Uncensored CMO: Nils Leonard — Don’t Confuse S**t Ads For The Death Of Creativity

Podcast: Uncensored CMO
Host: Jon Evans
Guest: Nils Leonard, Founder of Uncommon
Date: November 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the alleged “crisis of creativity” in the modern marketing and advertising industry. Jon Evans welcomes Nils Leonard, whose agency Uncommon is renowned for culturally impactful creative work. Together, they interrogate why creativity matters more than ever, debate the industry's malaise, and share practical insights on making meaningful, memorable work in a world obsessed with technology, efficiency, and data. The conversation is candid, energetic, and full of compelling stories from campaigns that have cut through the noise, challenging the industry to aim higher.

Key Discussion Points

1. The State and Value of Creativity

• Crisis of Creativity
  Nils believes the industry’s confidence has waned and creativity has been wrongly declared “dead.” The widespread focus on AI and business transformation is hijacking attention away from creativity:

  “Don’t confuse shit ads for the death of creativity. There are loads of shit ads, but creativity is far from dead.” — Nils Leonard [06:32]

• Rediscovering Creative Ambition
  Both Jon and Nils reflect on the need for audacity and bring marketers back to a place of swagger and creative confidence, referencing movements, not lone geniuses:

  “Movements aren’t one person. They’re a bunch of people all trying to do something where they share a kind of value, but they’re all hustling in their own way.” — Nils Leonard [02:13]

2. The Power of Narrative Objects & Experiences

• Campaigns Beyond Advertising
  Nils discusses creating “narrative objects” and experiences, which storytell a brand more powerfully than traditional ads:

  “If I could do it all again, I probably wouldn’t make an advert. I would make objects.” — Nils Leonard [07:30]

  Example: The Ordinary’s “Periodic Fable”

  • Deconstructed industry buzzwords into a provocative “periodic table.”
  • Created a dark, satirical classroom environment — “It was pretty fucking dark.”
  • Built a $10.5 million pile of cash in New York to visualize what celebrities are paid for endorsements, sparking massive public reaction:

    “I’m so grateful we did it…there were queues around the block to come see it, and it was like just a marvel at what ten and a half million dollars look like.” — Nils Leonard [11:04]

• Importance of Craft and Shareability
  Nils describes the science of art-directing an activation to ensure it travels and is referenced for years:

  “You make an object or a place, and then you ask yourself how quickly can the images and the story of that travel?” — Nils Leonard [12:23]

3. The Genius of Simplicity and Emotional Resonance

• BA “Reflections” Campaign
  Jon and Nils dive into the BA campaign, discussing the conscious choice of minimalism and subtlety—giving audiences “work to do” so the ad becomes memorable:

  “99.99% of brands could never do that…You have to own an idea. You have to be a brand that’s known and loved for you to get away…with being so subtle.” — Jon Evans [17:48]

  • Testing proved that even when only 40% spotted the brand in two seconds, the emotional impression lingered:

    “Fantasy of mine is that in five seconds someone looks at that, works it out and goes, oh, that's the most we can ask… even better, they might hold up a phone and take a fucking picture of it.” — Nils Leonard [20:36]

• Emotional Storytelling for Retailers (B&Q)
  Jon shares a personal story of loss and rebuilding, connecting deeply with B&Q’s emotional “We Will Grow Again” campaign. Nils explains that hanging a picture is not about DIY, but about care and transformation:

  “You hang that picture in that room and it changes the room. But what it tells your kid is, I care and you matter…that is massive lessons.” — Nils Leonard [24:44]

• Humor and Real Life Details

  • Example: A B&Q ad with a spirit level purposely tilted (“the whole ad was off four degrees”), showing real life’s imperfection [25:54].

4. Disrupting Out-of-Home Advertising

• Hiscox “Rip-Off” Campaign
  Nils highlights the creative challenge and legal/imaginative hoops of spoofing other brands' ads to make a point about intellectual property:

  “As a brand, how wrong could it go? Because they insure brands. And we were like, well, other people ripping you off, other people sort of stealing your IP…and we just, it was a gift…” — Nils Leonard [28:00]

  • Difficulties with rival brands being reluctant to participate, seeing flattery as threat rather than opportunity [28:21].

• The Art of Format and Reference
  The team obsesses over creating OOH formats that become cultural games—referenced, collected, and cherished over time, like old Guinness or Economist ads.

5. Authenticity in Film & Culture

• EA Skate Campaign
  Uncommon’s recent EA Skate work is a masterclass in cultural respect, authenticity, and in-joke—casting only true skaters (even crew), honoring the subculture’s language and flaws:

  “If you look at the film, it’s just riddled with these…how do we just stay true to that? But a real privilege to do that work, you know?” — Nils Leonard [31:19]

• JD Christmas and Youth Representation

  • 280 kids given phones to film the campaign authentically—no staged perfection, just collective youth energy:

    “We’ve never believed that youth is an idea…it’s got to be a deeper idea in there somewhere…when you really see them…they spend their lives planning, creating, hustling—it's incredibly beautiful.” — Nils Leonard [33:38]

  • Out-of-home executions resemble camera rolls, removing advertising signifiers [37:25].

6. Entertaining the Uninteresting (BA Safety Video)

• Turning Pain Points into Magic
  BA’s safety video is extravagantly entertaining and distinctly British, intentionally subverting dull genre expectations:

  “We made an ad for the British Heart Foundation back at Gray with Vinnie Jones…your temptation is because you have a massive respect for that information, to behave in the most serious way possible. Of course, that’s the hardest way to get something into someone’s brain. The bigger the entertainment, the more chance we have of living.” — Nils Leonard [38:46; 38:58]

  • Dream is for BA’s safety video to become episodic and intrinsic to brand experience [40:21].

7. Industry Critique: Missing Confidence & Toxic Cynicism

• UK’s Lost Energy vs. US Momentum
  Nils contrasts the UK’s professional outrage and cynical media with the US’s ambition, hustle, and belief—even referencing Trump (for energy, not ideology):

  “There is an energy in that country we don’t have…There’s a gloom here, John, and I hate it. And I think I’m trying to cling to the energy in New York that I was given.” — Nils Leonard [45:00]

• Cultural Self-Sabotage
  The UK industry is criticized for self-assassination and an anti-creative stance from industry media:

  “I struggle with Campaign and its viewpoint. I don’t think it believes in the industry…It reports on it as if it’s a kind of cynical restaurant critic watching the demise of a restaurant with this kind of beautiful sense of sadness and bitterness about how shit it all is...” — Nils Leonard [46:56]

• The Real Threat: Apathy, Not AI

  • Creatives are killing creativity through navel-gazing, social pontification, and lack of action, not AI:

    “Technology, in-housing and influencers didn’t kill creativity, we did... The biggest threat to our jobs isn’t AI, it’s apathy. If we believe creativity’s dead, if we believe it’s alive, we’re right.” — Nils Leonard [52:06]

8. How to Fix It: Manifesting Momentum and Belief

• Learning from America
  Jon and Nils agree: if the UK can borrow the relentless, forward-moving momentum of American culture—less fear, more belief—creativity could resurge.

  “They don’t worry about passengers and critics, they just don’t. They’re like, I’m fucking doing this and we’re putting one foot in front of the other and then suddenly there’s a thing that exists.” — Nils Leonard [54:20]

• Brits Need More Than Swagger
  Nils wants the UK to be “incomprehensibly brilliant,” not just confident—a call to recapture a legacy of world-leading creative disruption (Oasis, Sex Pistols, Christopher Nolan, etc.) [59:29].

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Name an agency or studio that the real world is happy exists. What it’s become, I think is our best, is a recognition of the power of creativity and to improve a business.” — Nils Leonard [51:02]
• “We made literal camera roll with all the images we might want to put, including the headlines, including the product, and then said, what if you zoomed in and out of that?” — Nils Leonard [37:08]
• “If we believe creativity’s dead, if we believe it’s alive, we’re right.” — Nils Leonard on D&AD activism [52:16]
• “AI is one word for a conversation we’ve been having for 25 years, which is everything apart from creativity.” — Nils Leonard [57:17]
• “Someone said...‘God, you guys were lucky, you’re like the last helicopter out of Vietnam.’ When I heard that, I was like, man, I just want to start another company—just to poke you in the fucking eye.” — Nils Leonard [58:32]

Key Timestamps

• 00:57–06:20: Opening on the crisis of creativity and intent for the conversation
• 07:30–12:25: Narrative objects, “The Ordinary,” and the evolution of impactful work
• 13:18–21:49: Discussing BA, emotional branding, and system testing, with focus on simplicity and giving the audience some “work”
• 21:49–26:49: Emotional storytelling with B&Q and the real meaning of home improvements
• 26:49–29:18: Disruptive out-of-home for Hiscox, brand caution, execution challenges
• 29:54–37:08: Film/Skate culture, JD youth campaign, process as product, and innovative media executions
• 37:47–42:01: Entertaining the “uninteresting” with BA’s safety video, making ritual moments magical
• 43:48–46:17: Experiences from the US, hustling culture, and what the UK is missing
• 46:56–51:02: Industry critique, Campaign’s cynicism, defensive/apathetic industry mindset
• 52:06–54:09: The call for belief, D&AD activism, and “shut up and make” rallying cry
• 54:09–59:29: How UK creativity can get its groove back—borrowing American belief, embracing audacity/examples
• 59:29–60:01: Aspirations for incomprehensible brilliance and closing

Final Message

A passionate, energizing conversation that challenges the industry to move beyond mediocrity, cynicism, and fear—and to re-center on the transformative power of creativity. Nils and Jon urge listeners not to confuse “the death of creativity” with a glut of forgettable work, but to double down on bold, authentic, and emotionally powerful ideas, while adopting the restless belief and hustle needed to make them real.

If you care about the future of creative industries, this episode is a must-listen rallying cry.