The Daily Slop

“Style over substance has never stopped us before” says Jean Lacron, CEO of AI-powered advertising agency, Blundr. 

The biggest technological revolution in over two hundred years needn’t require any actual transformation for agencies. That’s the view of one prominent CEO who is adamant that a website refresh and a new LinkedIn bio should be all it takes for agencies to be ‘AI-ready’. 

Jean Lacron – an industry veteran who in his own words is “no stranger to putting lipstick on pigs” – believes most advertising agencies are wasting precious time by attempting to educate themselves on new technologies and should instead focus on what he calls the “fur coat and no knickers” approach. 

“Sometimes we’re prone to overthinking new technology in our industry. When digital marketing came along we spent months at Blundr working with consultants to understand how banner ads worked. In the end, we just dropped a vowel from our name and carried on making TV ads.” 

Despite years of dwindling margins, an industry-wide talent drainage and general market sentiment that advertising agencies are royally fucked, Lacron believes the key to success for agencies lies simply in sprinkling the term ‘AI’ as liberally as possible across all agency comms. 

“Website, creds decks, press releases, reception murals…wherever there are words, agencies need to make sure those two magic letters are in there somewhere.”

Lacron also advises agency bosses not to get preoccupied with the truth when it comes to using terms like ‘AI-powered’ and ‘AI-first’ in its communications.  

“The best bit is that these terms are essentially meaningless. It’s very hard for anyone to prove that something is or isn’t powered by AI, because almost all AI technology is completely fabricated in the first place.” 

He adds that with most clients too concerned with being labelled as luddites to bother interrogating how their agency actually uses AI, there’s never been a better opportunity for bosses to prolong their agency’s existence.  

“I’ve got no idea what an AI-powered creative workflow is or why anyone would even need one. But if it buys Blundr another few years so I can sell it to WPP and retire in Portugal then frankly, I couldn’t care less.”