You might wonder why Creative Review, a magazine that has spent the last 40 years championing commercial creativity, is producing a podcast with a title like this.

Naturally at CR we think creativity is vital – to business success and to help build a better society for everyone. However, it’s not easy making creative work, especially in a world where budgets are tight, competition is fierce, and it can feel like everyone wants to water down your brilliant idea.

So this podcast aims to take on some of those challenges and criticisms and cast a more sceptical eye over some of the obsessions and assumptions of the ad, design and brand worlds. Each episode is hosted by CR’s editor, Eliza Williams, and features contributions from those in the industry as well as those on the client side.

For this first episode, we will be tackling a question that never seems to go away: Is Advertising Getting Worse? This topic is debated by three ad experts: Mark Denton, David Kolbusz and Melody Sylvester.

You can listen to the episode below, as well as on all the usual podcast channels. This first series of Creativity Sucks! will feature six episodes, released biweekly. Future topics will include the role of advertising and design in politics, and ageism in the creativity industries. We hope you enjoy the show!

creativereview.co.uk/creativity-sucks