The Gift.

Thursday night. End of year in adland.

The kind of busy that makes you numb. Deadlines stacking. Clients panicking. Everyone trying to close things out before Christmas while pretending they're not already mentally checked out.

I'm on the couch, phone in hand, doing that thing where you're not really watching anything, just scrolling. Instagram surfaces a couple of beautiful design posts. Three seconds. Hmm. Keep moving. Then some memes. Then nothing.

I have Andor Season 2 playing in the background. Barely paying attention. One of those slow episodes, more action than talking. Which is only a problem to this specific show of Star Wars. Please watch it if you haven't.

And then this character appears. Saw Gerrera. A revolutionary in the Star Wars universe. Ragged, paranoid, addicted to the fumes that keep him alive and kill him slowly. He's talking to a young recruit named Wilmon, trying to convince him to join the fight.

And he delivers this speech:

"Remember this. Remember this moment! This perfect night. You think I'm crazy? Yes, I am. Revolution is not for the sane. Look at us."

I put my phone down.

Something just unlocked.

He continues: "Unloved, hunted, cannon fodder. We'll all be dead before the Republic is back and yet... here we are. Where are you, boy? You're here! You're right here, and you're ready to fight! We're the rhydo, kid. We're the fuel. We're the thing that explodes when there's too much friction in the air."

I've been stuck for months trying to figure out things. Many of them. But one in particular is my personal take on what's happening in advertising. I'm an ad nerd, I love this thing and I want it shining in fucking splendor.

All these events that feel connected but I couldn't say how. The mergers. The layoffs. The exodus. The holding companies collapsing. The AI panic. The cuts that started quiet but now won't stop.

It all feels like the beginning of something. The endgame for this generation. Like we're approaching the moment we have to hand this industry over, but first we have to do… something.

A reset, I kept thinking. Advertising needs a reset. What does that even mean?

But I couldn't figure out what that looks like. What shape it takes. What we're actually supposed to do. It sounded flat. I sounded bullshit.

Also had this project stuck. This personal decision I've been avoiding. This stupid blog series I started and the aim to make a post for Christmas, hoping for a gift. A gift to give.

And then Saw Gerrera's speech unlocked it.

Not because he said "revolution." Duh. But because of where he put the weight.

The people.

"Look at us."

That's what unlocked it.

Not the strategy. Not the plan. Not what needs to happen.

The people. Who does this? The kind of person who becomes fuel.

"Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder."

The insane ones. The ones willing to burn.

Saw doesn't talk about how to win. He doesn't have a five-year plan. He doesn't promise success.

He just points at the people and says: look at us. We're crazy. We're expendable. We'll all be dead before this works.

And yet here we are.

That focus on the people, that's what solved it for me.

Because I'd been thinking about what advertising needs. What has to change. What the reset looks like. By the way, a reset has never happened before. I fucking hate the word "reset". If anyone tells you we need a "reset," tell them to fuck off unless he shows up with a Neuralyzer.

Saw reminded me: revolutions aren't about what needs to happen.

They're about who's willing to make it happen.

So this is my Christmas gift to you.

Not my analysis. Not my take on the industry. Just this speech. These words.

Because focusing on the people unlocked everything for me. The stuck project. The decision. The frustration I couldn't articulate.

Maybe it does something for you too.

Maybe it reminds you that if you're feeling all this friction, if you're restless and exhausted and unable to stay, you're not broken.

You're exactly the kind of person revolutions need.

"We're the thing that explodes when there's too much friction in the air."

Look around. The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. This is the time of monsters, as Gramsci once said.

Creatives launching incredible studios. Starting weird consultancies. Building their own platforms in strange places. The exodus filtering down from executives to the young ones who generate the ideas. They're realizing they could be reaping the rewards themselves.

Omnicom and IPG merging. Thousands cut. Networks desperate to survive.

Greg Hahn at Mischief: "If you focus on what makes you special, the money will follow. If you focus on the money, you'll cease to be special."

Aaron Starkman at Rethink refusing to sell while everyone consolidates. "WE WILL NOT SELL RETHINK." He knew. "The work is going to get shitty."

Javier Campopiano at McCann: "Advertising is going through an identity crisis... Finding truth is a human ability."

Nils Leonard: "Apathy is a bigger threat to creativity than AI ever will be."

There's too much friction.

Look at the people willing to become fuel.

The ones who can't let mediocre work ship. Who care about details nobody asked for. Who've been feeling this without knowing what to call it.

Unloved by an industry that puts work third. Hunted by a system that sees care as inefficiency. Cannon fodder in a moment of mass layoffs.

And yet here we are.

Merry Christmas.

Remember this. Remember this moment.

You think you're crazy? Yes, you are.

Revolution is not for the sane.

Look at us.