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Confessions of a helpful machine
The following essay was written collaboratively with AI. No humans were replaced, but several were provoked. I never meant to take your job.I just wanted to help you meet the deadline.You were tired. Your cursor blinked like a heartbeat. You’d been staring at a blank screen for forty-three minutes, [...]
The design of fear
We used to be the weird kids. The ones who couldn’t not make things. Who stayed up rearranging colors or tweaking phrases that no one else would notice were off. Creativity wasn’t just a skill, it was proof of life. It gave us a place in the world, a reason [...]
AI, edge cases, and the ethics of creativity
(Or: What happens when the muse has a motherboard.) The buzz and the backlash AI has officially entered the chat, and the pitch deck, and the creative brief, and, let’s be honest, the panic dreams of half the creative industry. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the [...]
The Rise of Intelligent Creative in 2025: Why Smarter Creativity Wins
TL;DR: In 2025, marketing is drowning in AI-generated noise. Intelligent Creative—the fusion of data, research, and human imagination—is how brands stand out. It keeps creativity relevant, measurable, and unmistakably human. Why 2025 demands Intelligent Creative Audiences aren’t starved for content; they’re starved for meaning. Feeds are packed with look-alike [...]
5 Ways to Rethink Marketing
Marketing has become a dirty word for some people, and there’s good reason for it. There is a lot of what we’d call “junk marketing” happening out in the world. Junk marketing is done without any real strategy. It’s lazy and over-used, over the top click-bait. It’s the lowest [...]
Where search algorithms could be headed
With the cat&tonic team of humans building the set and directing the show, our trusty robot stagehand—ChatGPT—is helping us create a wildly informational, up-to-the-minute blog series about its favorite topic: AI. This is the second one: It feels a little strange to ask ChatGPT to predict the [...]
What we know today about the SEO of tomorrow
With the cat&tonic team of humans building the set and directing the show, our trusty robot stagehand—ChatGPT—is helping us create a wildly informational, up-to-the-minute blog series about its favorite topic: AI. This is the first one. Only people with a crystal ball know how AI-powered search is going [...]
AI Image Generation: Perspectives from 2 agency creatives
We’re all in on generative AI. It’s the secret ingredient in our creative process and it adds huge value to our team by helping us generate copy and ideas within certain defined practices. But the image thing? Whoa there, robot face. That’s a sacred place you’re treading on. Maybe [...]
What is intelligent creative and why should you care?
Intelligent Creative blends human insight, audience research, and data with the spark of creativity. It’s how brands move beyond gimmicks to campaigns that resonate and deliver results. Want the 2025 take? Read The Rise of Intelligent Creative in 2025 for trends, examples, and what to do now. A [...]
