A lot of people will say that landing great earned ideas right now is harder than ever. That’s probably the case. But. I think the reason behind that is we’ve become an industry of yes people. We’ve become too busy being people pleasers.

In many ways, I understand it. It’s a natural response to tough economic times. There’s a squeeze on budgets, a desire to keep hold of business at all costs, clients are under more pressure than ever to show brand impact. Above all, saying yes is just easier, isn’t it?

Saying yes to the demands of marketing clients — to make the logo bigger, to align slavishly to the strapline, to feature the product front-and-centre — is a slippery slope towards earned campaigns that lack bite, aren’t relevant to anyone beyond the brand manager, display a dearth of insight and sink without trace.

In saying yes we forget that our role is to engage consumers who mostly could not give a sh*t about the brands we work for. It’s not that they don’t like them, they just don’t think about them very often — if they notice them at all.

So too often we will say yes to; a pop-up that has no purpose beyond product promotion, a stunt that lacks relevance beyond the brand call-to-action, or partner with creators to make content that focuses on your new product ‘innovation.

It’s little surprise that the work appears nowhere other than in an agency LinkedIn post and a couple of marketing titles.

We need more situations in which someone agrees but asks, “what if we acquired some Sydney Sweeney-infused bathwater” for example. Or, “what if we put a sausage roll in a tourist attraction”?

It’s why we made f*ckiwishidthoughtofthat. We wanted to celebrate the times that brands didn’t just say yes and instead took the more interesting, more engaging and more relevant path. The ones where the ‘what if …’ idea was the idea they signed off.

To do it we need more time than often we are given to get it right. We need more support and louder, more persuasive voices around the marketing top table. We need more confidence in the power of our work to engage the public and drive meaningful commercial impact. Above all we need to summon the courage and stop being so ready to just say 'yes'.

Our top 10:

Apple TV's Severance Grand Central Terminal pop-up: A second season launch saw a glass box appear in the centre of Grand Central Terminal containing the actors in character. Who said making sure the right clauses are in the talents’ contracts isn’t an artform?

Google Pixel 9's Switch It Like Sol: Knowing that switching from an iPhone was hard, Google leant into a controversial move in a different category. The football internet exploded.

Mummy Pig's pregnancy announcement: Transforming a cartoon plot into a cultural sensation, Mummy Pig's — a character in Hasbro's Peppa Pig — birth journey was treated like a royal occasion.

Heineken's Excuses Bars: Heineken’s campaign renamed bars with appropriate excuses so football fans wouldn’t have to tell porkies, built around the insight that people lie about where they are when they want to watch a match.

Dr. Squatch and Sydney Sweeney: Somehow this was not the most controversial thing Sydney Sweeney did this year. The 5,000 ‘bathwater infused’ soap bars sold out in eight seconds.

Popeyes' "pope yes" post: Not a lot to say about this one. Just a super-smart piece of social copywriting that shows that the art of the well-timed post is far from dead.

Mer Organdonation x Way Out West

When Way Out West tickets sold out and fans declared they would “give a kidney for a ticket”, they partnered with Mer Organdonation to release tickets to those who signed up as donors.

Jeep's CEO message: There is barely a marketer in the land who hasn’t come up with the ‘car-ma sutra’ pun at some point. Jeep went there.

San Pellegrino's Italian Time: Stanley Tucci teamed up with Diane Morgan in her role as Philomena Cunk to explore the notion of Italian Time, and Tucci deadpans his way through it like an absolute pro.

Astronomer's temporary spokesperson: After kiss-cam-gate, Astronomer slam-dunked the response, hiring Gwyneth Paltrow to (kind of) answer the burning questions on everyone’s lips.