“I See the World Sideways”: Why Lucky Generals CCO Shelley Smoler Is Always Reframing the Way We See Things

​Shelley Smoler views creativity as a practice of contradiction – balancing instinct with interrogation, boldness with logic, and spontaneity with structure. The Lucky Generals’ chief creative officer believes creativity thrives when people step away from advertising references and absorb the world around them, asking questions, reframing perspectives, and challenging assumptions.

According to creativity researchers, there are four sides to creativity. Person (personality, habits, thoughts), product (the thing that results from creative activity), process (how you work), and press (environment factors, education, and other external factors) all play a part. So, we figured, let’s follow the science to understand your art. Creativity Squared is a feature on LBB that aims to build a more well-rounded profile of creative people. In this special live instalment of the format, the CCO of one of the UK’s most admired agencies used this framework to explain how she sees her creative leadership at MAD//Fest London 2025.

In the interview with LBB’s Alex Reeves, Shelley defines great creative work by its power to create change, whether shifting a mood, reframing an opinion, or even changing laws (as she did via ‘The Voiceless Campaign’ for The Zimbabwean newspaper in 2011). She encourages relentless curiosity, open collaboration, and building ideas through dialogue. For her, creativity isn’t a linear process but an evolving interplay of gut instinct, strategic thinking, and constant questioning

Watch the full interview video below.