Ep 93 | Let's bring the fun back to advertising with Hackett Brooks cover art

Ep 93 | Let's bring the fun back to advertising with Hackett Brooks

Ep 93 | Let's bring the fun back to advertising with Hackett Brooks

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 Remember when advertising was fun?It wasn’t that long ago, really. You’d spend your days goofing off, grinding on the work and playfully exploring new possibilities for your clients. It was pretty damn cool.What happened?🐱 Creativity and fun have been squeezed out by business pressures and risk-aversion🐱 Collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas between departments has decreased🐱 Speed is overemphasized at the expense of thoughtful creative development🐱 There is a lack of trust/psychological safety to take creative risks🐱 Many workplaces have become joyless and overly constrained, with fear of lawsuits and HR issues around potentially offensive contentSome of the funniest jokes or stories I’ve heard are the ones that made me uncomfortable. Should I be laughing at this? Yes. Because you don’t have a choice. Laughter is the most pure human reaction. It can’t be restrained. Or if you try you’re likely to piss your pants or let out one of those awkward farts that shuts a room down, fast.Brands that get this are the ones who make lifelong connections with people. They realize the best way to sell stuff to people is to help them see that you are people too. Real, awkward, fumbling. Insightful, hopeful, grateful.The 3 co-founders of Hackett Brooks get this. And they’re building an agency to help brands use comedy as a platform for creating work that makes people laugh, cry or fart their way into brand love and loyalty.Robb Hittner, Jordan Atlas and Steve Mallory are quite funny guys. But their work isn’t just about crafting funny spots. It’s about infusing the whole work experience with comedy thinking. It’s about making work itself fun.How do they do it?By taking everything an agency does and inverting it. It starts with the team itself. It’s not the typical collection of writers and art directors. It’s folks from sketch comedy, scripted TV and improv working alongside traditional brand talent. And it’s all about finding the inherent humor in a brand or product, not stapling jokes on top of an unfunny message.Their mission?🐱 To elevate comedy/humor as a respected business strategy and creative approach🐱 To create workplaces where all employees can contribute creatively, not just "creatives"🐱 To develop brand communications people actively seek out and share🐱 And, here’s my favorite: To bring more joy and laughter into work and advertisingWe need more funny in the world.Life is hard, heavy, confusing, frustrating and unfair. The only way we survive is if we can laugh at all of it.We had more than a few laughs during our conversation. Rob, Jordan and Steve feel like friends you’ve had for ages, as soon as you meet them.(If you enjoy this episode, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)Let the desuckifying begin.You can follow Hackett Brooks on LinkedIn. And check out their site at hackettbrooks.com to learn more about their approach. You can also send an email to hello@hackettbrooks.com if you’d like to connect with the team.If you enjoyed the conversation and would like to help your teams bring their absolute best to work, I invite you to schedule a free half-hour discovery session. Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt!Bye, everyone!Bonus question from the guys to our audience:There is a lot of hope around our ability to make work better in the DesuckifyWork® podcast episodes. For people who listen, does that hope feel real? Where does it sit on a scale of 1 to 10?If you’d like to watch the episode on YouTube, please click here. Get full access to DesuckifyWork® at tjbennett.substack.com/subscribe
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