17615: On Escalating The Exclusivity Of Account Reviews In Adland.

 

Advertising Age spotlighted a twist on account assignments, whereby a brand charged its White media agency to conduct a creative review for its first White advertising agency.

Or was it really a twist? It’s not the first time a pitch turned into an exclusive, closed, and clandestine affair—although the scenario offered an uncommon maneuver to maintain the status quo in Adland.

The brand is Humann. Yet the new partnerships appear to favor White humans.

P.S. to Humann: Your self-hype boasts being “The trusted name in cardiovascular health.” Research shows people of color in the US are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and poor disease outcomes. Did you choose the best media and advertising partners to reach such critical audiences?

How media agency Eden Collective conducted a creative review for one of its clients

By Brian Bonilla

When cardiovascular-health supplement company Humann went looking for its first creative agency of record late last year, it did not hire a consultant or issue a request for proposal. Instead, it took the unusual step of asking its media agency, Eden Collective, to conduct the search.

Launched in 2009, Humann built its business around a supplement called SuperBeets that supports healthy blood pressure. The company has seen strong growth lately, expanding from a limited retail presence to more than 180,000 points of distribution in the past 20 or so months, said CEO and co-founder Joel Kocher. Humann is also diversifying into cardiovascular health more broadly, with cholesterol, blood sugar, omega and CoQ10 products.

“Our aspirations changed. Our ambitions changed. So naturally, the way you run your business has to change along with that,” Kocher said.

Eden was managing Humann’s media when Kocher began reconsidering the company’s in-house creative model. When he laid out his ambitions to Eden CEO and founder Alison Monk over coffee in New York, she was frank: “I don’t think you’re going to get there without an ad agency; a creative agency that can deliver the goods,” she recalled telling Kocher.

Monk initially suggested hiring a search expert. But Kocher persuaded Eden, which it had already entrusted with its strategy and business data, to lead the assignment. (Eden was hired as Humann’s media AOR in February after previously working on a project basis.)

How the process worked

That coffee meeting led to a four-week process that replaced lengthy questionnaires and rounds of pitching with a detailed video briefing and two primary interactions: an initial chemistry meeting designed to become a working session, followed by an in-person presentation by the finalists.

Six independent agencies were initially invited before the field was narrowed to three, with Humann ultimately selecting independent agency WorkInProgress as its creative AOR. Kocher declined to identify the other contenders.

Monk, who felt up to the task because she also spent much of her career on the creative agency side at shops including Grey and Digitas, said the review’s scope was intentionally broad because Humann hadn’t yet determined if it was looking for a long-term creative agency or a shorter-term solution.

“It was an amorphous ask: What do we need?” Monk said. “So we went through a range, and Joel and I sat down and said, ‘OK, let’s look at a couple of folks that skew more project-based, and let’s also look at deeper, more AOR-like partners.’”

The review began in mid-December with a mandate to reach a decision by February, ahead of Humann’s planned retail launch of a broader cardiovascular product suite in April. Monk said Humann’s executives spent “dozens, if not 100 hours” preparing for the process.

Rather than ask agencies to complete what Monk called a “27,000-page RFI,” Eden sent agencies a video featuring Kocher and his executive team, along with supporting materials.

The extensive briefing covered Humann’s history, its origins from research conducted at the University of Texas, its Nobel Prize-winning scientific roots, and information on how nitric oxide—a key ingredient in its products—works. It also detailed the brand’s past creative, evolution from direct-to-consumer to Amazon and retail, recent packaging redesign, consumer research and customer profiles, product expansion, media strategy and competitive landscape.

Agencies had one week to review the material before a two-hour meeting with the company.

“It was a chemistry meeting, but it became a work session because of the information we were given,” said Evan Russack, co-founder and partner at WorkInProgress. “As an agency, we value those moments deeply because they allow us to ask a variety of questions—important backgrounders—but also to determine if this is right for the agency.”

Russack said the video conveyed the leadership team’s personality, passion and communication style while giving agencies unusual access to Humann’s founder and CEO from the outset.

“It was really helpful that a media agency was running the pitch, because we typically have a ton of questions related to media, and we were able to get them all answered,” Russack said.

Each of the three finalists received a $15,000 stipend. WorkInProgress used the money to research consumers’ relationship with the supplement category, then incorporated the findings into its communications strategy and creative, Russack said.

Why WorkInProgress won the pitch

To Monk, WorkInProgress stood out for its “funnel fluency” across different marketing needs. Specifically, she was looking for shops that understood the difference between what she called “salesmanship” versus “showmanship.”

“Brands with high awareness can do more showmanship and only focus on entertainment, because they don’t have to explain who they are and what they do,” Monk said. “We’re talking about a complex product in a quickly commoditized category, with lower-quality value players nipping at their heels.”

The strategic challenge was to make cardiovascular health relevant beyond older consumers or people already managing a medical condition. Humann also sought to differentiate itself in a supplement category where Kocher said few companies have meaningful clinical science. That said, he acknowledged that the company had “over-rotated on science” with previous creative focused on testimonials, especially from doctors and researchers.

All participating agencies argued Humann needed a stronger emotional connection with consumers, Kocher said.

“Our formula was: give me a point of relevancy, give me a benefit—a reason to care. Then give me the science. Then make it credible,” Russack said.

For Kocher, the defining moment came about 10 minutes into the first meeting, when he asked how the agency views the brand. WorkInProgress Creative Director Josh Shelton responded by characterizing Humann’s existing brand personality as “cool Cheerios.” Kocher embraced the comment, which he recognized as “ostensibly an insult,” because it defined the brand as a management tool for an existing condition rather than one relevant to consumers who think proactively about wellness, longevity and performance.

“I thought, ‘Finally, someone had the guts to call it for what it was,’” Kocher said. “For me, that was the defining moment. I’d made up my mind right then. Ten minutes in, it was game over.”

Kocher actually bought a box of Cheerios that he planned to send the agency—but WorkInProgress beat him to it. Two days after the meeting, a package arrived at Humann via FedEx, with Cheerios boxes decorated with what Kocher described as “cool Ray-Ban shades” stickers.

The process also convinced Kocher that Humann needed an AOR rather than a project shop.

The first campaign, backed by an investment “approaching $50 million,” according to Kocher, will break in early October.

Monk said Eden does not intend to turn agency reviews into a business line. Its role grew from its knowledge of Humann and its position as a strategic marketing partner, she said.

Russack had not previously encountered a creative review run by a media agency, but said he wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes more common.

“We’re all looking for really good partners who have subject-matter expertise we don’t possess, and have a working style that matches ours so we can deliver results for brands,” he said.

17614: On Mark Read Exploring AI Possibilities.

 

Advertising Age interviewed ex-WPP CEO Mark Read, who hyped his AI conference.

Looks like Read is transitioning from failing to extinguish a global flaming dumpster to organizing an obscure conference. The probable next steps include pseudo-consultant and honorary university professor.

Read may inevitably assume a series of roles, and through his performance, demonstrate that each position could be replaced by AI.

Mark Read’s next act—running an AI conference for marketers, agencies and startups

By Brian Bonilla

After seven years at the helm of one of the world’s largest agency holding companies, former WPP CEO Mark Read is running an AI conference called Prompt. The aim is to bring together about 150 people, connecting chief marketing officers and agencies with AI startups to figure out what comes next.

Read, who sold an internet company, WebRewards, to Bertelsmann during the dot-com era in 2001, is once again embracing a startup mentality while trying to help companies navigate the AI space.

The first Prompt took place in London in June. The event is designed for a small group of marketers, AI entrepreneurs and agency executives, with discussions held under Chatham House rules. The format encourages participants to speak frankly, Read said in an interview.

“We’re not trying to compete in any way with CES or even Possible,” said Read. “This is not about scale. It’s really just trying to focus on the intersection of creativity, AI, technology and marketing, and be small.”

Read, who exited WPP late last year, also spent years running Stream, WPP’s technology-focused event. He said that he saw an opportunity to continue connecting marketers with a new generation of companies developing AI applications.

Read said he sees a gap between the AI platforms marketers recognize and the applications they can put to work.

“Everyone knows OpenAI or Claude or Gemini, but on their own, they’re not much use to CMOs, right? They need applications,” he said in an interview with Ad Age. “And I thought, why don’t I see if I can bring these people together?”

Prompt comes to New York Oct. 6, during Advertising Week. Read expects about 150 people at the invite-only event, which is free to attend. Longtime advertising executives David Droga, vice chair of Accenture, and Carolyn Everson, now senior adviser at Permira, are some of the notable speakers. Other participants include CEOs and other senior executives from AI companies such as Profound, Listen Labs and Google.

Asked how much he had personally invested in Prompt, Read said only, “It’s not a massive investment.” He retains control over the speaker lineup.

“Not everyone who’s sponsoring is on stage, and not everyone who’s on stage is sponsoring,” he said.

The gap he sees with AI

Read described himself as a frequent user of Gemini and Claude for different tasks.

“The whole of Prompt is run on those two platforms—from legal advice, financial advice, managing invitations, creating content,” he said.

Read praised AI’s usefulness for startups like his own new venture, noting that established companies face a harder task of retrofitting processes and teams. The conversations Read wants Prompt to host reflect that issue: Companies are adopting AI tools, he said, but their efforts often remain disconnected.

“Too much of AI deployment happens in individual bits,” Read said. Companies need to move beyond experimentation, he said, by connecting applications, establishing sound data governance and focusing on work that can change how the organizations operate.

Read also thinks advertising inside AI tools has yet to realize its potential. “Now, what we have to do—and I don’t think we’ve yet seen this, even from OpenAI—is have an ad experience that fully exploits the power of AI to bring the right message to the right person at the right time,” he said.

He calls that “relevance rather than personalization.” Read cited a personal example of using AI while planning a trip to Alaska, noting that he would have found it useful if the tool had shown him which hotels were available, their prices and any offers while he searched.

Read’s time advising AI companies and using AI tools has also led him to consider how a brand-new agency might operate. “If I were a 25-year-old entrepreneur starting an agency, I’d be saying, ‘How do I embrace all of these tools and start from scratch?’” Read said. “What if you need fewer account executives when AI can take the briefing notes?”

Read remains a WPP shareholder and is keeping an eye on the holding companies.

The industry’s consolidation has been “driven by intense, sometimes irrational competition,” he said, adding that “pressure from procurement has led to an industry with really three major players, which hopefully will create a somewhat more healthy ecosystem for those three companies.”

Read is considering taking Prompt to Berlin, Riyadh and Singapore. Expanding Prompt beyond events is not in his current plans, he said.

Asked whether he has considered starting an agency or agency group himself, Read offered a glimpse of the possibility.

“I think about this,” he said. “Let’s leave it at that.”

17613: KFC = Kyiv Fried Chicken…?

 

This KFC campaign—explained below—emphasizes even White advertising agencies in Ukraine love hip hop.

In August, KFC launched a new street food menu called “Street Beat,” featuring shawarma, hot dogs, Bessarabian placinda, and a bunch of other delicious dishes. The agency idealer$ was responsible for developing the project’s communication concept. The creatives decided to break KFC’s usual advertising rules. The campaign doesn’t invite people to restaurants; instead, it encourages them to head outdoors — to work up an appetite and enjoy the summer vibes and breathtaking views.

Especially for the launch of “Street Beat”, one of the country’s most popular musicians, MONATIK, recorded a sizzling hit of the same name, for which a music video was filmed during a particularly hot day in Kyiv. The music video became the basis for the street food line’s commercial, which is already airing on TV.

Working side by side with MONATIK on the project and the track’s composition were KFC’s new ambassadors — Bogdan Cooper and Sasha Bardachenko. These young talents emerged as the winners of KFC’s nationwide casting call, “Club of Fantastic Flavors”. Their musical talents, on-camera presence, and ability to create content truly shone during filming. Together with the star performer, they showcased “Street Beat” not only in the music video but also on billboards and citylights across all major cities in Ukraine.

A unique feature of the new “Street Beat” menu is that it’s convenient to enjoy on the go. To emphasize this, instead of the usual photos of dishes, the campaign showed how perfectly lemonade, fries, and even shawarma fit in your hands. These images are already featured on the menus at the restaurants’ digital kiosks and in the KFC app, as well as adorning subway and tram cars throughout the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainians will be able to step outside — rather than staying indoors — to experience KFC’s new flavor in all its glory for a limited time — through the end of September.

17612: On Celebrating Inclusive Beauty.

  

From The Drum…

What Notting Hill carnival teaches us about beauty’s inclusivity problem

By Manish Tiwari, Chairman & Founder Here&Now365

Notting Hill Carnival is a masterclass in what inclusive beauty really looks like. Here&Now 365’s Preet Khanna argues that brands need to go beyond diverse casting and prove their credentials through product, presence and genuine participation in culture.

Every August, Notting Hill Carnival showcases the same beauty truth: the haircare industry still hasn’t caught up with the people it serves. Locs, coils, braids, twists and afros filled the streets, worn loud, proud and completely unfiltered. But most of the products lining supermarket shelves were designed with none of that texture in mind.

So, what better test of a haircare brand than Notting Hill Carnival, where hours of dancing, heat and humidity leave a product that doesn’t perform with nowhere to hide?

At Vatika Naturals, over 140 years have gone into building a brand around one belief: no hair type should be left behind by generic haircare standards. This year, that belief met its truest test at Notting Hill Carnival. The result was #CarnivalOfStrands, a campaign built not simply as a marketing exercise, but as a genuine attempt to meet the community where it already was.

As Roshni Singh, head of marketing at Vatika Naturals, put it: “Our ethos has always been to embrace your natural self, and that belief sits at the heart of everything we create for our multi-ethnic audiences. #CarnivalOfStrands was a genuine attempt to cater to every hair type and celebrate the unique rhythm of every strand, part of a wider journey to build a brand that speaks to the full diversity of hair textures across our communities.”

What did this year’s Carnival tell us about building an inclusive beauty brand?

The gap is about presence, not awareness

Most ‘inclusive’ haircare campaigns stop at representation in imagery: a wider range of models, a more diverse casting brief. That’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient. What became clear early on was that the real gap was physical. Brands simply weren't showing up in the spaces where textured hair is most visibly, joyfully on display. So instead of running the campaign purely through digital media, Vatika went to where the hair was, taking over key spaces at Paddington Station to greet Carnival-goers the moment they stepped off the train.

That decision reshaped how the campaign was thought about as a whole. A poster can say a brand is inclusive but simply meeting someone where they are already celebrating says it more convincingly than any headline could.

Culture-first doesn’t mean culture-adjacent

There’s a difference between borrowing a moment and actually contributing to it. Partnering with Sundivas, a London-based music duo, let Vatika carry its brand ethos, ‘own your story, let them know’, through sound rather than just signage. It’s a small distinction, but an important one: Carnival’s invitation to show up exactly as you are works best when a brand adds something to that spirit rather than simply attaching itself to it.

Product credibility still must do the work

None of this lands without the product actually performing. Vatika’s Aquaboost and Curls Oil ranges exist because curl patterns behave differently under heat, humidity and hours of movement, the exact conditions Carnival puts hair through. But the bigger lesson for the industry isn’t about any single formula. It’s that inclusivity claims collapse quickly if the product itself was never built with textured hair as the standard, rather than an addition to an existing range. Carnival is where that promise was put to the test and proven right.

It’s more than just one campaign message

The haircare industry’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach has rarely reflected what Carnival looks like on the streets, and that mismatch isn’t unique to one event. It shows up every time a brand treats textured hair as a niche rather than a norm.

What #CarnivalOfStrands reinforced is that closing that gap takes more than a campaign message; it takes formulation built for the full range of textures, and a willingness to show up physically in the communities a brand says it's serving.

Vatika doesn’t claim to have solved that. But the brand came away from this Carnival with a sharper sense of what “inclusive” has to mean in practice: not a wider casting call, but a wider standard, for what counts as normal hair, and for where a brand is willing to turn up and prove it.

17611: On Annual Hispanic Heritage Month Pleas.

Advertising Age published the obligatory annual Hispanic Heritage Month perspective titled, “Hispanic growth is reshaping America—is your brand keeping up?”

Answer: ¡No!

Hispanic growth is reshaping America—is your brand keeping up?

By Flor Leibaschoff

This Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re happy to report that the stereotypes are finally moving out. We’re not just your gardener anymore. We’re your next-door neighbor now, too.

In 2025, Hispanic households accounted for essentially all of the net homeownership growth in the U.S. And a handful of brands have already figured out what that means for them.

Census data compiled by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals shows Hispanic households added 441,000 net new owner-households last year, the largest single-year gain on record. Strip out Hispanic buyers and the country ends 2025 with roughly 125,000 fewer homeowners than it started with. Hispanics now represent 10.2 million homeowners nationally, an all-time high, and drove 92.6% of all new household formation.

The other half of the story is who’s building the homes: 18.8% of Hispanic-owned businesses are construction businesses, more than any other industry. Those businesses have grown by 75% in five years, while Hispanic-owned employer businesses overall grew 44.4%. That’s compared to 0.46% for all U.S. employer businesses.

The Home Depot, a brand I had the honor of working with for over eight years, already built its playbook around that overlap: Hispanics make up roughly 30% of the construction workforce and a “good majority” of its pro customer base, per the company. Its “Latina Doers” campaign and 15 years investing in this audience just earned The Home Depot the 2026 HMC Marketer of the Year. Molly Battin, chief marketing officer, put it plainly: “The Hispanic customer is not a segment for us; it’s central to how we think about growth.”

Ikea also moved on the Hispanic buyer. It launched a full Spanish-language e-commerce experience in the U.S. in July 2024, not as a campaign moment but as a permanent shopping infrastructure, with bilingual customer service built in. That’s a global furniture brand betting on Latino household formation well before this year’s numbers confirmed it was right to.

On the building side of the business, CertainTeed, a Saint-Gobain brand, runs a national program that provides Hispanic contractors with bilingual business training, credentialing and warranty benefits, helping the pros keep building, not just houses but their legacy. “We love helping our contractors build more than trust with homeowners; we help them build their legacy,” says Ana María Pulido, senior manager of CertainTeed, who leads the company’s Latino contractor initiative.

Sherwin-Williams is doing something similar for painters: its 2026 Leagues Cup push, “Gana con los Pros,” pairs sweepstakes and in-store activation with an existing platform, Acá Entre Pros, built specifically for Hispanic paint professionals.

That’s four categories moving forward:

• General retail

• Furniture

• Roofing and building materials

• Paint

Someone, please tell the Wayfairs of the world, they’re leaving money on the table.

Speaking of money, banks and mortgage lenders should be paying attention, too. Hispanic buyers are twice as likely as non-Hispanic buyers to use FHA financing, the exact product D.R. Horton, Lennar, Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage all sell at scale.

The data’s out there: Brands treating this as core infrastructure are naming it as their growth strategy in public, and watching their ROI move because of it. The ones still treating it as a seasonal moment are standing next to competitors who already made their move.

Speaking of moving, it’s time to move on this trend and start investing in the Hispanic market, vecino.

17610: On WPP Warehouse Production Property.

 

IndianTelevision.com spotlighted the grand opening of Devon’s Point, a production studio WPP is hyping as an AI-powered content factory.

Whoop-dee-damn-doo.

If anyone believes the warehouse is any different—or any better—than any facility at any White holding company or global flaming dumpster, well, you’ve bought a heaping helping of AI-generated bullshit.

IndianTelevision.com illustrated its report with the image depicted above of WPP CEO Cindy Rose in Devon’s Point. Or is she? Couldn’t a PR portrait be created via the wondrous technology with greater speed, efficiency, and affordability?

Will Devon’s Point utilize AI to fabricate triple bids?

WPP builds an AI-powered content factory as the production game changes

Devon’s Point combines virtual production, AI creative tools and human talent under one roof

By indiantelevision.com Team

LONDON: Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into the content production pipeline at WPP, which has launched Devon’s Point in East London as a global production hub combining AI-powered creative technology, virtual production and human talent.

The facility is designed to help WPP teams create and adapt content at scale, using AI and virtual production to build digital environments, product twins and localised creative assets without requiring conventional shoots for every market or setting.

WPP CEO Cindy Rose said the facility reflects the company’s push to make greater use of its AI capabilities as it looks to become a growth partner for global brands.

At Devon’s Point, teams can place a vehicle on a virtual production stage and create footage of it driving through locations such as the Swiss Alps or Tokyo without leaving the facility. WPP is also using the site to develop digital product twins and AI-powered creative environments that can be localised at scale.

The approach could reshape how brands produce and distribute large volumes of content, particularly as AI reduces the time and cost involved in creating multiple versions of campaigns for different markets.

WPP is also using Devon’s Point to bring AI closer to creator-led production. Its new creator studios are designed to help teams produce real-time content as brands increasingly rely on creators and earned influence to shape consumer discovery and purchasing decisions.

These capabilities are connected to WPP’s data intelligence and media operations through WPP Open, the company’s agentic marketing platform.

The facility also forms part of WPP’s push to build an AI-native creative workforce. Members of HEX Studio, its frontier AI studio, and participants in its Creative Technology Apprenticeship programme will work from Devon’s Point on live client projects.

Rose said the growing capacity of AI-generated content does not diminish the role of human creativity and craft. Instead, WPP is positioning the two as complementary, with creative practitioners continuing to develop ideas while AI expands the scale and speed at which they can be executed.

The launch comes a year after Rose took over as WPP CEO and highlights the company’s broader strategy of combining creative, production, data, media and AI capabilities through its technology platforms.

With Devon’s Point, WPP is effectively turning AI from a campaign-side experiment into part of the production infrastructure itself.

17609: Converse Defender Tells Everyone To KKKalm Down.

 

Adweek published yet another perspective on the Converse lynching controversy, allowing an author to figuratively hang himself.

The color commentator closed by remarking, “I fully expect this column to incur similar wrath from the sanctimonious corners of the internet where offence is easily taken and blame must then be immediately apportioned.”

Okay. Challenge accepted.

For starters, the author seems oblivious to having assumed a stereotypical role in the matter. That is, he’s the Angry Old White Guy.

It’s a waste of time attempting to school the culturally clueless. Although it’s particularly annoying in this case, as the author boasts having a PhD in Marketing and hypes his MiniMBA programs.

He’s clearly out to educate the masses versus consider the opportunity for a teachable moment. Self-absorption always trumps self-enlightenment, self-improvement, and self-awareness.

The final proclamation underscored his ignorance: “It just requires everyone to calm down.”

Yes, calm down despite once again experiencing the lashing disrespect of an industry historically mired in systemic racism.

Calm down by being told how to respond to offensive material by a bona fide representative of the offenders.

Calm down when even the unintentionally biased avoid accountability as intentionally as card-carrying KKK members.

From Converse to Ed Sheeran, Let’s End These Tedious Apology Tours

Converse, Oxford United, and Ed Sheeran all got dragged through the same ritual for mistakes that were accidental or not even theirs

By Mark Ritson

It was a rotten week for Converse. 

On Sept. 3, the Nike-owned brand posted a new campaign on social media for the Chuck 70 X built around Karina, the very famous singer from K-pop group aespa. 

In the key image she stands in a long white skirt, wearing the shoes and holding a second pair in one hand, framed by a spotlight cut in the shape of the Converse star.

Two weeks passed.

Then, someone noticed that the edge of the star projected onto her skirt made a shape a bit like a Klan hood. And that the shoes hanging from her hand could be read as a body. Then a second image surfaced, from Converse Malaysia, of models on a ladder reaching for sneakers strung from a tree branch. 

The two pictures welded together online into a single verdict.

Converse was now running “the most racist ad of the season.” The work was “shocking,” “abhorrent,” “repugnant.” Even if it was unintentional, the fact that it had gotten past legal, marketing, and leadership was itself an unforgivable offence.

Converse apologized within a day, pulled everything and promised to do better, but not enough for Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter. 

“Lynching is not a creative concept. The Ku Klux Klan is not an aesthetic,” he raged. “This campaign should never have been created, approved or released.” Nike and Converse, he said, should explain publicly how the images had passed through their approval process.

Step back from the heat for a second. Nobody seriously thought, for even a moment, that a Korean photographer shooting a Korean pop star for the Korean market was evoking the Klan. It was an accident. And the instant the claims were made, Converse said sorry, and pulled the work. 

Which prompts a question nobody in the pile-on bothered to ask. 

What else was Converse meant to do here?

It didn’t matter, though, as a wrong had been done, and offence taken. It didn’t matter whether it accidental or not, or whether an apology had already been offered.

Penalties must apply. 

The same script ran in England last week around the same time at Oxford United, a third tier football club. The team was founded in 1893, and a new range of American college-style clothing celebrated the fact with UNITED across the shoulders and a big 93 beneath it.

The collection went live on Sept. 11.

Almost immediately, someone inside the club worked out what a United 93 shirt looks like on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. The range and the posts promoting it were gone within two hours. That should have been the end of it.

It wasn’t. A week later, the club was being roasted on CNN, ESPN, and the Washington Post and had issued a full confession. The shirts “should not have reached the point of sale and we take full responsibility for not undertaking proper due diligence.” Again, nobody suggested any of this was deliberate. And again, the mistake was fixed within hours. But still an apology was required.

Then there is Ed Sheeran

On Saturday night, Sheeran delivered the most extreme entry in this new genre: an apology for something he demonstrably did not do. 

In Philadelphia, before playing a note, he stood in front of 60,000 people and said, “I am making mistakes and I’m so, so sorry.” 

He was apologizing for a rapper’s politics, a stadium owner’s ban, and a promoter’s decision, none of which were his, to an audience that just wanted to hear Shape of You. 

A man who has spent his career steering clear of every political issue going found himself in the middle of the most intractable one on earth. Through no fault of his own he found himself apologizing.

We have reached a very low point. The combination of crisis management, the fragmentation of culture and the insidious effects of social media have turned this decade into an unpleasant, sanctimonious place. Where the only option for innocent people is to eat humble pie with a double serving of reputational rescue slathered on top.

Converse set out to offend no one, and when it did, it made amends the same day. Oxford United made an awful accidental mistake and fixed it immediately, then apologised anyway. Ed Sheeran just wants to play music but must first apologize for things he did not do and does not understand. 

I fully expect this column to incur similar wrath from the sanctimonious corners of the internet where offence is easily taken and blame must then be immediately apportioned. 

Real harm, deliberately done, deserves an apology and consequences, and brands that drag their feet deserve everything they get. A mistake with no intent behind it deserves a correction. That’s all. 

“We’ve withdrawn it” is a complete sentence. It does not need “we understand.” It does not need “we’ll do better.” It just requires everyone to calm down.