Working in Advertising Gives You a Super Power

The advertising industry is experiencing a talent crunch at the moment. We need to attract the next generation of young, ambitious creative talent. The ones that now have side hustles, content creators, young entrepreneurs who believe they can change the world…

And this got me thinking about a thirteen-year-old entrepreneurial Victoria Beckham. (Before she was a posh spice). Victoria was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up.

VICTORIA: “I want to be famous”

INTERVIEWER: “So, who’s your role model?”

VICTORIA: “I want to be like PERSIL washing powder”

This little girl recognised the power of a brand. She didn’t want to be just famous; she wanted to be a household brand.

Years later, Victoria became a member of the Spice Girls. And WOW what a fucking brand they created. The spice girls exploded into pop culture in the '90s with their own unique style of 'Positively Bonkers' a Zig-a-Zig Ah!

They instantly got in to pop culture.

The Spice Girls rubbed against the popular mainstream laddish culture of the time, they existed in a music business dominated by men and boy bands. The spice girls had attitude and swagger to match, they inspired and empowered all girls. All shapes, sizes and colours, from sporty girls, to posh girls – raucous outspoken black girls, even ginger girls. They gave ALL girls the confidence to be who they wanted to be.

And they had one simple big active idea:

Girl Power. It’s now 2021 and ‘Girl Power’ has grown up, all those young impressionable girls have grown up with Girl Power. They have become captains of industry, business leaders and politicians. Girl power has grown up and is now kicking the world into shape. The spice girls wanted to be far bigger than just four girls singing on a stage. The spice girls became a brand, that brand gave the world GIRL POWER and this has helped change the world forever.

That’s the super power of brand. It’s an idea. AND ideas can change the world.

Let’s shout this more loudly and proudly to the next gen in classrooms, grad halls and maybe even in an industry wide campaign, that advertising agencies are where you learn how to unleash the POWER of BRAND.

We need to excite young creative people about the power of brand, how brands can change the world. How brands build business, how brands touch our lives and impact the world. We need the optimists who are a little bonkers who believe they can change the future. We should have an unfair share of them, but we don’t. 

Too many see advertising as an old industry losing its relevancy in today’s world. Yet for side-hustling, aspiring entrepreneurs we have never been more relevant. We need to proudly and more loudly assert that creative agencies are the best place to learn how to create and build famous brands. For it’s never been more important. 

I’m not from planet Krypton, I’m from Grimsby. I haven’t been bitten by a radio-active spider, but I have worked in the advertising industry for over twenty years and I do have another kind of super power.

The power of brand building. 

And who doesn’t want to learn a super power.