"An Empire of Memories: Is the past controlling the future of the advertising industry?”

Do the benefits of idolising the past outweigh the limitations it imposes on us?

Much like in the ad industry, the past had a serious stranglehold on Roman society.

Romans were obsessed with the past.

It not only served as inspiration, but it controlled people’s daily lives.

Picture this: you walk into any fancy Roman aristocrat’s home, and you’d be welcomed by a series of wax masks of deceased relatives.

Now, if you were a kid growing up in one of those homes, your job was to memorize all of the life achievements of your ancestors.

You’d be expected to live according to their values, their perspectives on life.

And you’d be expected to live up to their accomplishments—or else face some serious side-eye from the wax masks.

Talk about pressure! Forget modern expectations like “get a good job”—Romans had to “conquer a few lands” just to make the family proud.

The past in Rome didn’t just inspire; it oppressed. It controlled people’s actions.

Roman society became ultra-traditional, highly conservative, and highly averse to change.

Things were done in the present as they had been done in the past. No questions asked.

This limited Roman society’s ability to change when needed.

And that made them fragile—not adaptable. And then we all know what happened to the Roman Empire… Men are still thinking about it every day.

The past controlled the present and future in ancient Roman society.

So, here’s the million-dollar question: Is the past controlling the future of the advertising industry too? Is our fascination with the good old days more of a crutch than a creative spark?

Is our relationship with the past serving as inspiration or as a constraint?

How many “sacred cows” do we have inside our agencies?

Do the benefits of idolising the past outweigh the limitations it imposes on us?

Are we excited to build a different industry, or do we still wish we worked in the industry of a few decades ago?

Perhaps what’s limiting our industry’s evolution is that we go to the office every day in 2024 still wishing we were walking through the doors of a 1960s ad agency.

And let’s be real: nobody wants their agency to end up like a wax museum.