Agency Life, 
a love letter to agencies.

In the creative hub of South Africa, Pepe Marais is catalyst. With Joe Public, he has won many local and international awards, and the advertising and communications group is one of the largest on the continent. What drives Pepe? Creative excellence, a hunger for knowledge, and a positive attitude – unless it's about that awful ‘billable hour’ or ‘the digital tsunami of cr*ppy advertising’. Still, he puts positive spin on that as well. “Globally, there's a bit of darkness in creativity that's maybe needed for us to start refocusing on what we bring to the world.”

‘The anti-bullshit copywriter with massive fingers’ is perhaps the most apt meta description ever for Dave “The Word Man” Harland, founder of boutique agency Copy Or Die. You may know him from his playful LinkedIn posts taking on online scammers and AI gurus, gathering an audience of 95,000 followers. His clients know him as a freelance B2B and agency copywriter, specialising in transforming corporate lingo into words people really want to read. We interviewed him about humour, freelance work vs agency work, and getting so good at your craft that your work speaks for itself.

Two gentlemen from the world of advertising for the price of one: that's what you get in this episode. Steve Harrison opens up about Howard Luck Gossage, a 1960s adman who – like Steve himself – was not averse to a dash of controversy. The key lesson? Advertising is show business. “It's our job to entertain.”

Reading tip if you want to dive into the life and work of Howard Gossage: Check out Steve's latest book ‘The Howard Gossage Show: And what it can teach you about advertising, fun, fame, and manipulating the media’.