For an agency art director or creative director.
Pictures are cheap. A look holds when you pick one campaign route, kill the others, then lock palette, lighting, casting, wardrobe, and lens on one named board before you generate the rest.
The miss is not prompting. The miss is generating a board before keep-or-kill starts. On 16 August 2026 we walked this from a loaded brand. Keep-or-kill starts at the campaign cards.
The 18 August 2026 landing says left alone, AI trends toward the average, and 70 percent of agencies have not changed what they charge. That names the pressure. This page is the sequence.
What you’ll need
- A loaded brand or a written brief
- A room that can hold campaign cards and a board
- One person who is allowed to kill
The workflow
Load the brand. Do not generate a board yet.
A loaded brand is enough. Read the brand. Do not ask for a craft board on the first move.
Read the four jobs. Do not kill here.
On 16 August 2026 the four jobs were: build the platform, find the big idea, make the BOGO land, and explore the visual world. We opened find the big idea.
Find the big idea. Get three campaign cards.
Keep-or-kill starts here. The three cards were The Night, Not the Morning; The Last Hangover; and Know Exactly.
Pick one card. Lock the line.
We picked The Last Hangover. The line was Your last hangover already happened.
Write the film, then the treatment.
Scene by scene first. Then A Wake, Not a Joke. The film breathes at 0:12.
Ask for out of home for this direction.
Memorial, receipt, public notice. Acid-green on black. No bottle. No beach.
If the platform comes back, pick it on purpose.
The Night, Not the Morning returned as the platform. Write it down. Do not drift.
Make three named art directions. Pick one.
The Clean Split, Night Into Morning, The Morning Receipt. Pick one name. Kill the other two.
Lock one full board, then the six-panel.
Palette: #0b1026 #e3f98a #000000 #f4c77b #fff6e9. Night Into Morning, shot 74, 16 August 2026: 35mm, shallow focus; morning light specified as a single big north-facing window; night specified as low-key practicals with acid-green neon.
Outcome
A look holds when you pick one campaign route, kill the others, then lock palette, lighting, casting, wardrobe, and lens on one named board before you generate the rest.