I've went the ECD, international career, awards path. The void just kept growing, year after year. I've said goodbye to the f... circus and focused more on family and friends, writing, living life. And yes, still doing ads. But on my terms and on what time I want to give it. Goodbye endless meetings and corporate bullshit. Obviously not making the same money, but just realized I didn't need it in the first place. Not with the compromises it entailed and the things it asked from me. Not worth the trade.
Yeah, this sounds like a lot of multi-awarded ECDs I know. But sometimes I look at those still cheerfully playing the game in their late 50s and feel both jealous (I wish I could still find joy in that) and disturbed.
In a past life, I used to work in marketing. One day, after wrapping up another "successful" marketing campaign for a destination in the Dom Rep that was literally dynamiting coral reefs to make way for a marina, it hit me: I was selling brands that went against my values and with that, selling myself out. I quit shortly after. The only marketing I am interested in these days is social marketing that leads to positive behavioural change.
James Hollis writes about this a lot in The Middle Passage. It seems most adults go through it at some point, but most decide to postpone the necessary changes
“First I did it for the fun of it. Then I did it for the friends. And eventually I did it for the money.” pretty much sums up my career. Life is just so bloody expensive right now. I wish there was another way. but for the most "creative" people in the room, we seem to be running out of ideas.
I think maybe we just don’t have the right brief yet… I imagine if all of us in the ad industry decided enough is enough — and started pushing back against our skills being used in the most harmful ways, we could actually make a dent. The more of us do it consistently, the less risky it becomes for any one person.
Holy wow this resonates on so many levels. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling profoundly existential (I've googled 'burnout' and 'mid life crisis' in the past month and I'm barely in my late thirties). I'd also layer on top the fact that because our creative side is the side we're paid for, it's impossible for us to see our creative pastime as anything other than a side hustle we should be comoditising; we don't do things for joy any more.
It’s good to discuss these things together… I remember reading in one of those thick books on existential psychotherapy that there’s no meaning outside shared human experience. It just doesn’t exist without connection to others who see what you see and feel what you feel. So thank you for sharing.
Great read. You described precisely the realization that happened to me. When I go to LinkedIn nowadays and see marketing people that I've worked with boasting about their latest campaign or the award that their agency got, I can't help but find it sad.
The system managed to convince well-intentioned people into thinking that their work is anything but a soulless activity where the only objective is to generate profit. There aren't lives being saved, or ecosystems being regenerated, or systems being changed. The only thing that's happening is a deepening of the problems that got us to this place. Ignore them and consume, please. Buy, please. We even use recycled materials in our products now!
We call it creative work and get a good salary for it so we can tell ourselves it's worth it, while we keep toiling away at something that keeps us away from our loved ones for most of our waking life, that keeps us tired and stressed, and that, ultimately, doesn't bring anything good to the world.
I know people will argue that it's a valuable activity, that it keeps the economy going, that it's just communication at the end of the day, that it's only providing a service to let people know of new products. It isn't. It's a defense mechanism of an extractive and exploitative system.
I'm not judging, because I've told myself the same things for over 15 years, and I know it's a lose-lose situation for most people. There are bills to be paid, and food that costs money, and families to take care of.
We have to avoid these questions out of self-preservation, and when we don't we realize that our life has become so complex and dependent on this that it doesn't allow us to escape it. At one point, I wonder if it's better to live in the illusion, but I can't unsee it.
I feel the same way about Tech (where i belong). Looking back, I think part of the reason things got so out of touch is that the industry’s sense of entitlement let people stay in a kind of illusion for way too long. I’d guess it’s similar in Marketing and Ads too. And now, the more I think about it, the more it feels like this is true across all of the private sector. We are not different from a corner shop selling vapes but only we think higher of ourselves.
I haven’t but by glimpsing over the description - i’ve seen it all from within. Sad and … mundane, really, how money and power do the same thing to you would assume forward thinking people. nope
The whole notion of "creative industries" is a fairly obvious self-delusion. Truly creative fields, like science and engineering, don’t need to label themselves as "creative."
Advertising is mostly manipulative nonsense—"creative" in the same way as "creative accounting."
Is it that obvious, though? The work that goes into making an ad and making a film is largely the same. It feels creative and rewarding when you’re doing it. The sound engineer I worked with on many ads in London honed his craft in advertising, then won an Oscar for The Zone of Interest. Everything Everywhere All At Once, the most awarded film since Lord of the Rings, was made by two directors who started in advertising.
It is obvious to virtually everyone outside the industry. Now, if someone had to write an academic opus on advertising, there might be just enough space for a footnote mentioning the artistic inclinations of some Leni Riefenstahls of advertisement. But I’m not writing such a book, and my three-sentence-long jibe certainly didn’t have enough space for that detail.
I think the comparison of advertising to state propaganda is both useful and apt: while there is some space for creativity in both fields, it is not even remotely the main point of either. The point of state propaganda is to manufacture the illusion of social consensus, while the main point of advertising is to whip us into the giant hamster wheel newspapers call "our economy." From that perspective, I find most of the comments here quite hilarious—it seems your readers don’t enjoy the hamster wheel that much.
He makes, much more eloquently, a similar point: “yes, some ads can be quite artsy, but that’s not important.”
Nabokov being Nabokov, he was mainly raging against the industrialized production of vulgarity in advertising—but to answer your question once more: yes, this was super obvious even in 1950 when Nabokov was writing these words.
I appreciate you articulating the central premise of my article. :) Nabokov’s rant is entertaining, like all his rants, but his positioning himself as some moral authority on poshlost is rich. Plenty of his lectures and work contain exactly that sort of pedestrian smugness he seems to despise. Creativity has always been adjacent to power and money and used to justify the status quo. In that sense, plenty of beautiful churches were Catholic state propaganda that justified immense colonial violence. To say that science is “obviously” creative and advertising is “obviously” not is to completely flatten the complex social relations between power and culture
I left academia two years ago (mathematics + neuroscience) and the text resonates very strongly with me. I feel that academia became a white brainwashing system supporting corporations on the side... and creativity is destroyed in most by the rush to publish, write grants, win awards etc.
A few words of disagreement. First, modern Western academia is not uniform in its decline. Pure mathematics, thanks to its unique nature and the lack of money involved, can still be genuinely creative — if you can land a permanent job, which isn’t easy. Neuroscience is perhaps an entirely different case.
More importantly, your empathy is misplaced. Not all professions are equally complicit in the current mess. Academia’s complicity stems from cowardice, intellectual laziness, and money addiction. On the spectrum from victims to perpetrators, it leans toward the former, though not blameless. Advertising, by contrast, is fully embedded in the system—a trivial but spectacularly stupid arm of it, with no redeeming qualities. On that same spectrum, they are the spam unit of the propaganda department, subjecting everyone to increasingly dull and idiotic noise. I have no sympathy for their crocodile tears, burnout, or faux creativity — and neither should you.
I’m so glad you shared this, thank you. The elephant in the room. Creativity and arts have been commodified. It is terrible to think that one of the most important, most spiritual human skill, transcending community languages, art, has been commodified. I don’t think ‘creatives’ (or people of intuition and art) only get fooled into entering the industry… they also don’t really have another ‘career’ choice if they do want to be able to make a living while being true to their talent/sensibility. There is no good path. In capitalism there is no alternative because community, poetry and philosophy are worthless. The destruction of those is not a byproduct of the system, it’s at the root of it, necessary to its survival. Sadly our industry is the most entrapped in the myth of liberalism. Political and economical theory need to enter the conversation again, for real.
Completely agree, most of us have been terribly undereducated in political and economic theory, seemingly by design: if society doesn’t understand where profits come from (they come from workers) and how borders function (to keep workers in place), it won’t question the distribution of wealth on the planet
I’ve been sitting with your post (and some other bleak local UK news) — just wondering: how is it that we have so many smart, capable people, yet everything feels this broken?
Right now, I don’t believe employees have much power. Anyone can be replaced by “fresh blood.” That’s just how the system is built. And honestly, I don’t have better ideas.
What I do believe is that we’re living through the aftershocks of late-stage capitalism — or more simply, unchecked greed (totally on brand to hear it from a slavic girl). Regulation, fair taxation, closing loopholes — these could help but no one seems willing to drive that change, because countries are just private businesses these days.
So I don’t have an answer but i feel like it’s the system that needs to be changed not just a chosen company or an industry.
Yeah, I hear you. It reminds me of that famous quote that it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
I think that even in the absence of clear answers, asking better questions is a decent start. If we collectively shifted away from the individualistic, “How can I be the most successful person in my bubble?” towards “How can we design a society where everyone’s needs are met and everyone can reach their full potential?”, we’d start finding better solutions
For years, I convinced myself that the trick to surviving in this industry was to stay politely detached from whatever circus was unfolding inside a project and quietly balance it out with "real" things on the side. But when I hit 39, I realised I don’t want to dissociate from a third of my life. Haven’t figured out what to do with that yet, but it’s a relief to see I’m not alone here
Such a great piece and I am glad I’ve found your substack. Beyond the overall shared sense of existential dread, point 1. hits home for me. For some of us, being “creative” is a coping mechanism we’ve acquired since being young kids with a higher tendency of going inward more than often. And we’ve learned tons for looking inside this long.
I’d argue the majority of us is made of a more permeable material than others, that’s why our creativity being used “against” us in corporate settings is such a losing deal.
I’m not an awarded ECD feeling the burn, but as a creative working in pharma (unfortunately this is where I ended up) I see no ethics in what I do for a living. It’s just a grind to pay the bills.
Thank you for the article. I wonder if that's the same with the guys from Wall St., what do they feel selling their souls to make big unethical money?
On a side note. You've mentioned "live-streamed genocide". While it's not the main topic, I couldn't help wondering what exactly did you mean by that? If that's about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then please, do your research and stop helping the propaganda. Since when have the word "genocide" become just another fucking label? The conflict in question is so complicated that anyone who's casually labelling it just causes more suffering, helping the division of the people.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. The parallel you drew with Wall Street is a great point, and I agree it would be fascinating to hear from people in that world.
I also hear your concern about my use of a specific phrase, and I want you to know I don't use it lightly. You're right that it's a very politically and emotionally charged word.
For me, the term is warranted by the evidence. The International Court of Justice has found a plausible case that the Genocide Convention is being violated, and numerous respected historians and scholars of genocide, including many Jewish voices, have used this term to describe the events. While I know the term is heavily debated, I believe we must have the courage to name what we are seeing.
This doesn't diminish the horror of the October 7th attacks, which were atrocious. As you say, this conflict is complicated, but for me, that complexity can’t preclude us from having difficult conversations. Every human life is priceless, and a path to peace has to start with acknowledging the suffering of all, and avoiding the trap of viewing some lives as more valuable than others
Que texto lindo!!! ser criativo demais as vezes é terrível e assustador em uma sociedade que esta mais focada em resultados numéricos de suas obras do que entender o que essa obra quis dizer. Estou feliz de ter lido esse texto e perceber que nessa maré que somos obrigados a tampar os olhos para navegar, existe pessoas que querem tirar essas vendas e dizer o quão incomodadas estão e a principalmente falar que fazer o que mais amamos está nos machucando. Muito obrigado ; )
The tension has always been there - as "Advertising and Marketing" being positioned as a creative industry, closer to art than the manipulation of people to drive profit and commercial value for shareholders, is the ultimate piece of creativity. There's two groups: those who recognise their job is to produce work which stands out and drives commercial numbers, and have embraced a level of acceptance with it; and those who believe this is a creative industry, and then are let down when their values and boundaries are continually challenged and tested. You can be "creative" in any industry, and the power of ideas, storytelling and influence can be applied to so many spaces that aren't selling razors or insurance. We need to let go of the notion that "creative people" need to work in the "creative industry", and seek roles where our skills can be applied to different types of goals. There's hope for anyone with the skills and aspiration to change and influence and inform and educate and inspire - the work is there, but the best work doesn't sit in agencies, and it certainly isn't restricted to the 'creative industries'.
I've went the ECD, international career, awards path. The void just kept growing, year after year. I've said goodbye to the f... circus and focused more on family and friends, writing, living life. And yes, still doing ads. But on my terms and on what time I want to give it. Goodbye endless meetings and corporate bullshit. Obviously not making the same money, but just realized I didn't need it in the first place. Not with the compromises it entailed and the things it asked from me. Not worth the trade.
Yeah, this sounds like a lot of multi-awarded ECDs I know. But sometimes I look at those still cheerfully playing the game in their late 50s and feel both jealous (I wish I could still find joy in that) and disturbed.
In a past life, I used to work in marketing. One day, after wrapping up another "successful" marketing campaign for a destination in the Dom Rep that was literally dynamiting coral reefs to make way for a marina, it hit me: I was selling brands that went against my values and with that, selling myself out. I quit shortly after. The only marketing I am interested in these days is social marketing that leads to positive behavioural change.
James Hollis writes about this a lot in The Middle Passage. It seems most adults go through it at some point, but most decide to postpone the necessary changes
ECD here. Could not agree more.
“First I did it for the fun of it. Then I did it for the friends. And eventually I did it for the money.” pretty much sums up my career. Life is just so bloody expensive right now. I wish there was another way. but for the most "creative" people in the room, we seem to be running out of ideas.
I think maybe we just don’t have the right brief yet… I imagine if all of us in the ad industry decided enough is enough — and started pushing back against our skills being used in the most harmful ways, we could actually make a dent. The more of us do it consistently, the less risky it becomes for any one person.
Holy wow this resonates on so many levels. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling profoundly existential (I've googled 'burnout' and 'mid life crisis' in the past month and I'm barely in my late thirties). I'd also layer on top the fact that because our creative side is the side we're paid for, it's impossible for us to see our creative pastime as anything other than a side hustle we should be comoditising; we don't do things for joy any more.
It’s good to discuss these things together… I remember reading in one of those thick books on existential psychotherapy that there’s no meaning outside shared human experience. It just doesn’t exist without connection to others who see what you see and feel what you feel. So thank you for sharing.
Great read. You described precisely the realization that happened to me. When I go to LinkedIn nowadays and see marketing people that I've worked with boasting about their latest campaign or the award that their agency got, I can't help but find it sad.
The system managed to convince well-intentioned people into thinking that their work is anything but a soulless activity where the only objective is to generate profit. There aren't lives being saved, or ecosystems being regenerated, or systems being changed. The only thing that's happening is a deepening of the problems that got us to this place. Ignore them and consume, please. Buy, please. We even use recycled materials in our products now!
We call it creative work and get a good salary for it so we can tell ourselves it's worth it, while we keep toiling away at something that keeps us away from our loved ones for most of our waking life, that keeps us tired and stressed, and that, ultimately, doesn't bring anything good to the world.
I know people will argue that it's a valuable activity, that it keeps the economy going, that it's just communication at the end of the day, that it's only providing a service to let people know of new products. It isn't. It's a defense mechanism of an extractive and exploitative system.
I'm not judging, because I've told myself the same things for over 15 years, and I know it's a lose-lose situation for most people. There are bills to be paid, and food that costs money, and families to take care of.
We have to avoid these questions out of self-preservation, and when we don't we realize that our life has become so complex and dependent on this that it doesn't allow us to escape it. At one point, I wonder if it's better to live in the illusion, but I can't unsee it.
Thank you David, I can absolutely relate to this sadness. I can't unsee it, too
I feel the same way about Tech (where i belong). Looking back, I think part of the reason things got so out of touch is that the industry’s sense of entitlement let people stay in a kind of illusion for way too long. I’d guess it’s similar in Marketing and Ads too. And now, the more I think about it, the more it feels like this is true across all of the private sector. We are not different from a corner shop selling vapes but only we think higher of ourselves.
Seeking for answers and way forward.
Thank you, Yulia. I found Careless People (a memoir by the Meta whistleblower) very relatable. Have you read it?
I haven’t but by glimpsing over the description - i’ve seen it all from within. Sad and … mundane, really, how money and power do the same thing to you would assume forward thinking people. nope
The whole notion of "creative industries" is a fairly obvious self-delusion. Truly creative fields, like science and engineering, don’t need to label themselves as "creative."
Advertising is mostly manipulative nonsense—"creative" in the same way as "creative accounting."
Is it that obvious, though? The work that goes into making an ad and making a film is largely the same. It feels creative and rewarding when you’re doing it. The sound engineer I worked with on many ads in London honed his craft in advertising, then won an Oscar for The Zone of Interest. Everything Everywhere All At Once, the most awarded film since Lord of the Rings, was made by two directors who started in advertising.
It is obvious to virtually everyone outside the industry. Now, if someone had to write an academic opus on advertising, there might be just enough space for a footnote mentioning the artistic inclinations of some Leni Riefenstahls of advertisement. But I’m not writing such a book, and my three-sentence-long jibe certainly didn’t have enough space for that detail.
I think the comparison of advertising to state propaganda is both useful and apt: while there is some space for creativity in both fields, it is not even remotely the main point of either. The point of state propaganda is to manufacture the illusion of social consensus, while the main point of advertising is to whip us into the giant hamster wheel newspapers call "our economy." From that perspective, I find most of the comments here quite hilarious—it seems your readers don’t enjoy the hamster wheel that much.
There is a delightful rant by Nabokov that is quite relevant: https://marcelproust.blogspot.com/2007/01/philistines-and-philistinism.html
He makes, much more eloquently, a similar point: “yes, some ads can be quite artsy, but that’s not important.”
Nabokov being Nabokov, he was mainly raging against the industrialized production of vulgarity in advertising—but to answer your question once more: yes, this was super obvious even in 1950 when Nabokov was writing these words.
I appreciate you articulating the central premise of my article. :) Nabokov’s rant is entertaining, like all his rants, but his positioning himself as some moral authority on poshlost is rich. Plenty of his lectures and work contain exactly that sort of pedestrian smugness he seems to despise. Creativity has always been adjacent to power and money and used to justify the status quo. In that sense, plenty of beautiful churches were Catholic state propaganda that justified immense colonial violence. To say that science is “obviously” creative and advertising is “obviously” not is to completely flatten the complex social relations between power and culture
I left academia two years ago (mathematics + neuroscience) and the text resonates very strongly with me. I feel that academia became a white brainwashing system supporting corporations on the side... and creativity is destroyed in most by the rush to publish, write grants, win awards etc.
A few words of disagreement. First, modern Western academia is not uniform in its decline. Pure mathematics, thanks to its unique nature and the lack of money involved, can still be genuinely creative — if you can land a permanent job, which isn’t easy. Neuroscience is perhaps an entirely different case.
More importantly, your empathy is misplaced. Not all professions are equally complicit in the current mess. Academia’s complicity stems from cowardice, intellectual laziness, and money addiction. On the spectrum from victims to perpetrators, it leans toward the former, though not blameless. Advertising, by contrast, is fully embedded in the system—a trivial but spectacularly stupid arm of it, with no redeeming qualities. On that same spectrum, they are the spam unit of the propaganda department, subjecting everyone to increasingly dull and idiotic noise. I have no sympathy for their crocodile tears, burnout, or faux creativity — and neither should you.
I’m so glad you shared this, thank you. The elephant in the room. Creativity and arts have been commodified. It is terrible to think that one of the most important, most spiritual human skill, transcending community languages, art, has been commodified. I don’t think ‘creatives’ (or people of intuition and art) only get fooled into entering the industry… they also don’t really have another ‘career’ choice if they do want to be able to make a living while being true to their talent/sensibility. There is no good path. In capitalism there is no alternative because community, poetry and philosophy are worthless. The destruction of those is not a byproduct of the system, it’s at the root of it, necessary to its survival. Sadly our industry is the most entrapped in the myth of liberalism. Political and economical theory need to enter the conversation again, for real.
Completely agree, most of us have been terribly undereducated in political and economic theory, seemingly by design: if society doesn’t understand where profits come from (they come from workers) and how borders function (to keep workers in place), it won’t question the distribution of wealth on the planet
Why everyone in fucking depression?
That’s why.
Let’s be honest.
This isn’t Mad Men anymore — hell, it’s not even Beigbeder’s coke-fueled fantasyland.
No more champagne. No more late nights with neon lights and egos the size of Manhattan.
Advertising? It’s algorithms now.
Sharper, cheaper, smarter — and not just in performance, but in creativity too.
Media? Same story.
No more glossy towers, no more rockstar editors with private drivers.
The golden age is dead.
What’s left? Dust. And the faint ringing of what used to be ambition.
People used to join ads and media for three reasons:
a) to get famous
b) to change the world
c) to satisfy curiosity and have fun.
Now? You won’t find much of any of that left.
But here’s the twist:
It’s not the end.
It’s the beginning of something even wilder.
Thanks to AI, the cost of creating real products and services is crashing. Soon, brands will pop up overnight.They’ll cost close to nothing.
And guess what?
Marketing — real marketing — will become the battlefield.
Content will rule again.
Advertising will matter.
And those weirdos, misfits, and brilliant freaks who survive this Ice Age?
They’ll be back on top.
Because when everything is automated, creativity is the last thing standing.
I’ve been sitting with your post (and some other bleak local UK news) — just wondering: how is it that we have so many smart, capable people, yet everything feels this broken?
Right now, I don’t believe employees have much power. Anyone can be replaced by “fresh blood.” That’s just how the system is built. And honestly, I don’t have better ideas.
What I do believe is that we’re living through the aftershocks of late-stage capitalism — or more simply, unchecked greed (totally on brand to hear it from a slavic girl). Regulation, fair taxation, closing loopholes — these could help but no one seems willing to drive that change, because countries are just private businesses these days.
So I don’t have an answer but i feel like it’s the system that needs to be changed not just a chosen company or an industry.
Yeah, I hear you. It reminds me of that famous quote that it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
I think that even in the absence of clear answers, asking better questions is a decent start. If we collectively shifted away from the individualistic, “How can I be the most successful person in my bubble?” towards “How can we design a society where everyone’s needs are met and everyone can reach their full potential?”, we’d start finding better solutions
For years, I convinced myself that the trick to surviving in this industry was to stay politely detached from whatever circus was unfolding inside a project and quietly balance it out with "real" things on the side. But when I hit 39, I realised I don’t want to dissociate from a third of my life. Haven’t figured out what to do with that yet, but it’s a relief to see I’m not alone here
welcome to the club :)
Such a great piece and I am glad I’ve found your substack. Beyond the overall shared sense of existential dread, point 1. hits home for me. For some of us, being “creative” is a coping mechanism we’ve acquired since being young kids with a higher tendency of going inward more than often. And we’ve learned tons for looking inside this long.
I’d argue the majority of us is made of a more permeable material than others, that’s why our creativity being used “against” us in corporate settings is such a losing deal.
I’m not an awarded ECD feeling the burn, but as a creative working in pharma (unfortunately this is where I ended up) I see no ethics in what I do for a living. It’s just a grind to pay the bills.
May we all heal.
Thank you for the article. I wonder if that's the same with the guys from Wall St., what do they feel selling their souls to make big unethical money?
On a side note. You've mentioned "live-streamed genocide". While it's not the main topic, I couldn't help wondering what exactly did you mean by that? If that's about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then please, do your research and stop helping the propaganda. Since when have the word "genocide" become just another fucking label? The conflict in question is so complicated that anyone who's casually labelling it just causes more suffering, helping the division of the people.
Otherwise, really great article, thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. The parallel you drew with Wall Street is a great point, and I agree it would be fascinating to hear from people in that world.
I also hear your concern about my use of a specific phrase, and I want you to know I don't use it lightly. You're right that it's a very politically and emotionally charged word.
For me, the term is warranted by the evidence. The International Court of Justice has found a plausible case that the Genocide Convention is being violated, and numerous respected historians and scholars of genocide, including many Jewish voices, have used this term to describe the events. While I know the term is heavily debated, I believe we must have the courage to name what we are seeing.
This doesn't diminish the horror of the October 7th attacks, which were atrocious. As you say, this conflict is complicated, but for me, that complexity can’t preclude us from having difficult conversations. Every human life is priceless, and a path to peace has to start with acknowledging the suffering of all, and avoiding the trap of viewing some lives as more valuable than others
Que texto lindo!!! ser criativo demais as vezes é terrível e assustador em uma sociedade que esta mais focada em resultados numéricos de suas obras do que entender o que essa obra quis dizer. Estou feliz de ter lido esse texto e perceber que nessa maré que somos obrigados a tampar os olhos para navegar, existe pessoas que querem tirar essas vendas e dizer o quão incomodadas estão e a principalmente falar que fazer o que mais amamos está nos machucando. Muito obrigado ; )
The tension has always been there - as "Advertising and Marketing" being positioned as a creative industry, closer to art than the manipulation of people to drive profit and commercial value for shareholders, is the ultimate piece of creativity. There's two groups: those who recognise their job is to produce work which stands out and drives commercial numbers, and have embraced a level of acceptance with it; and those who believe this is a creative industry, and then are let down when their values and boundaries are continually challenged and tested. You can be "creative" in any industry, and the power of ideas, storytelling and influence can be applied to so many spaces that aren't selling razors or insurance. We need to let go of the notion that "creative people" need to work in the "creative industry", and seek roles where our skills can be applied to different types of goals. There's hope for anyone with the skills and aspiration to change and influence and inform and educate and inspire - the work is there, but the best work doesn't sit in agencies, and it certainly isn't restricted to the 'creative industries'.