make it pop.

Somewhere in a business right now, a good marketer is being asked to make the logo bigger.

They can see the actual problem. Nobody's asked them about it.

They know why customers leave.

They know which product the sales team quietly can't sell.

They know the brand promises the business doesn't keep.

But the brief that lands on their desk says "make it pop."

So they make it pop. And now, with AI, they can do it in seconds.

That's the part everyone's celebrating. The task gets done faster than ever. The problem stays exactly where it was.

And the marketer goes a little quieter each quarter.

Here's what I've watched happen next. They start to wonder if they've read it wrong. Maybe the strategy part isn't their job. Maybe the tool's made them redundant. Maybe they should just be faster.

They don't need to be faster. AI already made everyone faster. They're in a business that briefs the task instead of the problem  and now it can execute the wrong brief flawlessly, in half the time.

The fix isn't a better tool. It's a better question. Stop asking your marketing team - or your AI to make stuff.

Because making the thing is the part that's now free. Knowing whether it's the right thing is the part that isn't. That's judgement, and it's the one thing the tool can't do for you.

If you're the marketer in that room: your judgement is the job. Keep offering it - out loud, in writing, in the meetings where the decisions actually get made. A faster draft doesn't change that. It raises the stakes on it.

And if you're the one writing the briefs: ask for their thinking, not just their output. You'll be surprised what's sitting there unused.

So tell me: What's the worst brief you've ever been handed?