the hottest creative? humans sleeping

bringing art direction and campaigns back to who we really are

Lately, whenever I see something, like the above tile, it appeals to me greatly. In this era’s never-ending global alignment, when something feels more human, different, unclouded by words like dem*^%& and B%@* summer, I feel free.

So, I love this tile. It showed up on my IG feed with the caption: “Italy, made by time.” Honestly, there are so many perfectly crafted, organic lines of copywriting out there. What happens, I think, is that agencies decide on a style, or defer to the tastes and proclivities of the most senior members of the team, and so all of our work flattens, becomes the same.

Our memetic, trend compulsion doesn’t only live on social. As my mom said in the Apollo Bagels line last week—if my friends and I were wearing the same outfit, we’d make someone change. It’s made working worse. Jargon has accelerated. Of course, some of it is necessary, but in many cases, we are hiding. We are not saying what is, or we’re making something sound like something else. I find this to be odd. I think this transfers to our outputs. All of this artifice, or structures that make us feel safe or sound “smarter” to our immediate colleagues, are then applied to how we all show up in the world. It’s why we all start to use words like bespoke, when they don’t resonate at all.

What’s enabling a series of brilliant, more human creative from British Airways and Sennheiser? I think liberation from this circularity. We all have our own style, our own humanness, and that is the greatest source of originality. Accessing this—nebulous sublime thing—no matter what field we are in, matters. Allowing for less certainty, more “what if” or, more imperfect perfection, makes what we are a part of feel realer.

Much of creative and art direction now has that Her movie sheen. We understand that we have arrived in the alternate future timeline and brands have decided to weaponize it against us.

The agencies behind British airways and Sennheiser are building effective campaigns because they are showing us in our simple humanness. How did we stray so far from it, from a sense of something? Ads used to be like these.

Look at the British Airways copy: The most peaceful spot in New York. Then London. And the Sennheiser copy: Batter that lasts longer than yours. But most importantly look at what these ads show: people sleeping. That’s it. Look at us, in our tiredness. Not a performed “hot mess” sleepiness. Just real sleep. Who we are. Back to the universal. We all do it. Look at these intimate shots.

We aren’t always optimized. We’re just human. Isn’t it nice to see?