We’re Not Out of Ideas. We’re Out of Excuses
Why Do the Odds Seem Stacked Against Us in the Culture War?
Since publishing Built for a Different War, I’ve been in dozens of conversations with leaders across the movement. People running organizations, coalitions, campaigns — people who’ve been on the front lines, carrying enormous weight through chaotic elections, nonstop fundraising, direct attacks from the state, and increasingly, from the algorithm itself.
If there’s a common thread, it’s this:
No one is struggling because they lack conviction.
No one is struggling because they lack creativity.
They’re struggling because what we’re facing isn’t a communications challenge anymore — it’s a full-on change management process.
It is no small thing to move from the world of traditional strategic comms — issues, programs, and rapid response — to a future-focused, distributed, culturally intelligent model of narrating how power works and who it works for.
This shift asks leaders to not just change tactics, but to change the whole way they think about storytelling itself: as a daily practice, not an occasional push; as an act of shaping culture, not just influencing elites.
And while the intellectual leap is hard enough, there are three very real forces making it even harder.
Problem #1: The incentives are stacked against you.
To put it plainly: the market doesn’t reward you for making this shift.
There are very few funders creating meaningful, sustained pools of resources to help organizations make this transition — a process that, in my view, takes anywhere from 6 to 24 months, depending on your size.
Put plainly, it’s actually more financially beneficial in the short term to come up with an issue-specific program or campaign you don’t fully believe in, because it checks the right box in a funder’s strategic plan. You know the ones. We’ve all done them.
This makes short-term survival feel like it’s in conflict with long-term strategy. And you’re not imagining it — it is.
Problem #2: We have some of the talent we need, but not nearly enough.
Our organizations are filled with smart, committed, hard-working people. That’s not the gap.
The gap is the talent that isn’t in our organizations at all.
The kind of creative firepower we need to move culture consistently — creators, yes, but also the people creators call when they level up: Creative directors. Copywriters. Merchandise designers. Visual effects wizards. Stylists. Editors. Photographers who know how to shoot for movement and moment.
This talent isn’t in our sector, mostly because we haven’t invested in it consistently. Occasionally, we’ll splurge on a big cultural activation — but it’s too often too little, too late. (Anyone remember the Harris campaign concerts?)
We’re not building creative career paths within our movements. We’re renting them, briefly, when it feels urgent. And we pay the price when we can’t call on them again, tomorrow.
Problem #3: We have lost the trust of the multiracial working class — and we’re not sure how to get it back.
Let’s just say this out loud.
We have taken the bait of fights we couldn’t avoid, but also couldn’t win. We’ve leaned in on framings that served part of our base but left us badly exposed to opponents eager to cast us as villains to the very people we see ourselves working for.
The way people make meaning — how they see themselves in the story of this country, how they understand their own personal power and who they see as the "enemies" getting in their way — is evolving faster than the silos we’ve built to reach them.
I don’t believe we are truly out of touch. Most of us live and breathe the same culture that is swinging away from us. But we have failed to meet people where they are and lead the culture — toward something sexy, funny, and hopeful, but also pluralistic, critical, mobilized and “small d” democratic.
This is not just a messaging problem. It’s a failure of presence, of imagination, and of courage to go where people already are and move them with honesty and clarity.
Gaps Create Demand for Agencies, but Are We Meeting the Challenge?
Here’s the honest part: agencies and firms like mine exist because these problems exist.
I’ve seen it from all sides: as a founder, as a partner, and as a client. At our best, the right agency partner can empower leaders to execute their vision on a higher level, create breathing room for staff to grow while fighting on multiple fronts, and bring strategic, creative, and technical muscle when you need it most.
But I’ve also seen the dark side of the model. The agency that will take your money, promise you the dream you want to hear, and keep growing even if you never get the dream. And we all lose again.
I’ve committed myself, every day, to being in the first category. It’s not perfect — we all have room to grow — but I keep two priorities at the center:
Be a force for innovation. Refuse to take contracts to execute against strategies I know are doomed, just because they’re easy to sell.
Align my interests with my clients. Build projects that become shared infrastructure. Leverage brilliant team and a lifetime of relationshis to help raise resources for bold ideas and leaders that deserve daylight.
It’s why we built The Payback campaign last year. Not as an agency product, but as shared infrastructure for dozens of groups fighting to turn clean energy into a cultural force during the election. It didn't just win awards, it worked:
22+ million young, Black and Latino/a, low propensity voters reached
Hundreds of creative tactics and content pieces in English and Spanish
35+ local influencers reaching 700,000+ in Georgia alone and even more in the other states we targeted
Measurably boosting vote intent and climate and clean energy interest with this critical cohort of climate voters
This is one example - not just about churning more content or winning more votes - but of how we build an infrastructure for culture change that can achieve scale in ways that make the impact of our collective work add up to much more than the limited sum of the isolated parts.
A new way of winning this culture war is possible, but only if we build differently. If you don’t like a military metaphor, think of it as changing our palate. To win, we need to develop a taste for media and culture projects with new models of collaboration, coordination, cultural intelligence, and development of the talent we currently push to the sidelines. The idea of projects that demand we work differently, on our own and together, needs to feel deliciously satisfying, not like a bitter pill to swallow. To solve the problems above, on our own or with an agency, there is no way forward but through: we have to find the resolve to move urgently in unprecedented formation.
The Choice in Front of Us
As I talk to organizational leaders right now, I see two dominant reactions to this moment:
Anxious.
Overwhelmed by the scale of what needs to change, and unsure where to start.Avoidant.
Tempted to ignore the hard truths and keep doing what’s familiar, even if it’s not working.
At the same time, there are many independent groups bidding to spin up new influencer and media plays - vying to own the talent, pipes, and production capacity that can scale a progressive leaning culture. There are many good ideas floating - I have one myself - but what strikes me is the gap between that innovative thinking and how it all works together to add up to wins not just stuff. You can have all the pieces on the table, but someone has to do the work of assembling the puzzle or it’s just a lot of mess laying around.
I want to propose a third option for leaders who want to move past anxious and avoidant: Allied.
We can do more than survive this moment — we can build together. But to do that, we have to start thinking differently about how we work with agencies, creative partners, and even each other.
Right now, many groups collaborate well on policy strategy and legislative plays. But they don’t collaborate nearly as well to build the communications infrastructure we all need.
It goes back to the first problem about funding and incentive structures. And to be clear, bigger organizations who often think they have more to gain by going it alone aren't exempt. In fact, these organizations often need the most help to change - with more stubborn, slow-moving bureaucracies and entrenched ways of working.
Being outgunned, outpaced, and outmatched tactically doesn't just drain our campaigns, it chips away at our morale, and the culture of our movements. We can work in new ways because we must work in new ways, with new models of collaboration and funding support.
So, I’ll leave you with this question:
If I came to you with an idea, ready to build something new together —
Would you feel anxious?
Avoid the email?
Or would you take a chance on making an unexpected alliance?
Think about it, because I may be calling sooner than you think…
Stay tuned for more on what we’re building next. And if you’re already feeling the call to collaborate, reach out.
Great piece, Andre!