Marketing has a nepo baby problem

I’m not talking kids of copywriters; I mean the unoriginal ideas we keep handing the keys to the kingdom.

You know a nepo baby when you see one. High cut cheekbones, household last name. They say things like “I worked hard for this” while vacationing in Capri.

Marketing has its own version. Except instead of riding coattails into a Chanel campaign, they’re getting greenlit into brand decks, year after year. The same dusty ideas, recycled formats, tired tropes, all dressed up in new fonts.

Okay so I’m not talking about literal nepotism. I’m talking about creative inbreeding.

A bloated portfolio of "TikTok-inspired" ads that feel like they were written by someone who still calls it The TikTok. Campaigns that look like a knockoff of a knockoff of that one Burger King rebrand one million years ago.  You’ve seen it. You’ve presented it. We’ve all been there. We listen and we don’t judge.

Okay you’re probably thinking: wtf Sophie. Another bizarre hot take? Bear with me.

In the hours and hours I spend scouring the internet for content to write about, I’ve identified the Marketing Nepo Baby as the campaign or concept that:

• Gets picked because someone’s boss liked it once

• Looks “cool” but makes no measurable impact

• Coasts on vibes alone, with no real strategy underneath

• Says it's edgy while doing the same thing 12 other brands just did last quarter (heavy on this one)

Basically, it’s a creative trust fund kid. All polish, no grit. And they’re kind of everywhere.

Well then, why do we keep casting them?

Because marketing is a little too obsessed with “best practices.” A.k.a. "stuff that worked before and won't get me fired." We cherish case studies like they're sacred scrolls. We treat Cannes winners like golden templates. And we say things like “Make it look like that Liquid Death thing” as if originality is something you can remix in Figma.

Also? The industry, like many others that exist mostly online, is one big echo chamber. Agencies follow agencies. Creators copy creators. Everyone’s trying to go viral with the exact same playbook: whether that’s ironic ads, purpose messaging or collabs with a fast-food chain and a fashion house that serve no purpose at all. It’s giving creative Groundhog Day. And I want out of the existential time loop.

How do we break the cycle?

Time to throw some metaphorical iced lattes in the faces of our creative complacency. Here’s how we inject new DNA into the gene pool:

Let the weirdos cook!!!

Bring in outsiders. Collaborate with creators who don’t care about your brand guidelines, or any guidelines at all. Let people with zero marketing background pitch. That’s where the unexpected happens, the art takes hold, and the whimsy knocks down the door like a pixie in a playpen.

Prototype, don’t perfect.

Not everything has to be a 360° integrated moment. Make micro-stuff. Test things in dark social. Kill your darlings if they flop. This is something my company is hellbent on. Why? Because it freaking works. Duh.

Hire for taste, not titles.

The best ideas aren’t coming from the loudest LinkedIn thought leaders. They’re coming from the unpaid meme pages, small time creators with the gift of the gab, Discord nerds, and DMs of people who actually know what’s happening in culture.

Reframe “risk.”

Doing the same thing again is the risk now. Being forgettable is a bigger danger than being weird.

In conclusion…

The industry doesn’t need another campaign that looks like a Mad Men reboot. It needs new POVs, new references, and maybe, just maybe, a little less brand incest. Because if we keep hiring from the same family tree of ideas, all we’ll get are more beige ads and performative TikToks with 20 likes.

-Sophie Randell, Writer