Co-Founder & Creative Director
Foul Mouth Creative
What’s the most relevant business and/or creative lesson you learned in 2023 and how will you apply it to 2024?
We started Foul Mouth Creative eight months ago. Early on, in some existential panic of wtf-are-we-doing, someone told us “You can’t back out until you fail spectacularly.” We’ve failed at many things so far, but none have been particularly notable or spectacular. Risks are worth it, in business and in creative. There’s something comforting in letting yourself fail. It’s not that scary. And as it turns out, the wins really do overshadow the suck.
While gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for 2024?
Man I hope the trend of well-crafted, dopamine-infused work continues. I need it. You need it. We all need it. It’s easy to be jaded and sarcastic and “content harvest” for quantity. I think pushing for shit that actually brings people joy, in messaging and execution, is going to be increasingly sought after. Bring the magic back to creation. Please. My Lexapro prescription is running low.
Gender pay disparity, sexual misconduct and the need for diversity & inclusion are issues that have started to be dealt with meaningfully. While the industry has made strides to address these issues, there’s still a long way to go. What policies do you have in place or plan to implement or step up in order to make progress on any or all of these fronts?
Foul Mouth Creative is one of the 1% of women-owned agencies. We prioritize working with diverse voices and talent. Actually, that’s false. It’s not some bullshit “prioritize, yada yada buzzy diversity”. We exclusively work with diverse talent. Entirely. So many shops spout off DEI goals, but behind the scenes, deadlines and demands often lead to defaulting to traditional talent who have the proven work and resume because it’s the easier path. We purposefully build in time monthly to make connections with a diverse creative village. Networking, baby.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More