about their budgets, survey finds

🎯 Mischief named World’s Most Effective Independent Agency by WARC

🥘 In a world of all-you-can-eat buffets, great agencies, like great restaurants, run on strong identity and momentum

Share

💆‍♀️ Getting therapy is way easier than talking yourself out of it, says Rula in new campaign

You know, they say advertising doesn’t save lives, but actually sometimes it does—or at least helps change lives for the better.

Working with Rula has been an incredible chance to make such an impact.

When Mischief began work with the behavioral healthcare provider as creative and media AOR, it was around one clear insight: Therapy has entered the collective consciousness, but awareness alone isn’t translating into action—leaving too many people stuck in the space between knowing therapy could help and confidently taking that first step.

In Rula’s first national brand campaign, “Turn Off the Talk Track,” confronts the internal dialogue that convinces people not to begin therapy.

A series of creative spots bring this internal struggle to life, capturing individuals grappling with both the emotional hesitation and the practical friction that prevents them from seeking care. The message: getting help with Rula is easier than talking yourself out of it.

To support this call to action, Rula also dropped a limited-time activation titled “3am Therapy,” which offers a free session and meets people in the moments where they need support the most. Users can claim their first session between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. local time from March 23 through March 27, and sign up to redeem anytime after within 30 days.

“For someone already struggling, just deciding to get help takes courage. The last thing they need is for the process of finding that help to become its own source of stress and discouragement,” said Josh Bruno, CEO and Founder of Rula. “Rula exists to take that weight off their shoulders—so that the hardest step in someone’s journey is already behind them when they attend their first session.”

Share

💡 Sometimes, innovation is just a simple reframe

“Innovation” conjures up scenes of daring technological frontiers. Thanks, Silicon Valley.

But the actual dictionary definition is to “make changes in something established.” You don’t need to invent a new machine for this. You can put the old the machine in new context to innovate the outcome.

These little reframes are the bread and butter of Mischief’s creative. Like when Goldfish Crackers needed to playfully remind people they’re not just a kids’ snack—adults love them too. We changed the iconic name to “Chilean Sea Bass.” Something that sounds more sophisticated. More adult. The packaging and product stayed the same.

It’s this type of simple innovation that earned Mischief a place on Fast Co’s World’s Most Innovative Companies list for the six year in a row this week.

🤖 OpenAI’s choice to discontinue Sora 2 says everything you need to know about the gen-AI landscape

“Right now, as soon as something comes out, something more advanced will be out to replace it,” Greg Hahn, CCO and Co-Founder at Mischief, and Co-Founder at The Candy Factory.

“That doesn't mean you shouldn’t get to know it, but saying you are an expert and all in on it is like saying you are an expert on the tricycle. It’s just the thing that leads to the next thing. And soon enough it will feel quaint.”

This news out of OpenAI is not surprising, given the ever-changing and fast-paced nature of gen-AI’s landscape. Sora 2 was all the talk when it came out. Like Google Veo3 was. And like numerous platforms and tools that have been released since.

Today, there is no shortage of quality and democratized gen-AI tools. We know and experiment with all of them, so that we are fully armed with the knowledge of when/how/if they should be used to help fuel the creative process.

OpenAI pinned the news on needing more computing power for other AI priorities. Plus copyright issues. Plus a drop-off in users after an initial viral spike.

Crazy news considering Disney’s big $1 billion bet on Sora 2 by licensing its IP. That’s an expensive rug pull.

🍌 This AI fruit drama channel has society hooked and doomed

AI slop is dead. Long live AI slop.

In just a handful of days and with no more than ten-ish videos, this TikTok account about AI fruit drama has drawn 3.3 million followers and 26.5 million likes. People are saying that’s some kind of record, but there’s no way to verify that.

It’s a rip on Love Island. It’s terrible. It’s hypnotic. It’s, honestly, probably, the distraction everyone needs right now.

No further commentary on this matter.

Share

💼 50% of CMOs feel pretty confident about their budgets, survey finds

Fifty percent of CMOs say they feel “well-equipped” to handle their business in the next six months, according to a global non-profit The Confidence Board.

That’s up from 40 percent the year prior, reports Ad Age which sliced up the new data in a piece this week.

CMO trust from leadership has earned a leapt, too. At 67 percent, more CMOs than ever said their CEO’s assessment of the marketing team’s impact improved.

The data is based on a survey of 67 CMOs fielded in February.

For what it’s worth, Mischief has always found that good ideas find their way to the coffers. There are always marketers willing to make big swings regardless of the macro-economic environment.

🎯 Mischief named World’s Most Effective Independent Agency by WARC

When we got into this game it was to prove three things: Impact on client business; impact on culture and; impact on the agency world (because there’s an easier and more fun way to get to the first two).

The case for effectiveness cannot be hammered enough. Agencies exist to solve difficult business problems with creativity—not for work to put on our parents’ fridge.

That’s why recognition around campaigns that drive business-moving results are important. And this week WARC, a leader in effectiveness measurement, released its annual ranking of work, agencies and brands leading the charge. Mischief is proud to be right up there, globally. We were also named the most effective agency overall in North America. That’s awesome.

Jeff McCrory, Chief Strategy Officer & Partner at Mischief, said: “Mischief was founded on the belief that creativity, properly channelled and directed is the most powerful force in business. Being ranked the number one most effective independent agency in the world feels like one hell of a proof point for this hypothesis. Thank you to everyone at Mischief for delivering brilliance and to our clients for empowering us to strive for greatness.”

🥘 In a world of all-you-can-eat buffets, great agencies, like great restaurants, run on strong identity and momentum

By Kevin Mulroy, Founding Partner & ECD at Mischief

The worst service you’ll ever get in your life will be from an empty restaurant.

Nah, that can’t be right, I hear you saying, just long enough to realize your plates still haven’t been cleared and you never did get that second beer.

How could that be? What else do they have to do? Aren’t they so excited to have the business? The answers to these questions are A) Because, B) They’re smoking cigs out back, C) No.

I know this because I spent most of my 20’s cranking cigs (they were good for you in the ’90s) out behind a shitty Italian restaurant and hating the customers. Don’t get me wrong, I loved waiting tables. Waiting tables should be compulsory, like military service for Italians. Nothing imprints time management, prioritization and people skills onto your brain faster than an eight top with kids.

But restaurants, like advertising agencies, run on momentum. It’s all too easy to get sucked into the vortex of standing around, complaining about your tables, and yes, blackening your lungs.

If you have a good product and excellent service for that product, the people come. Not all of the people will show up prepared to have a good time. But if you make sure the vast majority of them do, suddenly you have momentum. And by the time I landed at a very good restaurant, that pressure cooker created the circumstances for the very best service I had to offer. The people who showed up unprepared for a good time were gonna get it, whether they liked it or not. Being in the zone is a very real thing, even when you’re just slinging pasta puttanesca.

The thing about momentum is, you can’t take your foot off the gas for a second, no matter how many times table 16 throws the silverware on the floor. Pressure is a privilege. Because it means that people care, and the expectations are high because you set them there in the first place.

Before having kids, my wife and I took a trip to Vietnam, and while in Hanoi, we were told we were not to miss a restaurant called Cha Ca La Vong. This is a restaurant with one dish, no menu and no substitutions. You walk in, sit down, and they start making the food. Take it or leave it.

Yeah, but how long could a restaurant like this possibly last before going out of business? Let me check my notes here, 155 years. Now, am I saying I want to invest in your restaurant that only serves one dish? Or your ad agency that only does one ad? No. But I am saying it’s an extremely valuable thing to know exactly who you are, what you do especially well, and execute the crap out of it every time. You want great food? Go to the restaurant that makes great food. Your brand needs impact? Go to the agency that does impact better than anyone else.

But what about people who want little nibbles of a lot of plates? Or those who are allergic to peanuts? Or the pathologically indecisive? All I’m saying is, through two World Wars, two Indochina Wars, two pandemics, and the aptly named (from their perspective) American War, a hell of a lot of people wanted exactly what Cha Ca La Vong had to offer.

And let me tell you something about that restaurant. The place was absolutely packed. Borderline manic. Always on the brink of chaos, and yet completely confident and in control. The second beer is there before you ask. The dirty plates don’t stand a chance. And the food? Exquisite.

In fact, the only thing that might have tasted better than the food that night was that first deliciously disgusting, deeply carcinogenic cigarette; the one the staff lit up after another insanely busy night of absolutely nailing it, yet again.

In conclusion, don’t smoke cigarettes. They’re very gross and bad for you.

Share

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

🛎️ Hotels.com gets refreshingly-literal in new campaign

🕵️‍♂️ Forensic Files episode 2: Jaws Without the Shark

📱 We’ve been posting the same organic content to TikTok and Instagram and one platform is far superior in views, reach and engagement

💼 3 things we’d do if we were entering adland for the first time

👟 “No Boys Allowed” exhibition for untold stories of how women shaped sneaker culture returns

📺 Why should B2B marketing look any different to B2C marketing? Inside Tubi’s Newfronts play

🛎️ Hotels.com gets refreshingly-literal in new campaign

Hotels.com is where you go to choose from hundreds and thousands of hotels. And earn rewards on every stay. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Unlike chicken fingers. Which are not what they sound like.

Or catfish.

Or headphones.

Or, if you’re in the UK, fish fingers.

This is the refreshingly-literal strategy underpinning Hotels.com’s new campaign across the US and Europe in partnership with Mischief.

“Hotels.com is built on a simple promise: make travel easier, every time,” said Natalie Wills, senior VP of marketing and creative at Expedia Group. “Our refreshed identity, complete with the return of the iconic H logo, puts that promise front and center. With ‘It’s All in the Name,’ we’re reminding travelers exactly what we deliver: rewards, simplicity and flexibility they can trust.”

Bianca Guimaraes, ECD and partner at Mischief, added: “The creative idea was designed to challenge the idea that booking travel needs to be complicated. We confront that head-on by reminding people that Hotels.com is refreshingly literal. It’s the place that makes booking a hotel simpler and more rewarding—exactly what it sounds like.”

Share

🕵️‍♂️ Forensic Files episode 2: Jaws Without the Shark

Some small practical things that can help inform and shape an atmosphere of trust, collaboration, and a space for ideas that have an outsized impact. This is the second episode in a series from Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO at Mischief.

We’ve all been there.

You present the idea.

Eyes light up. Momentum builds. Everyone in the room/zoom is in love with the idea you love.

And then it happens.

Either in the meeting or after, for some unforeseen reason—possibly legal or business affairs or some input from the C-suite that wasn’t in the room—you get the Five Finger Exploding Heart death punch.

The feedback comes in as, “we love everything about this idea, and still want to do it, except for (slight pause that feels like November) X.”

Wherein X represents the one thing that made the idea interesting.

This is a vital building moment for both the agency and the agency-client relationship.

The feedback may seem somewhat addressable or even harmless at first. You want to believe it is. But just like the Exploding Heart death punch, a few steps later, you realize the thing that gave the idea its life has already exploded.

What happens next is crucial.

Of course the first step is to understand the feedback and see if there is a genuine way to address it that keeps the idea as strong as the version you all fell in love with. Sometimes there is. (More on that in a later episode.)

But a lot of times there’s not. There are just degrees of keeping the idea alive in the form of fine to forgettable. That’s a bad place to live.

Honest candor about why the idea we all loved no longer works, and willingness to restart, should only leave the partnership stronger.

Also, as an agency you should have, and convey, the confidence that you can come back with something different and as good, if not better, than the dearly beloved deceased idea.

One execution doesn’t define a great agency. The ability to do it again tomorrow does.

If you are in a situation where you are asked to make “Jaws,” but without the shark, don’t come back with a pale family drama about beach goers enjoying the ocean.

Mercy-kill it.

Then move on to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Or “E.T.”

Or “Saving Private Ryan.”

Or “The Adventures of Tintin.”

Actually, kill that last one before it gets to the meeting.

Share

📱 We’ve been posting the same organic content to TikTok and Instagram and one platform is far superior in views, reach and engagement

Two brands. Two different audiences. Two divergent content strategies (all organic social—no paid).

But the same social channels: TikTok and Instagram.

Do you think you could guess which one performed best for both?

I run Mischief @ No Fixed Address' social, universally handled "mischiefusa,” and with content anchored in all things marketing/big creative ideas/strategy. I also sidequest my own social about a British guy's unapologetic love for New Jersey (IYKYK), handled "themacdaddy/olliemcateer" (because it's a creator's world and we're just living in it, and I'm weirdly obsessed with its inner-workings).

Any one-person social team knows duplication saves lives. So most content across both brands are first posted in TikTok, auto-saved, then posted on their Instagram equivalents.

And gah damn, the outcome recently has been fascinating: In all three major social metrics—views, reach, and engagement—Instagram is far surpassing TikTok.

For the past month, Reels got 342% and 324% MORE views than TikTok, across Mischief and themacdaddy respectively.

Meanwhile, Reach saw 19% and 57%, while engagement hit 337% and 293%. Check the slides for full data.

Content that worked, worked for both channels—but in very different ways. Having run these channels for five years each, this wasn't the case even 12 months ago. In fact, the post-COVID years had TikTok reigning supreme by miles.

Brand social teams are always faced with the question of where to focus. The answer is clear (and probably upsetting for the smaller teams): Everywhere. There's no cheat code. Because focus will constantly shift.

A brand's social ecosystem needs to be diversified: TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, YouTube Shorts.

Put your eggs in many baskets, and then when one of them hatches—feed the hell out of it.

Find this full social experiment document here.

Share

💼 3 things we’d do if we were entering adland for the first time

Yeah. No doubt about it—totally weird time to be entering adland in recent years. Really odd. If you didn’t already start your marketing career over Zoom, then right now you’re bombarded with headlines about how AI will take your job.

Opportunity is rife, though. Because opportunity tends to seep into the cracks of tectonic change. You’ll find it if you look hard enough. Below are three steps for helping you look.

1. Find the free resources: There are many places still investing in education for junior talent. Find them in the ad trades, on social via agency accounts, and newsletters. Only last week this Substack spread news about PrePros—a new and free content series for people wanting to learn about what happens when an idea jumps out of the deck and into the arms of producers.

2. Don’t try to find your dream job—try to find your dream people: Conviction can be hard to come by in a heavily-commoditized world. But it still exists. This Ad Age piece has some good advice on how to find company leaders who set a clear vision and hold strong values.

3. Learn. Learn. And learn again: The truth is everyone’s just too damn busy trying to survive their day-to-day job that they don’t have the necessary time to fully immerse themselves in learning the new tools and platforms quickly shaping this industry. Mischief has hired specific AI creators to help navigate and lead this developing landscape—it’s no one’s sidequest job, because it’s that important. Learn the things adland needs right now then offer up your knowledge to the countless people who need it.

👟 “No Boys Allowed” exhibition for untold stories of how women shaped sneaker culture returns

The Museum in Spite of Everything returns with its exhibition “No Boys Allowed.”

The space, in Brooklyn, dedicated to the forgotten, the overlooked, and the erased, explores the untold stories of how women helped shape sneaker culture.

Ashley Veltre, who works as a creative director at Mischief, created the passion project with Julia Neumann, CCO at Le Truc.

Ashley said: “History remembers the loudest voices. The museum’s first exhibit, No Boys Allowed, remembers the ones who weren’t given the mic. Intimate by design, the shoebox-size gallery flips a girl’s bedroom into an immersive sneaker culture reframe, told through women who changed the game in sport, fashion, music, and design. Women didn’t just join sneaker culture; they built it. The industry simply forgot to give them credit.”

Here here and here for more deets.

The space is also hosting a series of events alongside the exhibition—from drawing sessions to conversations to the final send-off of the show.

THE GIRLS ARE DRAWING
• In partnership with Figure Assembly (founded by illustrator Julia Rothman, ex New York Times)
• Sunday, March 22 | 6–8PM
• Tickets available now: https://museuminspiteofeverything.com/pages/events

THE GIRLS ARE TALKING: THE FUTURE OF BRAND ACTIVATIONS
• A conversation on how brands show up in culture today
• Featuring Kay Hsu (Spotify), Julia Neumann, Kinney Edwards (TikTok), Ashley Veltre
• Moderated by Oscar Martinez
• Additional voices to be announced

Tickets available starting tomorrow!

END-OF-EXHIBIT SALE
Saturday & Sunday, March 28–29 | 11AM–5PM
• Take a piece of No Boys Allowed home. Circle bed included.

Share

📺 Why should B2B marketing look any different to B2C marketing? Inside Tubi’s Newfronts play

As media planners and buyers descend upon New York City to hear big-stage pitches from the biggest content platforms about why brands should advertise with them, Tubi is taking a more…Tubi approach.

The streaming platform always does something a little quirky and extra for the Newfronts. And this week, Tubi is inviting festival-goers to a fortune-teller pop-up to experience its annual report, The Stream.

Mischief helped create a bespoke Zoltar-esque machine with Tubi’s famed bunny which will spit out fortunes for media buyers.

Fortunes likes: “I sense a disturbance in the cosmos: Not far from now, 67% of streamers will feel a deep sense of loss when a platform removes their comfort shows.”

And: “The future tells of star-crossed streamers: Nearly one-third of audiences will soon part ways with a lover due to misaligned movie tastes.”

Tubi’s report is full of surprising stats about the benefits of advertising on streamers.

Stats like streaming holds the highest level of engagement and attention, far surpassing live events, scrolling social media, and cable TV. And things like ad sentiment improving with 32%, up 14% year over year, saying they do not mind ads during streaming and 18%, up 11% year over year, saying ads enhance their experience.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, partner and head of development at Mischief

📢 🎥 Free production series launches for adland’s young professionals

🐮 Dairy’s unexpected benefits flaunted in campaign that goes to… unexpected places

👩 💼 Her Workplace hosts NYC event for Women’s History Month

📻❓NPR drops merch to help defend your right to be curious

🎨 🏠 “Mischief is the blueprint for modern independent agencies”

🎙 👀 POV you work in PR and company leadership likes to talk

📢 🎥 Free production series launches for adland’s young professionals

A free lecture series is coming to the ad industry to teach creatives about production.

Entering the industry in the Zoom era, there are so many young professionals who missed out by not being on set and working with others in person. The PrePros aims to course correct this, sharing that knowledge about what happens after ideas leave the deck.

The first event kicks off at Mischief on Tuesday March 31. It includes a panel with Terri Timely, director dup at Park Pictures, Annie Perri, editor at Work Editorial, Will Dempster, head of production and partner at Mischief, Jackie Kelman Bisbee, co-founder at Park Pictures, Christoper Grove, executive producer at Park Pictures, and Danielle Balanov and Tati Lanier, both senior producers at Mischief.

🐮 Dairy’s unexpected benefits flaunted in campaign that goes to… unexpected places

Did you know that dairy does more? Like, a lot more for your physical and mental wellbeing than you probably thought.

Well, it does.

Like how yogurt is good for your bones, and milk for asserting dominance over your cats.

Or how cottage cheese delivers sustained energy, and milk keeps you mentally sharp so your boss can take micromanagement to unprecedented new heights.

Or how cheese is packed with essential vitamins, and dairy can make you big and strong so that Maddi Miller won’t pick you up like a baby anymore.

👩 💼 Her Workplace hosts NYC event for Women’s History Month

Look close. Closer. A little bit closer still.

This is Natalia Rodriguez, operations manager at Mischief.

She recently took the stage at a @herworkplace event, aimed at helping women in their early to mid-level stages of their career. It’s a foundation that connects members and executive-level mentors, coaches, and offers networking opportunities for women to grow and lead in their fields.

Elevate Her Summit in NYC brought these initiatives to life and gathered all the women across the platform, members and executives, in one space. It partnered with Nasdaq which offered event space and time on the iconic billboard for Women’s History Month.

Natalia moderated a discussion with Dr. Michelle Kappy from Spring Fertility about the crossover between career growth and family planning.

“We helped answer some of the major questions women have about navigating a fertility journey with a rising career and how to make it possible to have both and not have to choose between the two,” said Natalia.

Find out more about Her Workplace here. It’s a great platform for connecting, opportunities and resources.

📻❓NPR drops merch to help defend your right to be curious

NPR recently made the boldest declaration in its history to defend your right to be curious.

For the first time ever, the organization’s iconic logo was replaced with letters that begin to ask the hardest and more important questions of our time. “NPR” transformed into “WHY” and “HOW” at its headquarters in D.C. National billboards with the changed logo and questions have swept America across markets including Chicago and New York. NPR’s website and social will carry the changes too. Meanwhile, a full-page ad in the New York Times will carry NPR’s manifesto for its new chapter.

The campaign also includes limited-edition merchandise, which dropped this week and you can find at NPR Shop.

So now you can wear your right to be curious. Pretty sweet swag, too, ngl.

🎨 🏠 “Mischief is the blueprint for modern independent agencies”

What’s the opposite of a humble brag? Because this is it. We are not sorry. This week Mischief was named one of the world’s best advertising agencies for the fifth-year running.

Read all about it here. And watch this if you’re a brand marketer👇

🎙 👀 POV you work in PR and company leadership likes to talk

Niche relatable.

Also look out for new creative work soon I guess.

Subscribe now

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, head of development & partner at Mischief

📰 The story behind NPR’s boldest declaration yet to defend your right to be curious

🕵️‍♂️ Forensic Files: How good ideas die and how to prevent their senseless murder

Okay? Cool. Let’s start with that first one.

Share

📰 The story behind NPR’s boldest declaration yet to defend your right to be curious

We’ve all been glued to the headlines swirling around NPR for the best part of the past year.

So when the public media org approached Mischief back in August, you can imagine our collective reaction was 👀 .

We engaged in efforts to help NPR immediately. At first, we thought the brief would likely focus on a cultural reaction to threats about its future. But, NPR doing what it does best, wanted to think bigger.

The beloved brand needed to reintroduce itself to the world with an enduring message.

The result is NPR’s boldest declaration in its history to defend your right to be curious.

For the first time ever, the organization’s iconic logo was replaced with letters that begin to ask the hardest and more important questions of our time. “NPR” transformed into “WHY” and “HOW” at its headquarters in D.C. National billboards with the changed logo and questions have swept America across markets including Chicago and New York. NPR’s website and social will carry the changes too. Meanwhile, a full-page ad in the New York Times will carry NPR’s manifesto for its new chapter. The campaign also includes limited-edition merchandise available on the NPR Shop.

The campaign brings forward questions—many from listeners—and connects directly to the NPR programs that answer them. The questions are real and urgent to the moment we’re in, from “How does AI affect my electric bill?” to “Why are groceries still so expensive?” to “Why was ICE created?”

“Curiosity is the fuel of a functioning democracy,” said Mishka Pitter-Armand, chief marketing officer at NPR. “NPR is essential civic infrastructure built to protect the right to inquiry. As a cornerstone of American life for over 50 years, this work is our pledge to the public: we will continue to provide the trusted context you need to explore the world, encouraging every American to keep listening and asking the hard questions.”

The campaign follows a year of sustained political attacks against NPR, including Congress’ rescission of $1 billion in funding for public media. The questions serve as a rallying cry to solidify the permanence of NPR’s mission of providing trustworthy, reliable journalism that helps us understand our world—and show that curiosity can’t be silenced.

“NPR feeds a basic, but strong human need — curiosity,” said Greg Hahn, co-founder and chief creative officer with Mischief. “NPR’s power lies in the questions that come from our curiosity and the interesting, unexpected ways journalists help answer them. With a simple reframe, we sought to link the iconic NPR brand with the words so often at the initial spark of curiosity.”

The structures surrounding NPR may shift, but the need for it does not. More than 240 NPR Member stations foster curiosity in communities in every corner of America. Backed by a 46 million weekly audience, the NPR Network is committed to rigorous, independent journalism and to creating a more informed public.

NPR’s full manifesto:

Most stories do not begin with a journalist.⁠

When a river is drying up,⁠

the first to notice are the people living beside it.⁠

When a new band emerges,⁠

the first to find out is often a neighbor.⁠

When a school loses teachers,⁠

the first to ask why is a parent.⁠

⁠

Curiosity is core to being human.⁠

It doesn’t wait for permission.⁠

It can’t be contained.⁠

⁠

People notice.⁠

People question.⁠

⁠

NPR is there to listen.⁠

To ask more questions.⁠

To take your curiosity further.⁠

And we’re not going anywhere.⁠

That is why this month,⁠

the three letters in our name will be replaced⁠

with the three-letter questions⁠

that are the seed of every story.⁠

⁠

A reminder that any attempt to silence curiosity⁠

will only inspire more of it.

🕵️‍♂️ Forensic Files: How good ideas die and how to prevent their senseless murder

Some small practical things that can help inform and shape an atmosphere of trust, collaboration, and a space for ideas that have an outsized impact. This is the first episode in a series from Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO at Mischief.

Episode 1: The Appendix section.

The Appendix section of a presentation deck is basically hospice for some of your agency’s best thinking. Comfortable. Quiet. No chance of leaving alive.

As an agency, you see it as the place to show and maybe sell some of your boldest or slightly off-brief ideas. “If there is time.”

As a client you see a bunch of reasons why this work isn’t in the main deck. You are primed to find the flaw. At best you may leave amused, but most likely, not on board.

That long drawn out beep you’re hearing is your idea flatlining.

This is not to say that these ideas shouldn’t be presented. But framing is everything.

If you’re reviewing work internally and you’re tempted to put something in the back of the deck, stop.

This is a sign that you are on to something interesting, otherwise you would have let it go. It’s also a sign you need to rethink it a bit.

There are usually a few reasons to back-of-the-deck an idea:

It’s great but a little crazy- we don’t want a bad meeting.

It’s off-brief, off-brand, or out of budget- we don’t want to have a bad meeting.

Actually maybe that’s just one reason.

Fear of a bad meeting is a signal. It’s a sign that the relationship isn’t stable. Especially if it’s as fragile as one idea in a deck. You haven’t built up enough trust. You haven’t demonstrated that you truly understand and care about the client’s business and problem. You haven’t earned the right to challenge them. They shouldn’t feel it’s you against them. It’s you and them against the problem. Viewed this way, all arrows in the quiver should be considered.

Meetings should not be a sales pitch. They should be a conversation. One in which each side really listens to the other. You should leave those meetings feeling the relationship is stronger, not feeling the RFP getting written.

If the idea is great but not on-brief, set up a different meeting to present it. Make it special. Not only will it give the idea the time it deserves, the client will be more mentally framed and even excited to see it. Great ideas shouldn’t feel disposable.

If the idea at hand is a great solution but over the budget, acknowledge that. Unless it’s irresponsible, fantasy level out of budget, make it a building, probing, solution-focused conversation, not a deal killer. Money has a way of finding its way to passion.

If it’s wildly off-brand and you feel it in your bones, but “Cannes judges will love it.” Mercy-kill it. You are not a student trying to pad their book. You’re a professional trying to come up with smart ways to have an impact on the client’s business. The goal is to make something that feels right for the brand but unexpected. Just like slalom skiing, greatness doesn’t come from ignoring the many gates, greatness comes by the grace with which you can move around them.

(BTW Cannes judges won’t love it. They’ll say, “This feels like a student trying to pad their book.”)

All this is to say, don’t back off the deck the work you should be putting forward. You’re not giving it a chance to live. You’re giving it a spoonful of antifreeze.*

*Remarkable how many episodes of the actual tv show “Forensic Files” involve antifreeze.

K thanks bye.

By Oliver McAteer, Head of Development & Partner at Mischief