• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 9, 2015

In relation to yesterday's column which shared the opinion of one ad executive who took issue with PepsiCo Brand Manager Brad Jakeman's assertion that all agencies consist of a bunch of straight white guys who only make 30-second TV commercials and in reaction to that very same speech, New York-based HERO Group is out with an effort they are calling #ChallengeMeBrad.

The gist behind #ChallengeMeBrad is that large brands like Pepsi should give smaller agencies a shot rather than typically relying on holding company behemoths to do their bidding. The challenge, which is housed on the Challenge Me Brad website, rges smaller, independent shops to register with Challenge Me Brad, upload a logo or agency photo and the site will place a #ChallengeMeBrad sticker on the logo or photo.

The shops are then encouraged to share that altered photo to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and their other social channels along with the hashtag #ChallenegMeBrad which, if the effort is successful, will make it very easy for Mr. Jakeman to seek out and explore these smaller shops.

Of the effort, HERO CEO Joseph Anthony said, "I wanted to make this is less about me and my desire to get an opportunity to work with Pepsi, and more about the systemic issues that face small agencies with great talent who are more about passion and less about politics, less about selling what they're good at versus what the client actually needs."

And squarely placing the blame for this supposed problem on large agencies themselves, Anthony added, "The corporate titans of the world are the biggest perpetuators of the status quo, which they are often far too quick to criticize. Rather than demean and scold the industry, they should foster creativity and incorporate small businesses into their marketing processes moving forward. It's very hard to ask brand managers to augment or validate new companies, especially when their jobs are on the line. But aside from just sheer size, big agencies don't have a monopoly on good ideas."

HERO's efforts seemingly have paid off and Jakeman himself saw the campaign and, in reaction to it, tweeted  "This is totally epic! Love it. Most passion I've seen about the industry for quite some time."

Who knows, we may see a HERO-created Pepsi campaign in the near future.