The word ‘feel’ isn’t a buzzword.
It’s the antithesis of AI. It’s GI, but without the guilt of gluten. Gut Intelligence.
And it’s unlikely to make it into research matrices or marketing scorecards.
But trust your gut.
If a room full of people are convincing themselves that the idea will still be the same without that mildly contentious scene, or that adding just one more product shot won’t kill the ad, you’ll feel it if you’re properly paying attention.
A blossoming of blasted doubt.
And it’s the easiest thing in the world to ignore.
But that silence from you? What you left unsaid? Will echo in every editing suite, every time the client claps you on the back, or every time fellow creatives tell you it’s so well crafted.
It will haunt you from beyond the creative grave.
It can happen for all sorts of reasons.
When you first start out you can convince yourself that it’s because you don’t know enough to offer your opinion. Then you’re finally invited into the meetings and mostly out of self-preservation, you remain silent.
And it goes further than the work itself.
As a leader, that off-colour comment from a colleague that you laugh off could be what erodes your culture. Not giving the junior creatives credit for their help on an award-winning job could cost you a team’s trust.
You’re probably already feeling it now. That you’re one bad decision away from defying what your gut tells you. And you know exactly which decision.
Whatever just came to you, is the one you need to address.
It’s the hardest, easiest thing to say. This just doesn’t feel right.
But because you’re a professional, you’ll put it prettier than that.
And it takes courage, courage of your very subjective convictions, and the wisdom of all your experience, to voice what probably everyone in the room subconsciously knows.
This isn’t the right call.
It’s uncomfortable. But the truth is known to be inconvenient. And grown-ups in advertising can handle the truth.
You may become the most unpopular person in the room. It will feel like pain in the short term.
But trust us, the real pain is leaving your truth unspoken. Knowing it’s wrong and staying quiet. That will bring you the big doubts in the small hours.
Yes, you’ll have to take a stand. And you know that they’ll wonder where that came from.
Tell them it’s intuition.
It’s the magic of logic that proves a gut-brain connection better than any influencer touting overnight oats.
Tell them it’s what you are paid for. But it also happens to be what you are born to do.
To be braver than a room high on their own supply. To be uncompromising when it comes to work that you know, deep down in your gut, will work. To lead by example. To boldly go.
So, if the work feels wrong, if the agency-client relationship feels wrong, if your agency feels wrong, it probably is.
But you knew that before we said anything.
In your gut.
