'Digital Chadvertising' on Omnicom's IPG Acquisition and Using Humor to Address the Elephants in the Room

The meme lord speaks

It was New Year’s Day in 2019 when the Instagram account Digital Chadvertising began posting humorous memes about what it’s like to work in the world of advertising. Which, like any industry, isn’t always sunshine and catered lunches.

To be honest, the anonymous creator of Chadvertising, who does, in fact, work in the industry, didn’t expect his meme page to become a long-term endeavor. “I started the account as a hungover joke and honestly thought I would delete it after a month,” he tells Muse. “Then it grew fast, and I started getting messages like ‘I have been waiting for an account like yours to pop up’ and ‘I never knew I needed this in my life.’ That was when it stopped feeling like a bit and started feeling somewhat of a responsibility.”

What began as shitposting about the ad industry has turned into a real community. “People across agencies, ad tech, publishers, sales and client side use it to vent, provide context or information and feel a little less alone in how messy and chaotic this industry is. Over time, I have also used the account to rally GoFundMe support for people dealing with personal tragedy, help students jump from intern to first job and connect people with interviews after layoffs,” he says.

Now, Chadvertising serves as a source of intel about what’s really going on behind the scenes of the Omnicom/IPG union that altered the landscape and disappeared some of the industry’s most vaunted brands (along with thousands of jobs).

Here, the man behind the memes talks dropping truth bombs, shares advice for the newly unemployed and discusses the future of Digital Chadvertising:

MUSE: How are the anonymous tips you are receiving about the merger helping to counter the PR narrative?

Digital Chadvertising: The tips cut through the press release version of the merger. They can prance around with content creators/public figures and crop-dust everyone with the narratives such as calling it a merger when it’s an acquisition. But my inbox is full of people talking about reorg chaos, surprise layoffs, loss of benefits and teams being stretched thin. When I anonymize and share those details, it gives a clearer picture of how this feels to the people living it, not just what the executives are selling. That does not replace official comms, but it makes the spin harder to swallow at a time when people are already dealing with rising costs, job insecurity and a sense that leadership is not being straight with them.

How are you trying to support those who have lost their jobs because of this acquisition?

I sent out a flare on my IG story to help me collect job listings, which I am compiling and will push for distribution to those affected by the layoffs.

Any advice for people who have lost their jobs?

Take the first 24 hours for yourself. Everyone processes it differently, and it’s important to tend to your own needs and feelings. File for unemployment as soon as possible. Then start polishing your resume and blasting applications. Don’t take anything personally, since it is all a numbers game. Also, the most important thing while on the trail is to maintain a routine. A morning walk or a little exercise when you have that much free time goes a long way.

And any advice for people who have yet to be laid off but probably will be down the road?

For people who see the writing on the wall but are still in their seats, my advice is to quietly act now. Use the time while you have a paycheck to update your resume, reconnect with people outside your company and start talking to recruiters and applying before the market gets even more crowded. Start cutting back on unnecessary spending and build a cash buffer if you can. You can keep doing your job. But treat this as a temporary stop and focus on protecting yourself and the people who rely on you, instead of waiting for an all-hands meeting, only to default to looking at my Instagram story to tell you what you already suspected.

How do boutique agencies stand to fare against holding companies in these times? Do small shops have advantages?

It really depends on how they position themselves. There is a lot of macroeconomic stress and clients are more cost conscious than they were a few years ago. Boutique agencies can be more nimble and closer to the work. But holding companies still have the upper hand when it comes to scale. A lot of folks on the client side who DM me say the holding companies can simply throw bodies at an account to keep the brand voice and creative standards consistent across markets.

I encounter thousands of messages a week in my inbox and the recurring “dream” that I see is usually this format: “In-house team with agency background + independent media agency + legacy holdco creative shop in sync with internal creative team + a transparent adtech vendor/partner.”

Essentially, boutiques that plug into that stack as an organization tend to fare better than boutiques trying to act like mini holding companies.

With all the job losses happening, is it hard to find the humor in the ad business, or is there always something to laugh about?

The entire advertising industry is a meme, and many people including myself utilize humor as a defense mechanism. The day my memes stop is probably the day everyone in this industry is happy and financially stable.

Has anyone ever tried to acquire Digital Chadvertising?

Yeah, and 50 percent of the time it’s some weird Gen Z crypto bro with a shitty perm. Last time someone tried to acquire my meme page in straight cash for a ridiculously low number, I just played dumb and led him on for weeks to get his hopes up and waste his time. For anyone serious about buying my page, $6.9 million in cash is all I ask for.

What are your plans for Digital Chadvertising? Will it remain a one-man operation, or could you see expanding it?

My plan is to buy all of the holding companies and transform them all into one giant amalgamation of a holding company under my banner. But in all seriousness, my plan is to continue delivering humor, information and insight to the best of my ability for as long as I can. Expansion would be great, but I would realistically need some heavy financial backing and to sit down with a coherent business strategy beyond “shitposting on the gram.”

Why do we need independent voices like yours?

The ad industry is romanticized for those outside of it, and most of the stories are written by people who have something to lose. Agencies, platforms and trade pubs all have clients, sponsors or bosses to keep happy. I do not. I live in the DMs with media buyers, sellers, planners and ops people. I can mention the elephant in the room. That independence lets me show the side that never makes it into a press release: the burnout, the layoffs, the nonsense, but also the solidarity and humor that keep people going. 

Do you ever worry about being replaced by a Digital Chadbot?

There are rival meme pages that steal other people’s content and have extremely mediocre newsletters with fire emoji spam equivalent to generative AI ejaculate. And it’s all so terrible. So, I think I’m safe.