Marissa Price (Copywriting, 2026)
I used to try to change the world through nonprofits. Then I decided to try advertising instead. Am I a sellout?
Before Brandcenter, I worked in the nonprofit sector. I cared about the work but eventually felt boxed in: same messaging, cause, and budget limitations—especially, the limited reach. Big brands have the wide reach that nonprofits can only dream of. I wanted to solve diverse problems, tell different stories, and connect with a broader audience. Creative advertising offered that. Plus, being a student at Brandcenter looked really fun.
I knew it was possible. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign challenged beauty standards that seemed immovable. Patagonia fought for the environment, even asking customers to buy less. Then, Google’s “Javier in Frame,” about a visually impaired man using a Pixel phone, moved me.
But leaving my previous career wasn’t easy. I still wonder sometimes if I made the right call. What if those examples are just one-offs? Will I be able to do work that I find fulfilling and meaningful?
As I approach graduation, only time will tell. But several experiences I’ve had over the last two years at the Brandcenter have me feeling hopeful.
One was something Holly Hessler, the chair of the copywriting department, said in my first semester:
“On our worst days, we reflect culture, but on our best days, we push culture forward.”
Watching my classmates work has reinforced all of this. The range of what people make here, the seriousness and sometimes the very important silliness they bring to campaigns about representation, accessibility, and identity, has made me excited about what this field can do.
In several classes, our professors had us use advertising for good. In Brand Experiences, we created campaigns for nonprofit health organizations like Soundcheck Prevent Network and VCU Massey Cancer Center. Though, I do not envy the teams that had the uniquely difficult challenge of advertising signs of rectal cancer in middle-aged women (but don’t worry, they nailed it). In Fusion class, we literally had an assignment called “Can Advertising Save the World?’
In Fusion, my favorite project repositioned Waymo’s challenge as its strength: between 2017 and 2022, someone reported sexual assault by an Uber driver every eight minutes. In a driverless Waymo, that risk doesn’t exist. Here, we addressed a real issue while solving a business problem—purpose and impact together.
In our Experimental class, people came up with some really purposeful creative ideas, like using chip bags to educate about dying languages, a company that helps memorialize a loved one’s favorite things, and a “stim cafe” made specifically for neurodivergent people.
Other Brandcenter projects showed me that purposeful work doesn’t need a cause-driven brief. Every campaign has choices: whose story is told, who’s cast, who’s the expert. Are we repeating stereotypes or being more inclusive?
The cynical read would be that this is all virtue signaling. Brands performing values they don’t actually hold. And sometimes that’s fair. But ads are going to get made regardless. Someone is going to decide what story they tell and who’s in them. So I’d like to be the person thinking carefully about the platforms brands have, and how to use them responsibly and meaningfully.
So, no, I don’t think I sold out. I just found a bigger room. And I’m ready to use it for good.