Advertising Unfiltered
October 2026
The One Brief We Still Can’t Crack
WRITTEN BY
Divya Khapne
Copywriter
“So, what do you do?” It sounds like a simple question, but anyone who works in advertising knows there’s no simple answer. From the assumptions people make about agency roles to the many moving parts behind a seemingly simple ad, here’s a look at why explaining agency life is harder than it sounds.
When I started my career in advertising, and I’m sure anybody who works in advertising would relate to this, the question I dreaded most at family gatherings was, “So, what do you do for work?"
Because explaining it to someone outside the industry feels like a task of its own. And more often than not, you’re left wondering if you’re making the job sound more complicated than it really is.
If designers got a buck every time someone asked, “Can you make my wedding invitation?”, or account managers when someone asked, “So you just get paid to talk?”, or strategists when they got, “You make presentations all day?”, and copywriters when asked, “Does that mean you copy something and write it down?”; we’d all be VERY rich by now.
Advertising, as an industry, is full of things that sound deceptively simple from the outside. Coming up with an idea. Making a campaign. Designing a post. Writing a tagline.
But each of these involves a whole chain of decisions, conversations, and people working together. The final output might be a single line or a 15-second video, but there's often a lot more behind it than meets the eye.
Of course, I could go into the details. I could explain briefs, creative routes, consumer insights, brand tonality, and the difference between a campaign idea and an execution. But somewhere between the third industry term and the fifth follow-up question, I realise I've lost my audience.
So… what do we do?
The very fun thing about agency life is- you’re never really doing just one thing.
Sometimes you’re writing. Sometimes you’re presenting.
Sometimes you’re brainstorming.
Sometimes you’re Googling the difference between Durga Puja and Dussehra at 11:47 PM because your brand wants to post for both.
And sometimes, after 17 rounds of feedback, you’re staring at the same headline wondering if the word “the” was ever necessary in the first place.
The most accurate answer to the question then might be-
It all depends on the brief.
Because one day, the brief might be, “We want to make a DVC for this product launch .” The next, it could be as simple as, “Let’s do a three-post series for aamras season.” Then there are the briefs that ask you to make something feel premium, but not too premium. Fun, but not too playful. Different, but still familiar. Short, but with all the information. And, of course, something that “people will stop scrolling for.”
But how are we going to explain all this to a person outside the industry? I suppose that is one more brief we’ll keep working on
