Why does so Much Work Still Ends Up as Landfill

I came across a quote last week that stuck with me. I can’t quite remember who said it exactly, so apologies if you are out there, message me and I can name drop you. 

It was something along the lines of: “95% of what the industry puts out there is landfill.”

Now, it sounds harsh, but I think most people would have a hard time arguing to the contrary when put on the spot.

Because let’s be honest, the volume of production going out these days is enormous. Everywhere you look, something’s launching. Something’s dropping. Something’s “going live.”

And yet, how much of it actually sticks around in the memory? 

How much of it do we remember?

How much of it even matters?

The more I look around, the more it feels like somewhere along the way, we traded creative clarity for sheer output. In the rush to stay visible, to fill content calendars, and to prove activity, we have started pushing out more and more, but saying less and less.

Which is why I think the quote got stuck in my head, because it’s bang on: A lot of noise. A lot of neatly packaged, on-brand, well-polished work that disappears the moment it hits the feed. 

In some cases, I think the industry has become almost too good at making things. The production pipeline is faster than ever. The tools with which we make stuff now are sharper. The budgets are leaner. But somewhere in that efficiency, the idea gets lost. Or, it never really existed in the first place.

And now, with AI entering the mix and internal teams under pressure to churn out more with less, we’re seeing that “sea of sameness” deepen even further. Everyone’s saying slightly different versions of the same thing, to slightly different versions of the same people.

It all starts to blur.

I can’t help but think that what we are missing, in a lot of cases, is just that little bit of conviction. Someone standing in the middle of the process and saying, “Why are we doing this?”

“What are we actually trying to say here?”

That kind of thinking takes time. It takes trust. It takes space. Which, unfortunately, in a lot of cases these days, we seem to make less and less time for.

But it still matters, maybe now more than ever, as brands struggle more and more to tell their stories.

Because the work that gets remembered now isn’t always the most polished or the most expensive. It’s the work that’s been built around an actual idea. Something with clarity, with a point of view, something a little clever.

I think we have reached the point now where we don’t need more content anymore.

We need better creative thinking behind the content we’re already making. Because we are already making a sh*tload!

So the food for thought this week: if you are a brand, it’s worth asking whether you’re chasing output or building something that’s actually going to stick.

And if you’re on the creative side, the question might be: are you just executing briefs, or shaping the kind of work that adds value?

Because it’s easy to keep feeding the machine.

It’s harder, but a lot more worthwhile, to ask whether the machine needs feeding in the first place.

Have a good week, everyone ✌🏻

Joe

Joe@unortdx.co

www.unortdx.co