Bureau of Bad Decisions

31/03/2025

When I was growing up and thinking about what I wanted to do, it was advertising—it was about leading lemmings off a cliff. Now I want and we need to lead them up a hill.

26/03/2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuh5umLxGaQ

music video for a classic

31/12/2024

This is the Tuas Lamp Post 1. It's located at the westernmost point of mainland Singapore, possibly one of the ugliest, most industrial and boring to get to places in the country. It's a pole. People put stickers on it and they, of course, take selfies.

It represents incontrovertible proof that you don't have to spend a huge budget to create something meaningful and sharable for an audience with high spending power: cyclists who routinely spend 400 on shoes, 12K for a bike and hundreds more on other accessories and upkeep. Hell. If there was a t-shirt for the pole, I'd probably have one.

I think there's probably something in your brand or product that you've been overlooking, an asset that might even seem a little asinine. I bet after a few left turns and bumps, I could help find it.

29/12/2024

https://markmastersonbobd.substack.com/p/your-brief-future

The difference is brief

AI might be doing its best to bludgeon creative, there is one Rosetta Stone of reason that might be the saviour for all effectiveness.

At its best, it translates the brilliance, bombast, and beauty of human desire into the unique voice of a brand.

In a world of AI-generated grey, it remains our last cipher for decoding real human want, brand desire and client interpretation.

Misguided in method and loss of experience, has meant the client brief has been lost.

In 2024, we watched agencies trade wisdom and institutional knowledge for algorithmic efficiency.

Traded the poetry of desire for the prose of data.

Lost the ability to translate human truth or even emotion into creative direction.

2025 doesn't need another optimization tool.

It needs interpreters of desire.

Readers of human hearts.

Translators of truth.

It needs to see basic and good, but build to correct the course that AI and consolidation has set.

The brief isn't just a document.

It's the origin of original connections.

2025 isn't just the start of a new year - it's our chance to restart how we think about the entire process.

We see something coming together over a Brief Conversation™.

Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/gcYs-dPQ

hashtag hashtag hashtag #2025 hashtag

30/10/2024

Time in the US last week had me spending time with my old friend Traci, who I've not seen in person in at least 15 years, despite working remotely from Singapore! ✨ We collaborated on a new campaign launch - from STL for SG and executed in Canada. ✈️ Really great to catch up and share some laughs and stories you can only tell in person. 😄

30/07/2024

we won some things... the the entry fee, you'd think they'd include the trophy...

30/07/2024

https://www.bureauofbaddecisions.com/store

Fore those that may've been interested in some of the Tro-Tros Go shirts from my time in Ghana or some others, I just went live on my portfolio site...

09/11/2021