The beige vs the bold.
Fuck this boring messaging trend.
There’s a storm brewing in the world of brand communication, and it’s about to rip the beige right off the boardroom walls. The gap between the bland and the brave is widening, and the brands that cling to “that’ll do” messaging are about to get washed away.
For the last few years, amid the AI hysteria and everyone getting far too excited about useless, gimmicky outcomes, we’ve tolerated mediocrity masquerading as marketing. We’ve nodded politely at campaigns stitched together from clichés and committee compromises. But here’s the truth: great storytelling is back, kicking down the door, elbows out, ready to shove the slop aside.
Why? Because audiences are drowning in generic content. AI-generated blurbs, templated taglines, and soulless slogans have flattened the landscape. Machines can mimic tone, but they can’t feel tension. They don’t know what it means to connect. And connection is the currency that matters.
“Take this gem:
New Year, Nourish You...”
That recently trotted out in a Vitality email campaign, it’s the perfect case study in beige. It’s not just uninspired, it’s insulting. It assumes we’ll swallow any half-baked rhyme as long as it’s sprinkled with wellness dust. Spoiler: we won’t. Consumers are savvy. They spot lazy messaging instantly, and they associate it with cost-cutting, not creativity.
Meanwhile, bold brands are doing the opposite. They’re telling stories that make people feel something: joy, anger, hope, even fear. They’re anchoring their campaigns in emotional truth, not jargon. They’re crafting narratives with tension, transformation, and meaning. Because neuroscience doesn’t lie: stories light up the brain like a Christmas tree. Facts hit one note; stories play a symphony.
This isn’t a trend. It’s a reckoning. The brands that win will be the ones that ditch the beige and embrace the bold. They’ll invest in craft, edit ruthlessly, and refuse to publish anything that doesn’t earn its place. They’ll understand that storytelling isn’t fluff, it’s a strategic asset. It’s the difference between being remembered and being ignored.
So here’s your forecast:
The storm is here. Beige will drown. Bold will rise. And the brands that tell stories worth hearing will own the future.