A collaborative exercise wherein clients are gently guided to do the agency's creative work for them, thereby pre-emptively insulating the agency from any future blame.
What they actually mean
"If this logo is dreadful, remember that you drew it."
Heard in the wild
"Let's run a workshop to co-create the new brand messaging."
The practice of placing unprompted, company-branded merchandise directly onto employees' workspaces to foster synthetic enthusiasm.
"We're coordinating a desk drop of reusable bamboo coffee cups to align everyone with our new sustainability pillars."
Translation
"Please accept this cheap plastic container in lieu of a pay rise."
The untraceable sharing of content via private channels, usually consisting of employees messaging each other to ask if the company's new campaign is as embarrassing as they think it is.
Our latest promotional video is getting a lot of traction on dark social, though mostly via encrypted WhatsApp chats.
Translation
People are mocking our brand in private group chats where our tracking pixels cannot find them.
The delicate art of redesigning a corporate logo with a soft leaf motif to divert attention from the fact that the company’s main export is non-recyclable plastic.
"If we sponsor a local beach clean-up with a catchy hashtag, we can successfully greenwash our Q4 distribution metrics."
Translation
"We bought a handful of carbon offsets from an unmonitored woodland in Devon to ease our collective guilt."