‘Relax, it’s just advertising’: Beyond the Brief featuring Madeline Adams, 22squared
For Atlanta’s 22squared to deliver results for its eclectic roster — from Publix to Costa Rica Tourism — it needs eclectic creatives like copywriter Madeline Adams to deliver hits every single time.
Madeline Adams, copywriter, 22squared
It helps that Adams is already a hitmaker. For the past couple of years, she’s been delivering intelligent, catchy (and at times, thumb-stopping) work for brands like Baskin Robbins and The Home Depot. But even before the SCAD grad started lacing together thorough headlines, she’d been penning verses worthy of NPR’s, Pitchfork’s and Allmusic’s attention.
Nowadays, she fronts the Georgia-based band Flamingo Shadow, their most recent release a “tropical punk” sound perfect for a trip down the coastline. Within the always-vibrant Atlanta arts community, Adams has become not just an advocate, but a curator of cool, with the recent role as mastermind for “Sweater Weather”, a light art show at the Mammal Gallery in South Downtown ATL. Aside from her own band playing, she enlisted 10 local artists, plus bands (including her own) along with light installations all over the two-story gallery. For the adwoman-slash-frontwoman, “art for art’s sake is still important because joy is still important.”
It pays dividends for an agency like 22squared to have a writer who has no problem finding inspiration, especially one who knows how to inspire in and out of the workplace. Madeline Adams keeps her ear on the pulse and lives her career beyond the brief.
People “hate” advertising. What do you think the world would be without it?
Entertainment would be really expensive and highways would be beautiful
What should we be talking about in 2017?
The sweeping job loss that will come with automated tech and advancements in A.I.
Who is a young person in advertising that excites you most? Why is that?
Bobby O'Neill at Deutsch LA. He's super young, super talented, and very, very funny.
What’s your favorite thing about your hometown? What (in)tangible thing have you taken from there?
Athens, Georgia is a serious music town. I learned to take criticism and set a high creative bar.
Where is your happy place/space?
My band Flamingo Shadow's practice space. It's an old jail cell in a converted police precinct.
What’s something you’ve learned, either personally or professionally, that has surprised you lately?
Relax. It's just advertising.
To celebrate its 100th Anniversary, the 4A’s has partnered with us at The Drum to pull back the curtain and look at an industry full of problem solvers, creative types and analytical minds. But what keeps them going once the briefs are written, the campaigns executed, and the pitches won (or lost)? We’re interviewing 100 people at 4A’s member agencies — across all disciplines, levels, regions, and agency types — to get a glimpse into what drives them at work and what fuels them in life.
See the industry pros we're featuring here.
To pitch someone from a 4A's member agency for Beyond the Brief, please complete this linked form.