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You Didn’t Choose That Thought. It Was Chosen for You

You scrolled.
You paused.
You liked, reposted, laughed, shook your head.
And just like that—a seed was planted. A preference shaped. An emotion nudged.
You didn’t notice.
You weren’t supposed to.

This is not advertising as you know it.
This is not the billboard screaming “BUY THIS.”
This is not the banner ad you skipped on YouTube.

This is the invisible ad—the one that never announces itself, that never asks for your attention, because it’s already working beneath it.

We have entered the era of passive persuasion, where your identity, your politics, your choices are influenced by systems so ambient, so embedded, you mistake them for your own reflection.

You think you’re making decisions.
You’re reacting to design.

The Death of the Obvious Ad

We were trained to look for logos.
We were taught that advertising was about visibility.
That persuasion was about pushing, not pulling. About message, not membrane.

But those days are dead.

Today’s most effective ad is not an image or a slogan.
It’s the interface.
It’s the timing of a post.
It’s the platform bias that surfaces one narrative and buries another.
It’s the emotional velocity of a meme that disguises ideology as entertainment.

Advertising didn’t disappear.
It became everything else.

The Architecture of Influence

Let’s map the system that now governs attention:

1. Signal Hijack

Your senses are gamed before your mind even wakes up.
Designers don’t just choose colors—they calibrate for cortisol.
Copywriters don’t just use words—they borrow the grammar of trust from family, from spirituality, from protest.

You feel safe. Seen. Stimulated. But this isn’t comfort—it’s engineered consent.

2. Emotion Laundering

Most modern persuasion isn’t logical. It’s somatic.
That warm nostalgic TikTok?
That ironic leftist meme?
That perfectly timed AI-generated “spontaneous” tweet?
Each is a trojan horse—emotionally triggering, cognitively disarming.

The brain opens before it asks questions.

3. Context Erosion

Persuasion thrives in chaos.
When you consume headlines without articles.
When your feed scrolls faster than your thought.
When you mistake familiarity for truth.

There’s no time to think.
Only time to react.

When Politics Becomes a Brand, and Brands Become Your Politics

This isn’t just advertising anymore.
This is governance by meme.

Political messages are embedded in beauty trends.
Civic values are sold like sneakers.
Propaganda isn’t broadcast—it’s crowd-sourced.

Influencers now soft-launch ideologies.
Micro-targeted ads whisper to your fear center.
And language—once public property—is now owned by the platforms that decide what can trend.

Truth didn’t die.
It was quietly outperformed.

The Brain Can’t See the Frame It’s Trapped In

Here’s the most terrifying part:

The more personalized the ad, the less you recognize it as an ad.
Because it speaks your language. Feeds your belief. Reinforces your bias.

You don’t feel manipulated.
You feel validated.
That’s the design.

“The best manipulation leaves you certain you arrived at the idea yourself.”

The invisible ad doesn’t change your mind.
It becomes it.

How to See the Invisible

We don’t need more ad blockers.
We need cognitive firewalls.

We need a generation of readers who ask not just “What is this saying?”
—but “Why am I seeing it?”
—and “Who benefits if I believe this?”

The new strategist doesn’t sell identity.
They protect it.
The new creator doesn’t harvest attention.
They reclaim it.

And the new citizen?
They stop mistaking convenience for truth.

You don’t need to go off-grid.
You need to see the grid for what it is:
A reality-shaping machine powered by your attention, primed by your emotions, and governed by systems you never voted for.

But now you’ve seen the outline.
And that means power.

Because once you can see the architecture—
You can redesign it.

This is not about rejecting influence.
It’s about reclaiming authorship.
Of your choices.
Your identity.
Your internal narrative.

The world is full of invisible scripts.
You can either follow them.
Or write your own.

So here’s the real question:

Are you just an audience?
Or are you ready to be a strategist of your own mind?

Why Agencies Must Stop Selling AI Videos to Brands That Can Afford Humans

There’s something off in the air lately.
You feel it too, right?

AI is everywhere. In our workflows. In our brainstorms. Now in our videos.
But the problem isn’t the tool.

It’s who’s using it—and why.

The wealthiest brands on Earth…

…are now cutting costs on creativity.
Not because they have to.
Because they can.

Multinationals. Banks. Telcos. Luxury giants.
All of them have the money to hire real directors. Real actors. Real crews.

Instead, they’re asking for AI-generated everything.
Because it’s faster. Cheaper. Cleaner. No egos. No union hours. No mess.

But here’s the cost no one’s talking about:

Every time a mega-brand uses AI to replace a human creator, a door quietly closes somewhere in our industry.

AI was supposed to level the playing field.

Instead, it’s being used to bulldoze the little guys.

For years, small businesses, NGOs, and startups couldn’t afford high-end production.
Now, with AI tools, they finally have access to the big leagues.

That’s a good thing. That’s progress.
But when global corporations with billion-dollar budgets start using the same shortcuts?

It’s not innovation.
It’s exploitation.

It’s like the CEO showing up at the food bank.

Agencies, we need to draw a line.

What if we made a pact?
Not a legal one—a moral one.

What if WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, Dentsu, and Havas could all agree on this. We do not sell AI video production to clients who can afford to pay humans.

Simple as that.

If you’re a major brand, you want a campaign?
Great. Hire a team. Book a studio. Feed the industry you profit from.

Save the AI shortcuts for those who truly need them.
Not for the top 1% to make even more with even less.

What we risk losing is more than jobs.

We lose mentorship.
We lose artistry.
We lose nuance.
We lose culture made by people, not pattern-matching algorithms.

And worst of all?
We normalize the idea that creativity is disposable.

That human input is optional.
That good enough is good enough—as long as it’s cheap.

This isn’t about being anti-AI.

It’s about being pro-choice—for creators, for clients, for culture.

AI can be a tool for empowerment.
But only if we choose to wield it with conscience.

The rich don’t need help making things faster and cheaper.
The rest of us do.

So to every agency out there:

Let the giants pay.

Let the small rise.

Let’s build a future where AI helps the underfunded create—
not helps the overfunded extract.

Two years ago, marketers used ChatGPT to draft blog posts.
Today, those who kept up are using AI to rebuild their entire marketing departments.

The shift is deeper than most realize.
We’re not just automating tasks.
We’re replacing entire teams with in-house AI agents.

And most agencies?
They won’t survive it.

The Hidden Transformation

Most small businesses are still stuck in 2023.
They think AI means asking ChatGPT for content ideas.
They don’t see what’s really happening.

But the smartest brands already do.

They don’t outsource anymore.
They build internal systems powered by custom GPTs and Gemini agents.
AI workflows that replicate the core functions of a digital agency—only faster, cheaper, and more aligned to the brand.

This isn’t a theory. It’s live.

The In-House Revolution

Here’s how it works.

Smart businesses now set up:

  • A brand-trained content engine that writes SEO-rich posts, links properly, and follows brand tone.
  • An internal brand assistant that remembers every meeting, every product detail, every customer persona.
  • A PR strategist that drafts releases and finds outreach targets.
  • A design agent that adapts templates to new offers and launches.
  • A media buyer that helps test and optimize ads.

Each of these is an AI.
Each one improves over time.
Each one lives inside the business.

So instead of paying $10,000 a month to an agency, they pay a few hundred for intelligent workflows that never sleep, forget, or outsource your voice.

The Future of Marketing Is Internal

Let’s break it down.

If you’re a business with under $2,000/month to spend on marketing
You’ll use software that does everything in-house.
Blog posts. Ads. Funnels. Designs. Email. All done instantly with your data and tone.

If you’re spending $2,000–$20,000/month
You won’t hire an agency.
You’ll hire an AI architect to build systems tailored to your brand.
One-time setup, continuous payoff.

Only if you’re spending over $50,000/month
Will it still make sense to bring in elite humans.
The visionaries. The top-tier creatives.
Even then, they’ll work with your AI stack—not in place of it.

Why Digital Agencies Will Vanish

This is the part people don’t want to hear:

Most digital marketing agencies will go extinct.

Not because marketing dies.
But because the need to outsource it dies.

Small and medium businesses will realize they don’t need external teams when internal systems do a better job.

And once that realization hits, it’s over.

Agencies that don’t evolve will fade.
The few that survive will become AI consultants, builders, or strategic partners—no longer execution factories.

The Only Thing AI Can’t Replace

What still matters?

Judgment.
Insight.
Taste.

The ability to ask the right question.
To find the right story.
To decide what not to do.

Everything else—copy, design, ads, funnels—is systematized and scalable.

Your only competitive edge will be your mind.

By 2027, marketing won’t be something you outsource.


It will be something you run internally, powered by your own intelligent agents.

Businesses that realize this will move faster, grow leaner, and make better decisions.

Those that don’t?
They’ll keep paying bloated retainers for work AI could have done better in seconds.

The age of digital agencies is ending.
Not because they failed.
But because they’re no longer necessary.

images via @freepic

What Are We Rewarding?

Every June, the high priests of creativity descend on Cannes
to baptize consumerism in gold.

We wear the right linen.
Whisper the right buzzwords.
Applaud campaigns that make the world feel better
—while keeping the system exactly as it is.

But maybe the question isn’t what wins.
Maybe it’s why we’re still awarding anything that worships the market above all.

Capitalism Makes a Poor Muse

We’ve mistaken reach for relevance.
Profit for purpose.
Cleverness for conscience.

Advertising was never neutral—
But now we award its best lies,
its cleanest distractions,
its highest-performing manipulations.

If the work doesn’t question the system—
It upholds it.

And we celebrate that?
We dress it in titanium?

Glass is the Only Lion That Breaks the Spell

The Glass Lion doesn’t care about ROI.
It asks: Who was empowered?
What inequality was challenged?
Did this leave behind justice—not just impressions?

And here’s what’s radical:

  • The work doesn’t have to sell.
  • It has to liberate.
  • It has to leave behind proof of dignity restored.

That’s not capitalism.
That’s creative resistance, its the only award that really matters in a post pandemic world full of wars, volatility, and injustice! This one should be the one you always aim for as an agency!

Everything Else Is Complicity in Couture

Let’s tell the truth:

Most Cannes Lions go to work that pleases the system.
They flatter the world as it is.
They use rebellion as branding—but stay loyal to power.

We give Gold to campaigns that simulate empathy
without ever shifting structures, without even changing culture, without even changing the world better.

They don’t challenge capitalism.
They accessorize it.

Time to Flip the Script

What if Cannes wasn’t built around categories that serve the market—
but around ones that dismantle its harm?

What if we would expand the notion of Glass into every category—not as a side dish, but the main course.

Because a Lion that doesn’t protect the people?

It’s just a logo with teeth.

An Award Show or an Autopsy?

Cannes faces a choice.

It can continue to be an arena for marketing’s most exquisite distractions—
or it can become a stage for work that actually moves us forward.

But that means one thing:

Decenter capitalism.
Center impact.
Make awards serve justice, not just sales.

Not all creativity deserves applause.
Not all lions deserve gold.

Until every award is held to the standard of the Glass,
we’re just clapping for the architects of decline of our future!

If your creativity feeds the system and not the people—
you don’t deserve a Lion.

Why AI-Generated Ads Are Killing the One Thing Money Can’t Buy: Meaning

There is something unsettling about watching a machine try to seduce you.

It can generate images of silk, gold, and bone structure so symmetrical it feels divine. It can mimic opulence with terrifying precision. But you walk away cold. Not because it wasn’t beautiful—but because no one bled for it.

Luxury, at its core, is not a product. It is a performance of care. A theater of intention. A whisper that says: “Someone made this. And they made it for you.”

That whisper dies the moment a brand discloses: This ad was generated by AI.

And consumers—instinctively, almost viscerally—pull back.

This isn’t speculation. In March 2025, researchers at Tarleton University’s Sam Pack College of Business conducted a series of experiments that lifted the veil on AI in luxury advertising.

They found that when people were told an ad was AI-generated, their perception of the brand soured—even if the ad itself was flawless. It wasn’t the aesthetics that offended. It was the implication that no human effort was involved. No obsession. No sleepless nights. Just pixels, puppeteered by code.

Because in luxury, effort is the aura. You’re not buying the bag, the scent, the silk—you’re buying the story of the hands that made it.

“Luxury without labor is just a JPEG with a price tag.”

AI doesn’t yearn. It doesn’t dream. It doesn’t understand what it means to long for something across a lifetime and finally touch it. And so when it speaks the language of luxury, it sounds like a tourist repeating poetry phonetically. The form is there. But the soul is missing.

In the same study, researchers found something else. When AI-generated visuals were truly original—surreal, impossible, avant-garde—the backlash weakened. Consumers were more forgiving when the machine dared to be weird, not just perfect. Novelty redeemed automation. Why? Because it felt like art, not optimization.

This is the thin line AI must walk: between mimicry and magic. Between replication and revelation.

What brands must now realize is this: you can’t fake the sacred.

You can’t outsource reverence. Not when your entire mythology is built on the illusion of effort, exclusivity, and the impossible-to-scale. When luxury becomes scalable, it becomes ordinary. And nothing kills desire faster than convenience.

The real scandal isn’t that AI is being used. It’s how cheaply it’s being used.
Not as a collaborator in creation—but as a replacement for it.

“We don’t fall in love with perfection—we fall in love with presence.”

So what now? Must we banish AI from the house of beauty?

No. But it must be tamed. Not in the name of nostalgia, but in the name of mystery.

Let it enhance the myth—not expose the machinery. Let it generate visions too strange for human hands—but never let it erase the hands entirely. Let it serve the story—not become the storyteller.

Use it to deepen the dream. Not to save on production costs.

“The new luxury isn’t scarcity. It’s soul.”

AI can make images. But it cannot make meaning.
Because meaning requires longing. It requires imperfection. It requires a face behind the mask.

And so, in an age of perfect replicas, the true luxury will be this:

Proof that someone cared.

Based on the study “The Luxury Dilemma: When AI-Generated Ads Miss the Mark,”
Tarleton University, Sam Pack College of Business, March 2025.

This Isn’t an Update. It’s an Extinction Event.

Meta just announced what should have shaken the global creative industry to its core:

By 2026, ad campaigns will be fully automated.

Just feed Meta an image, a budget, and a goal—and their AI will generate every part of your campaign: visuals, text, video, targeting. In real time.

Personalized for every user. No agency. No copywriter. No designer. No strategist.

And the industry? Silent. Still posting carousels. Still selling 5-day Canva courses.

It’s not a pivot. It’s a purge.

If You Work in Advertising, Read This Slowly

Creative teams? Ghosted. Marketing departments? Hollowed out. Agencies? Replaced by pipelines.

Let’s be clear:

  • If your job is repetitive, it’s already done.
  • If your skillset can be described in a course, it can be eaten by code.
  • If you’re charging clients for templates, your business model is already obsolete.

Thousands are still paying to learn how to be performance marketers, media buyers, junior copywriters—unaware they’re being trained for roles that won’t exist in a just a few years!

Meta isn’t building a tool. It’s building a world where the only thing human in advertising is the budget.

What Happens When Every Ad Is Personalized?

Meta’s AI will generate campaigns based on:

  • Location
  • Behavioral patterns
  • Micro-emotions
  • Data trails you don’t even know you leave

What does that mean?

  • 10,000 versions of the same ad running simultaneously
  • Each one designed to bypass your defense mechanisms
  • No brand narrative. Just hyper-efficient persuasion loops

This isn’t advertising. It’s algorithmic mind control.

And it doesn’t require your input.

IV. The Collapse of the Traditional Agency Model

This is the end of:

  • 3-month campaign timelines
  • 7-person approval chains
  • “Big idea” presentations
  • Overpriced retainers for recycled strategy decks

Agencies that survive will mutate into one of three things:

  1. AI Wranglers
    Experts in prompt architecture, model fine-tuning, and campaign scenario training.
  2. Authenticity Studios
    Boutique teams crafting human-first stories for audiences fatigued by automation.
  3. Narrative Architects
    Strategists who build brand ecosystems too complex or contradictory for AI to fake.

Everything else? Dead weight.

What This Means for Students, Freelancers, and Creatives

Right now, there are thousands paying $499 to learn how to write Google Ads.
Tens of thousands enrolling in 12-week digital bootcamps to become paid media specialists.
Copywriters offering “conversion-optimized emails” on Fiverr for $15 a pop.

All being prepared for a battlefield that no longer exists.

It’s not just job loss. It’s a mass career hallucination.

The Only Skill That Survives This

Original thought.

Not templates. Not trends. Not tactics.

What Meta can’t automate is:

  • Contradiction
  • Taste
  • Nonlinear insight
  • Human risk
  • Deep cultural intuition

If your thinking is replaceable, it will be replaced. If your work is predictable, it’s already priced out by AI.

You don’t need to pivot. You need to become uncopyable (see below)

Choose Your Side

Meta is rewriting the rules of advertising.
This is a coup, not a campaign.
It rewards speed over soul. Efficiency over empathy. Replication over resonance.

But here’s your edge: AI can do everything except be you.

So ask yourself:

  • Are you building a skill or becoming a signal?
  • Are you crafting something human or repackaging noise?
  • Will your work be remembered in 10 years—or recycled in 10 seconds?

The agency era is ending.

The age of the uncopyable has just begun.

Why Weak Thinking Is Starving Creativity

A strange thing is happening in adland.

Budgets are holding. Tools are multiplying. Content is everywhere.
And yet—campaigns are feeling flatter, safer, forgettable.
We’re showing up more. But saying less.

According to Lions’ State of Creativity 2025 report, we now know why:

51% of brands say their insights are too weak to fuel bold creativity.

The very oxygen of original work—insight—is running low.

Creativity Isn’t Dead. It’s Malnourished.

The study surveyed 1,000 marketers and creatives globally.
Only 13% said they were “very good” at developing high-quality insights.
And over half admitted their strategic thinking wasn’t strong enough to support brave ideas.

This isn’t about copy or color palettes.
It’s about the starting point—the thinking beneath the campaign.

When that’s soft, everything collapses.
We don’t create culture. We decorate it.

The Great Disconnect

Here’s where it gets messier.

26% of brands believe they’re good at generating insights.
Only 10% of agencies agree.

That’s not a disagreement. That’s a misalignment.
And it shows up in the work: campaigns with zero tension, zero edge, and zero memory.

It’s a quiet crisis—because no one gets fired for playing it safe.
But no one gets remembered for it, either.

Why This Is Happening

The report points to three key reasons:

  1. No one agrees on what a “good insight” actually is.
    29% of agencies said the core problem is not knowing how to define it.
  2. Insight development isn’t prioritized.
    It’s not funded. It’s not briefed. It’s not protected.
    (But production timelines? Always urgent.)
  3. Brands struggle to react to culture in real time.
    57% said they can’t respond fast enough to cultural moments.
    Insight, by the time it surfaces, is already stale.

As one respondent put it:

“Capturing cultural moments requires real-time data and courage. But fear of failure gets in the way.”

What Insight Isn’t

  • It’s not a stat.
  • Not a demographic.
  • Not “Millennials love experiences.”
  • Not pulled from a deck last year and recycled today.

Insight is friction. It’s clarity on a human truth your category hasn’t touched yet.
It’s the gut-punch behind the campaign—not the headline.

Without it, the work may look good.
But it won’t feel anything.

What This Means for Brands

If creativity is how we stand out, insight is how we break in.
Into minds. Into culture. Into relevance.

Without it, your ad becomes wallpaper.
With it, your ad becomes signal.

And right now, in an industry that can generate 10,000 versions of an idea with AI in under a minute,insight is the last unfair advantage.

This isn’t a creativity crisis. It’s a thinking one.

We’ve never had more tools, more channels, more data—
and yet, we keep mistaking noise for impact.

Without real insight, we’re just adding color to the void.
Insight is what gives a campaign a spine, a soul, and a shot at mattering.
Without it, we’re not communicating—we’re just performing.

And in a world flooded with content,
only the brands that see deeper will ever be seen at all.

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