You can’t leech off beige: Why most advertising appears anaemic

Advertising is at its best when it steals from culture. Not from trend reports or brand decks but from the strange, the raw, the barely legal energy pulsing through the world’s back rooms and underground scenes.

But what happens when there’s nothing left to steal?

The best ads weren’t written in meetings, they were lifted from late-night gigs, fringe theatre, DIY zines, and whatever strange energy was swirling around Camden at 2am. Advertising doesn’t lead culture. It leeches off it. But like any good parasite, its health depends entirely on the host, and right now, the host is anaemic.

Back when the crisps gave you cash

The ’90s weren’t just a creative golden age because the ad industry was brilliant. It was brilliant because everything else was “brilliant!” (said in an enthusiastic Manchester accent). Cool Britannia. Indie sleaze. Shock art. Culture was weird and messy and unserious.

You didn’t ask for permission or forgiveness. And when someone is slicing cattle in two for ‘art’, the boundaries of what’s possible (even acceptable) get pushed.

All the creative industries were feeding each other.

Music, fashion, art, film were all flirting with risk, and egging each other on. Advertising wasn’t the lead. It was the love child. A product of that messy, rebellious affair where risk felt possible again (and the recession was finally loosening its grip).

The best work came from the margins—because that’s where the magic was happening. And crucially, it was finally being funded. Risk was bankrolled. Strange was subsidised.

And yes, even the crisps were handing out fivers.

But now? That love child’s been bubble-wrapped by overprotective parents. Culture’s been rubber-cornered and safety-proofed.

Beige hosts make boring parasites

Advertising isn’t boring because it forgot how to be interesting. It’s boring because culture got too clean, too algorithmic, too...vanilla.

It’s not running out of ideas, it’s running out of stuff worth stealing.

When the music is samey, the fashion is beigey, and the fringe scenes are unfunded or invisible, advertising’s creative bloodstream runs dry.

We need more noise. More mess. More strange. And fewer clients dictating the rules.

Disruption is dead (long live the chaos)

“Disruption” has become the least disruptive word in the industry. It’s been briefed, focus-grouped, and turned into a slide template.

But real creative disruption? That needs cultural chaos.

The kind that can’t be tracked in KPIs. The kind that makes brands nervous and interns excited. The kind that doesn’t care what you think because it’s too busy building something better.

We keep asking advertising to be bolder. Maybe it’s time to ask the rest of society to be bolder, too.

If you want better Ads, fund the weirdos

You want original ideas? Fund them before they’re ideas.

Support the punk band that’s terrible but interesting. The art school grad making music from traffic lights. The queer performance collective rewriting Shakespeare in a swimming pool.

None of them are asking to make ads. But their work might birth one.

This is the ecosystem. Advertising needs culture that’s unfiltered, unexpected, and alive.

That means governments, arts councils and yes, brands need to start betting on culture again. Not just content.

What the industry can actually do

• Hire people who make strange stuff—not just clean decks.

• Use creative courses as idea labs, not just recruitment pipelines.

• Pay for play not just polish.

• Fund fringe collectives, not just Cannes entries.

• Protect the ideas that make no sense (yet).

• Stop pretending a case study equals cultural impact.

And if you’re serious about shaking things up?

Come test your weird with us.

Our students are up for it. Bring your boldest briefs. Your half-ideas. The stuff that feels too risky for the real world. Our students can explore it without the usual constraints.

No client sign-off. No commercial risk. Just space to experiment.

It’s a win-win: agencies get to see how wild ideas might play out, and students get to work on real, challenging briefs.

Get in touch.

Final feral thought

Advertising isn’t broken. It’s just underfed.

And if we want it to matter again, not just perform, we need to rebuild the world it steals from. That means funding the fringe.

So next time you see a piece of culture that feels alive, unpolished, maybe even a bit crap, don’t dismiss it.

Sponsor it.

Because from that dirt, something brilliant might crawl out.

Probably wearing sequins.