At MAD//Fest this year, our Executive Creative Director Paul Hewitt took to the stage and dropped a truth bomb on the industry: We be rotting.

 

Not physically (phew), but creatively. Social content has become a brand soup of recycled ideas, algorithm-chasing, and brands desperately trying to be “relatable.” And audiences? They’re bored out of their brains.

“Creativity has become a luxury,” Paul said. “A scarcity, alienated by the very process of cultural optimisation.”

In other words: we’ve over-optimised ourselves into oblivion. Everyone’s posting the same thing, in the same tone, using the same trending audio and hoping for the same result.

“We’re in a world of creative surplus defined by algorithms. Brands have commoditized authenticity to within an inch of its life. People want something else.”

And what is that something else? Originality. Drama. Surprise. Personality. The stuff that makes people feel something—not just scroll past.

Paul put it best:

“If you’re gonna try and sell to me, you’d better make it entertaining or else.”

Because guess what? Social is now an ICK. Not because people hate platforms but because they hate how brands act on them. Formulaic, filtered, and flat.

So…what Now?

Time to stop trying to “fit in” and start doing what social was made for: cutting through.

At That Lot, we’ve made a career out of helping brands break the rules in the best way. We create work that earns attention, starts conversations, and actually gives people a reason to care.

Want in? Hit us up at info@thatlot.co.uk