I Said What I Said: The Year of Magical Thinking

Dear people of adland,

In the unrelenting hustle of our industry, where we constantly compete to captivate people at scale by peddling magic, whilst confronting the assault of algorithms, data, more data, the greed for more data, the FOMO of not having enough data, this holiday season, let’s pause and make time to reflect on a question: Do we, the architects of persuasion, genuinely and sufficiently believe in the enchantment we sell?

 

The Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2022 was Permacrisis – a term for an extended period of instability and insecurity. An apt description of the challenges we faced and face. In 2023, the word of the year is AI – a term that describes the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs.

Therein lies a pattern so impossible to ignore that I must write this letter to you, to us.

 

As we navigate through the current dystopian landscape, where reasons to be lighthearted can sometimes be as scarce as humility on Instagram, we also find ourselves amid the looming presence of artificial intelligence – an entity that promises to transform us as much as it threatens to render us obsolete. It can feel disorienting. Like listening to two very different songs at the same time.

 

But this is not a reason to binge on denial or indulge in any self-delusion. All of that is so last season.

 

Our infatuation with tech and data is understandable. Precision, after all, is the elixir of modern advertising. But in our relentless pursuit of numerical perfection, will we inadvertently sacrifice the ethereal? Have we inadvertently sacrificed the ethereal, the intangible, the inexplicable – the magic that once shaped, and propelled our industry.

 

Close your eyes and picture this: a room filled with brilliant, mathematically skilled minds engrossed in the sorcery of analytics, where the air is thick with the scent of overpriced coffee and the soft, persevering hum of computers. The realm of creativity reduced to a series of algorithms; the excitement of possibility eclipsed by the reassurance of certainty, as if inspiration were just another data point waiting to be graphed.

In this landscape of binary obsession, let’s engage with the audacious idea of serendipity and chance. Of believing in magic. A notion so quaint, it’s almost charming. The kind of charm that feels like it may have been obscured by the undeterred glare of blinking screens, the unwavering march for precision in the name of progress.

 

Magic, as I am proposing, is not a manifesting hack on TikTok or a frivolous concept confined to The Holidays. It is our oxygen. The very lifeblood of our craft, our trade, our industry. A tool that is indispensable every day, all the time. I know and you know that it is the key that unlocks doors, to reimagine what is possible. Believing in magic delivers resilience in the face of uncertainties, inspiration that transcends the mundane and the courage to do what’s not been done, create what’s not been made. Magic is our conduit to creativity.

 

Joan Didion is one of my favourite writers. I have read all five of her novels and most of her nonfiction. ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ is one of the most compelling and captivating books I have read. In the spirit of that narrative let us declare 2024 to be The Year of Magical Thinking. A year when we the people of adland rediscover and reclaim the art of believing in something beyond the confines of algorithms and statistical certainties. As we navigate these shifting times and currents of change, let magic be the wry smile that accompanies our collective journey – a subtle acknowledgement of the magic in the irony that, in a world obsessed with data, it is the intangible that truly sets us free.

 

The holidays are almost here. It is a time of the year that makes me want to read Didion and write letters.

 

Happy Holidays. May they be magical for us all.