Guardian ads chief: Brands need to embrace cultural turbulence

Brands need to embrace turbulence, Imogen Fox, The Guardian’s global chief advertising officer, has said.

Speaking as part of a panel at Campaign’s Media 360, Fox answered a delegate's question about brands navigating the US, alongside Canada and Mexico, hosting the Fifa World Cup and the resultant “turbulence” during Trump’s tenure as president.

She said: “I think the world is about so much more than the game that’s on the pitch. I think if you don’t embrace all the stuff you’re absolutely missing out on a trick about what’s happening in culture.”

She went on to say that journalism “does that really well” as a format that “[challenges] conventional wisdom”.

Fox’s comments follow industry discussion around advertisers blocking their ads from appearing next to articles using words such as “crash” and “injured”. 

This fear of endorsing controversial topics, one agency chief argued, prevents their brands from running next to higher-impact articles.

Fox spoke alongside Michelle Spillane, managing director, Paddy Power Online at Flutter UK and Ireland on the panel. Spillane echoed Fox’s comments, and said: “I think there’s so much fun to be had. The juxtaposition of soccer tailgates, fireworks and halftime shops, it’s just so different to what football is in the UK.

“You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and these big global culturally relevant things, there’s going to be people that disagree with some elements of it and you have to accept that, but there’s going to be all these amazing moments as well.”

The panel also featured Robert Ellison, head of media, Europe at Visa, and was moderated by Campaign’s media editor Beau Jackson.