Moody's Marketing Round Up: September 2025

NGL, the marketing world has been very quiet over the last month. Maybe everyone’s on vacation?

Or maybe everyone’s a little shook by the state of the world and not creating the stuff that surprises and delights? Because creativity requires careful thought and even a little boredom, the constant onslaught of terrifying news and daunting hits at free speech has made marketers for the big companies a little more conservative with their campaigns and their big clients a little gun shy about taking a big swing.

Par example … Ben and Jerry’s

Ben and Jerry’s has been more than an ice cream company since 1978. This company has been a marketing superstar since its inception, creating cool names and labels and constantly raising the profile of social injustice worldwide. 

This month co-founder Jerry Greenfield publicly quit the company, saying he couldn’t continue in "in good conscience,” claiming its parent company Unilever had "silenced" activism from the company. 

So this isn’t marketing per se, but it packs a pretty big punch in the days when free speech is being limited either by governments or in fear of them. Money is at the root of all marketing, which is why Disney/ABC reinstated Jimmy Kimmel after losing a massive pile of money after cancelling him over a non-joke. We vote with our wallets and people aren’t ok with being silenced about things they care about. 

Speaking of Vacations & Art 

Going back to the theme of vacations and art, copy director Alisha was in Toronto for her vacation this year and was catfished by some great marketing! As an art lover, The Royal Ontario Museum’s Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools was to feature 300 years of the Flemish masters. The marketing was beautiful, the exhibition was … fine. 

The marketing for the exhibition FOLLOWED YOU, including light pole flags all over the city featuring closeups of the paintings, the digital advertising was targeted, and generally you couldn’t go anywhere in the city without seeing promotion of the exhibition. And while we had a great time at the ROM - spending SIX hours wandering through natural history and stunning artworks - there were more Flemish masters’ paintings at the AGO, which also had some on-point ads throughout the city and online! 

Some More Saucy Promos

We use a lot of stock imagery in our work, so deathtostock.com caught our eye when they started posting suggestive ads this month. They say sex sells, so it’s no surprise this one stopped us in our feed! 

(non) Toxic Avenger

Finally, in this weirdly off-topic, marketing-but-not-marketing blog, we’ve got a film campaign we’re super thrilled to see. The Toxic Avenger is a long-awaited comic adaptation starring Peter Dinkledge. And while we don’t normally include trailers or film marketing unless it’s pretty exceptional (Final Destination Bloodlines, anyone?), this campaign filled our hearts and is wiping out at least $5 million of medical debt - a key plot point in the film. Breaking Bad, you could never.

That’s a Wrap

As a company who cares a lot about social justice ourselves, we know art is inherently a political and graphic design and copywriting are art forms. So while there’s less risky marketing out there this month, we’re seeing a lot more companies - especially small ones - putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to spending those marketing bucks. 

If you're ready to make a stand with your marketing, get in touch with us. It just might be time to Go Rogue.