Before I write anything, I just want to echo that everything Wiliam Goldman said about the movies also applies to advertising and marketing—nobody knows anything. 

I don’t care how many dumb awards your agency won (I can say this because we haven’t announced the 2026 competition…yet) or how you have the most strategy-iest strategics of strategies when it comes to branding. I don’t know why some things get more attention than others or why specific designs or brands receieve high praise across social. Maybe it had a good story, or there were pretty pictures. Perhaps you hired a good PR team to get you on one of the 20 Substacks everyone is currently reading. I just don’t know. And you should be wary of any LinkedIn huckster who says otherwise.

Case in point: David’s protein bars. People are still talking about it. Every one of us can give it the ol’ college try and armchair-splain this one. Great branding from Day Job? Yes. Riding the wave of sandblasting 20 grams of protein into everything? You bet your milk protein isolate they are! From the guy who made Rxbar? A VC bro in a corduroy Olipop hat is gooning himself into a stupor. It all makes perfect sense, but I could just as easily tell you that I don’t get it and that some things are just stickier than others.