In the spotlight

What’s your story?
 

At 40, I’m still looking for a place to call home. I was born and raised in Saudi, moved to Karachi as a teen (imagine that double-identity crisis), moved between Karachi and Lahore for a bit before moving to the US for a two-year work stint. I’m now back in Lahore where I’ve set up my own shop with my work-bestie turned partner (in business and miscellaneous other crimes), Daniah Ishtiaq.



As all third-culture kids know, you’re forever an outsider looking into the lives of others- never truly belonging. I feel this sense of exclusion is what primed by brain for advertising, where I’m always looking into the lives of consumers for that deeper understanding. Add to that my introverted nature, and I’m your perfect fly on the wall. 


Also- spell the word b-o-r-e-d, and I’ll be snoozing before the last letter is out of your mouth. Which is precisely why advertising, where no two briefs are ever the same, has kept my creative appetite riveted for over 15 years now. (I’m a Gemini and I live up to the reputation).


I’m also a self-proclaimed left-brained creative, which means I believe all creative madness comes with a method. I’ve spent years trying to identify where gut feelings come from, and how to harness the power of creativity in strategic ways.



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Why did you set up AND THE NERVE!?
 

For the love of strategic defiance; which is why everything we do comes with razor-sharp edges. Our work and vision poke at industry conventions, egos that become bigger than the work itself, and the idea that the advertising industry is ‘just how it is.’ The audacity we bring to the table questions all the age-old ways that have become industry-norm, not just with our work but with the culture we’re building at the company.


 

Our model is deliberately lean and project-based, where we hire the right people for the right job, completely cutting out the unnecessary fat (read: leadership that looks at decks right before meetings, rehauling work on too-late-to-arrive whims). This very model also lets us pick the work and clients that align with our vision, keeping the client-agency relationship transformational- because when creativity starts falling prey to that monthly retainer, things quickly become.. transactional. If you come from the advertising world, you know that form of slavery all too well. (Apologies for the whiplash).





 

What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
 

Early on in college one of my advisors told me: “If you can produce a good design within the given constraints, you’ve made it as a designer.” And boom, that’s how I learnt how to drop my creative anchor. Two decades later, I’m still chasing constraints in a brief- the more the guardrails we set for ourselves, the better the output is!


 

If you weren’t in the creative industry, what would you be doing and why?
 

Outside of advertising, I’d be dabbling in the culinary arts or, as a curly hair enthusiast, be studying the science behind curly hair products, launching my own line for South-Asian hair.
 

Out of all the campaigns you’ve worked on, which one stands out as the most memorable, and why?
 

After a portfolio full of globally-acclaimed work on social-first campaigns, our vision at AND THE NERVE! is to move the needle on commercial work in the country.

My most favourite piece of work that ties into that larger goal is The Top Secret Material stunt that we pulled for Always, where we turned the new Always top-sheet into a sofa to generate trial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Always was getting a lot of flak from women complaining it was rash inducing. So Always went back to the drawing board and reformulated its top-sheet, making it as soft as cotton.

 

Here’s what had us in a fix: how does one generate trial for a product that, (1) had a bad rep and (2) came wrapped in euphemisms, whispers, and coded language. When it comes to pads in Pakistan, we don’t say the word. We don’t show the product (hand over the brown paper bag, please).

 

Leaning into that cultural absurdity, we decided to disguise the new Always pad in plain eyesight- as a sofa covered in the new Always top sheet, asking people to experience the Top Secret Material and rate it.

 

When the secret was revealed- that the mystery fabric was, in fact, the new Always top sheet, participants were stunned by their own reactions to the product (especially Always lapsers!). 96% said the material was soft.

With a completely unbranded setup we cut through bias and stigma, flipping around how sampling was historically done for the menstrual hygiene category. This also resulted in a +65% growth (vs past 3 months) for the trial pack (a result that conventional efforts on the brand were not able to achieve on their own).

Best strapline of all time?
 

You’re not you when you’re hungry.

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As someone who gets hangry all the time, it tells me exactly why I need to pick up a Snickers. It’s the rare perfect balance between function and emotion, which is what makes it genius. (It’s also a lot less guilt, knowing the crabby, hungry me is not the real me.)
 

Work you admire created by others — what stands out and why?
 

As advertisers we take ourselves too seriously. At the end of the day, we’re in the business of selling things and we really need to climb off our high horses and let the hell loose.

 

Which is why I enjoyed these two pieces of work:   

 

• The Moldy Whopper. I love how it shamelessly ripped the advertising rule book and still delivered. It said to the food industry... it’s okay to SHOW a rotting burger because it will still drive up sales.
  
  
   

• The Square Oreo. The shape of the product is not one of God’s commandments (like a lot of marketing purists would like to believe). I love how Oreo broke out of their own ‘shell’ for this one.
  
   

 
Right now, what do you think is the most exciting thing about the creative industry?

 

We’ve been handed the tools with AI, but the real challenge is to keep our brains abreast with those tools. AI draws from what’s currently out there, and if AI has already read and scoured all optimal versions of creativity that’s been put out into the world and is regurgitating forms of it, where does it get its creative update?

Frightening, right?

This is exactly why we’re seeing similar sounding and looking work being churned out. The AI ick is what I call it- and this is precisely what will drive the world to appreciate imperfections that come from ‘human’ forms of creativity. And in a world that’s asked for perfection for far too long, that evolution is what I’m excited to see!