If there is one thing I’ve learned from being a writer, it is that words are powerful. Very. Powerful. And recently I keep hearing the same words over and over again: advertising creates culture.

Hearing this genuinely made me feel uncomfortable, yet at first, I couldn’t wrap my head around the reason behind why. It seriously took me days to figure it out. But I finally realized why I was upset over this simple phrase. Because just as simple as the phrase was, so was the reason it made me so hot-headed: that phrase is blissfully ignorant.

So, with that being said, here’s my unpopular opinion:

Advertising doesn’t create culture. Advertising adapts to culture. Maybe, when done well, we could say that it influences it. But before my fellow advertising die-hards tune out, hear me out first:

What would strategy be if it wasn’t looking for the insight in culture that already exists? The culture is already there. Created by the people. From history–deeply rooted history–that evolved over a long period of time.

Think of it this way: Culture is the book.

But let’s back up and find out what culture is. It is the accumulation of mindsets and ideas and physical representation of its people. I believe it is naïve, even pretentious, to say that advertising creates culture as a whole. Simply, mindfully, because it doesn’t.

Pop culture, however, is different. Pop culture, by definition, is “transmitted via mass media and aimed particularly at younger people.” Now THAT sounds more familiar. Pop culture is a few of the pages that go into the larger book we’ve previously referred to as “culture.” So here’s what Advertising can do: advertising can influence and even create pop culture. Some might argue that, other than selling products and services, this is exactly what advertising is for. 

So, let’s regain our credibility here.

Advertising does have the power to influence, and even create, pop culture. But the roots of culture… in its purest sense… in the deep history of a people or place from its long past… I just can’t, with good conscious, claim to say that my future television commercial will have an effect on that. It’s not our place to make that claim. And look, it’s not about staying in our lane–it’s about recognizing that some things are plainly bigger than us. Let us let go of the ego that says this isn’t true.

We can be the BEST, the GREATEST, the FINEST, at creating pop culture. But it is a disrespect to history to say that we create culture as a whole. It is a disrespect to the real people that created and formed and developed the roots of culture over a very long period of time. It’s even a disrespect to ourselves.

We can make this world better through what we do, our creativity, our optimism, our endless hours of working to make something that truly resonates with the people we are trying to reach, but this thing has to be done one page at a time. We can’t write the whole book in one sitting unless we don’t care about the content. 

So let’s be thoughtful enough to step outside ourselves and not let the natural (or unnatural, actually) inclination to be egotistical creatives overcome us. And let’s start with this: 

Think before we speak. Adapt to culture. Be open minded and learn enough about culture to create a trend. From this, create pop culture. Create it well. Be proud of that. Because, damn, in the scheme of things, it is most definitely something to be proud of. 

Talia Bootz