This September, Dan Lucey, Chief Creative Officer of Havas New York, and Myra Nussbaum, President and Chief Creative Officer of Havas Chicago, launched their new podcast “Advertising Will Save Us” to highlight leaders in the space who are using advertising to positively impact our world. Hear more in Dare!.
Why did you decide to team up and do this podcast?
When our Comms team came to us with the idea of making a podcast, our first reaction was: “We have no time for this, and we don’t really like the sound of our voices that much.” But after a 15-minute brainstorm, we realized we could bring a unique point of view to the advertising podcast category. We’re both committed to making work that makes a positive impact on culture at large, so we decided to make that the focus.
What are the key themes you’re exploring with this podcast?
Advertising always gets a bad rap, and more often than not, that reputation is deserved. However, as an industry, we’re creating a lot of positive change, especially as of late. It’s not just the pro bono campaigns either. As we know, consumers are demanding brands stand for more than just selling their products, and as a result, the work is changing ideas too. We wanted to highlight that advertising is making a difference and, however ironic, will save us.
“There are 2.4 million podcasts and 66 million podcast episodes around the world, so the fact that we’re seeing hundreds of people tune into AWSU is mind-blowing.”
How did you decide which guests you’d be featuring on the podcast?
We love to have people on who are truly making a difference through advertising and marketing. We cast the net wide and bring guests on our podcast that have expertise in various issues. Recently we’ve had on Greg Hoffman, ex-CMO of Nike, Claire Atkin, an activist defunding the disinformation economy, and Dana Thomas, an author and sustainability editor for British Vogue. We’ve also brought on a few agency folks and clients that are doing meaningful work.
What has the reception been like since the podcast launched in September?
The best compliments we’ve received are from people asking to be guests on a future episode. There are 2.4 million podcasts and 66 million podcast episodes around the world, so the fact that we’re seeing hundreds of people tune into AWSU is mind-blowing. Our goal is to expose our guests and their work to people so their great ideas can multiply and inspire our listeners.
How can people listen to the podcast and keep up with new episodes?
Anyone can listen anytime, anywhere they listen to podcasts – Apple or Spotify. We also made it easy with our website https://www.advertisingwillsaveus.com/
