Here Are the Top Muse Guest Essays of 2025

Mr. Submarine, hyphenate creatives, AI adventures and getting away from it all

Everyone’s got an opinion. We want yours!

In the past 12 months here at Muse, industry execs and experts weighed in on a dizzying array of topics. Their takes stretched from appraisals of the media/marketing landscape to views on current events and tales of personal discovery.

Also, a lot of folks wrote about AI, pro and con. Can’t imagine why.

We appreciate the thoughtful words and welcome future contributions.

These guest essays drew the most eyeballs in 2025…

5. What We Wish We Knew at the Start of Our Creative Careers
by Lucas Ribeiro and Kazuo Kubo
May 9, 2025

“We gotta be honest. Starting out in advertising can be incredibly hard. Not just because of the competition or high standards. But because, at the beginning, you do not know the answers. And worse, you do not even know what the questions are. Or who to turn to. Or when to speak up. That kind of uncertainty can be overwhelming. We know the feeling. We were there too.”

4. Is Ad Biz Rediscovering Its Voice in AI’s Uncanny Valley?
by Craig Elimeliah
August 26, 2025

“They can be stretched, compressed, exploded, transformed or subjected to impossible scenarios without moral consequence. We laugh because it’s safe to laugh. There’s no ethical weight to their predicaments because we don’t perceive them as capable of genuine suffering. In these early experiments, we’re witnessing the discovery of advertising’s next evolutionary leap.”

3. The Dawn of the Hyphenate Creative: Why It Matters
by Tyler Sugg
August 5, 2025

We learn that it’s not just about multitasking. It’s about expanding horizons—in multiple, seemingly disparate directions—in order to craft better content. The very nature of creativity is evolving, the author says. That message seems more timely than ever now that Omnicom and IPG have merged.

2. I Left the Ad World for 4 Months and Realized Nothing Matters
by Tori Young
July 24, 2025

“I didn’t read a single industry headline. I watched a lot of good and bad commercials in the wild. And I came to terms with the fact that being an ad creative is a made-up job. Please take a moment of silence for my ego.”

1. Why Make 1 Ad When You Can Make 50? Quality Meats Explains Its ‘Dumb Idea’
by Gordy Sang and Brian Siedband

November 11, 2025

Kooky costumes, dodgy VFX and Ozzie Guillén helped celebrate Mr. Submarine’s 50th birthday. Creatives Gordy and Brian recall: “Once we landed on the whole horribly dumb 50-commercials idea, the insanity began and the ideas started flowing: Chicago celebs, nostalgic parodies, weird local references and jingles, jingles, jingles. We pulled from the things we loved about the old Mr. Submarine spots—the unintentional charm, the sticky songs, the so-bad-it’s-good sincerity—and tried to pay homage to all that. 50 times.”