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And yet it occurs to me, an unashamed lover of the elegant use of words, that we’ve gone all Sodom and Gomorrah on ourselves when it comes to the wide acceptance of ‘potty mouth’ syndrome. 

I’m not going to lie, I enjoy dropping the odd f-bomb here and there as much as the next person. Frankly, sometimes a sentence just needs a good expletive to be complete. Yet it seems like the ubiquity of foul language – think rap songs, YouTubers, gamers, Instagrammers – has rendered it ‘normal’ when really, it shouldn’t be. I have to contend with my 10-year-old using f*ck as his favourite all-in word – adjective, verb or noun – flexible in application according to the circumstances. 

What does all this have to do with creating amazing ads in 2019?
If we’re exposed to something often enough, no matter how offensive it is, it will eventually become ‘the norm’ and lose its impact. So rather than constantly trying to one-up the shock value (which seems to be the thing these days, especially on social media – more intimate, more real, more sexy, more confronting), we play a different game at DDI.

There’s a lot of overcomplication that our industry is guilty of. Think of all those yawn-worthy 100-page PowerPoint decks constructed to justify a hefty fee. This is a legacy problem we have to own because we’ve created it for ourselves.

At DDI, we tend to apply the principle that the best solutions are always elegant in their simplicity.

This is as much a life philosophy as it is an advertising one.

Whenever overwhelm threatens, it’s always a reconnection to the simple things that ultimately paves the way to a happier place.

Like a call from a girlfriend who’s just struck gold on Bumble (at laaaasssst!). 

Simplicity isn’t easy
All too often this is misunderstood as ‘Let’s just keep things simple’ – as in: ‘Let’s just say what we said last time, or say what people expect we’re going to say.’

That’s not what we mean by ‘simplicity’ at DDI. To us, simplicity means not taking the easy road. It’s about finding the most unaffected, pure and human way of framing something. Forcing ourselves to forge the shortest path between any two points. 

Common sense is underrated
I’m a believer in what’s often seen these days as the ‘quaint’ view that advertising is best when it doesn’t require a detailed rationale, an exhaustive recap of the line of thinking, or a heavy-handed explanation.

Sometimes in life, you just know. No rigour or unpacking required. You feel it in your bones. Much like the quotable quote that says, "We have so much data coming at us these days, we’ve lost the ability to use our common sense."

It’s not that we don’t understand the new environment in which we operate, where dashboards abound and sophisticated tech underpins virtually every business decision. It’s just that in our view there is still no hard science behind what makes great ideas, well… great.

This isn’t a case of painting by numbers. When it comes to conceptual greatness, there is always a leap of faith involved, even when backed by the most robust quantifications money can buy.

Here’s what I think should be taught to those gung-ho graduates at top-tier companies around the world: Yes, know the numbers. Absolutely, be guided by them. But always, always, trust your gut.

And for those who may feel they need irrefutable evidence of this, just take a look at the stats on chief executives. Of 400 celebrated CEOs from the 1970s to 2016, those with MBAs performed significantly worse than those without.* 

Trust your gut, above all else
This is the one essential life skill that I’m attempting to teach my kids: "If it feels funny in your tummy, then you’ll know it’s not quite right."

It’s this and only this, that will ever lead to the creation, nurturing and preservation of great work.

At the end of the day, that’s why we’re all really doing this job, right? Because if we’d signed up for a vanilla life, we wouldn’t be reading this magazine.

Caroline McLaughlin is managing director at DDI Australia