“Agencies are kind of invisible,” says Lücy Aa. “I had to learn about them another way, because there was no one else from my community who was in this world that could tell me.”

With stints at Droga5 London and current agency Mother, plus campaigns for KFC and Uber Eats under their belt, you wouldn’t assume that the art director and his copywriter partner Jordan Waters had struggled to break into advertising. In reality, both of them fell into an industry that has long been elusive to those who aren’t already in the know.

Aa describes his own journey as “the scenic route”. After dropping out of college and doing property management, he taught himself how to use a camera and spent the next five years freelancing as a director, photographer, and graphic designer, working with musicians including Skepta and Ed Sheeran. He even formed the beginnings of his own agency during the pandemic but ended up being scammed out of £10,000 by the business partner he was working with at the time.

The one good thing that came out of that horrible experience was discovering D&AD’s night school Shift. “At the time I’d just about discovered that advertising was a thing. I fell in love with old ads from the 1960s, so when the agency didn’t really pan out, I was like, OK I want to jump into advertising,” he says. “I was having conversations with [agencies], but because of my background and where I wanted to start they couldn’t make it make sense – I had no advertising experience but I had creative experience. Shift was the vehicle that helped me get in.”

Waters’ experience of breaking into the industry is slightly more typical, although he admits he had no idea the ad world existed until it hurtled straight into him. After studying zoology at uni, doing a ski season, and then trying to work out what to do next during the pandemic, he began shadowing someone who worked in branding. “He was like, ‘well what do you actually like doing?’” says Waters. “I said I quite like writing bits and pieces, and he went, ‘have you heard of copywriting?’ He showed me some cool ads, and then from there I was trying to get a placement.”

I was having conversations with agencies, but because of my background and where I wanted to start, they couldn’t make it make sense

Aa and Waters first met at BBH Barn, the agency’s creative incubator run by the former head of the legendary Watford Advertising Course, Tony Cullingham, who passed away recently. “You sort of speed date on Barn. You go around and do one-hour briefs, [working] with someone different for each one,” says Waters.

It didn’t take long before they decided to partner up as art director and copywriter. “What worked for us is that we got on well and we had fun, and that ended up in some fun ideas too,” he says. Aa agrees, adding: “I think we’re very similar in nature. I think our way of turning stuff down is asking questions of each other to make you think, does this really make sense?”

Being mentored by Cullingham, who nurtured a huge amount of young talent in the UK during his career, taught them a number of lessons – one of the major ones being how not to take rejection personally. “You don’t get attached to ideas,” Aa laughs. “I think that’s something I still struggle with – is the idea shit or does it not work for this brief for whatever reason? You’ve just got to be resilient, and bounce back, and be like, alright, there’s more ideas.”

During the course, the duo began to hone a witty and relevant tone of voice that has fed into much of their work since. Following the resignation of prime minister Boris Johnson on July 7, 2022 (which happened to be a Thursday), they launched a tactical ad with the tagline, ‘A good day to go out,’ which was reposted by dating app Thursday across its social channels. Another tactical ad encouraging people to book a train ticket home for Mother’s Day also caught the attention of Trainline, and they followed it up with a more ambitious spot for Father’s Day, where they filmed a group of dads telling their favourite dad jokes.

Aa and Waters got a job at Droga5 London straight off the back of Barn. Credits during their time there include copywriting for the agency’s rebrand of Sister Circle, a healthcare charity for women in east London. They also created their first radio campaign for Rustlers, which was named best radio ad of the year by Radiocentre.

Since joining Mother earlier this year, they’ve tried to keep their art director and copywriting roles more defined and have been working across a range of clients including KFC, Reese’s, and Uber Eats. “I feel like it’s working quite nicely really. You feel like you can take ownership of that part, and I know Lücy will take ownership of the other part, and together that’s one less thing to worry about,” says Waters.

Outside of agency life, they’ve also got their own creative outlets. Waters has just started experimenting with stand-up comedy, while Aa is still making music videos, podcasts, and short films on the side. “It keeps my sanity, just because in advertising a lot of ideas will get killed for whatever reason, so doing personal stuff is a way to take the edge off,” he says.

I think we’re very similar in nature. Our way of turning stuff down is asking questions of each other to make you think, does this really make sense?

While they’ve both relished getting stuck into the advertising world, one of their biggest gripes is just how inaccessible it remains to people from different backgrounds. Their challenge to the industry they’re entering into is simple: ad agencies need to get better at advertising themselves. “If you want people from diverse backgrounds, they’ve got to know you exist to even realise this is an avenue for them,” says Aa.

When it comes to their own career prospects, in the meantime both of them are less concerned with bagging any fancy job titles and more interested in making great work. “I’m not really thinking about wanting to be a creative director or running my own agency. Right now, we’re trying to learn how to come up with some fantastic ideas that everyone loves, which is not easy,” says Waters. “That’s the goal – keep making better and better stuff.”

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