To Hack Culture, Brands Must Hire ‘Culture Vultures’

​If brands want to make a genuine impact in culture, they must first look inward. According to some of the advertising industry’s top creative leaders, the secret to cultural resonance lies in deeply understanding your brand’s fundamental truth, hiring the right specialists to spot opportunities, and testing the waters before making a massive leap.

This strategic advice was delivered by the jurors of D&AD’s new 2026 Cultural Influence category during the recent ‘Culture Club’ panel. Moderated by Eliza Williams, editor of Creative Review, the group unpacked exactly what it takes to embed a brand in the zeitgeist, drawing on insights from a shortlist of 83 standout campaigns.

Bring in the ‘Culture Vultures’

To authentically fit into culture, agencies and brands must first have the capacity to understand it. Because the cultural landscape is so vast and shifts so rapidly, no single person can possibly grasp all of its facets.

Daniel Fisher, global chief creative officer at INGO, was emphatic on this point, explaining that culture is simultaneously “everything and nothing”. To navigate it effectively, he argued, agencies must build teams of diverse specialists who are plugged into different cultural niches. “Any agency has to employ culture vultures,” Daniel noted. “You have to have specialists who are tuned into it.”

However, even with the best intelligence, a brand cannot simply parachute into a cultural moment if it doesn’t align with its core values. Geoff Edwards, managing director, creative at GALE, advised that brands need absolute clarity on where they belong to avoid alienating consumers.

“Culture is a party that you are invited to,” explained the GALE creative chief, who considers himself a ‘culture vulture’. “It is a party that is happening that either your brand has some authentic connection to, which means the doors open and you're in there. Or it means that the doors closed because you are fake news, because you don't feel like you are credibly in that space.”

Testing the Waters in ‘Fast Culture’

For brands looking to build that credibility, Juliana Leite, vice president of special projects and creative content at Brazilian agency Africa Creative, suggested that cultural participation is a long-term project built through trial and error. She introduced a framework of two speeds to help brands find their footing.

“There is slow culture and fast culture,” Juliana said. “There are trends on social that you can jump on. This is the most interesting place to test and build risk. Because when you are in this fast culture doing stuff, you're actually learning your slow culture. You're learning the heart of your brand. What's the core values? And when a brand knows its voice, it could be wrong but you stand for your wrong when you know your own truth. This testing process is essential for a brand to know its own core.”

To get to that point, she advised brands to start small. “When you do, [little things] first, so, step by step. You don't start with Madonna.”

Agility and the Blast Radius

When a brand truly knows its voice, it can react to those fast-moving moments with incredible speed. Daniel pointed to Heinz’s swift reaction to the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud as a prime example of a brand backing a cultural moment with genuine commitment.

Working with Cashmere and its in-house agency, The Kitchen, the condiment brand tapped Grammy-winning producer DJ Mustard – famously the producer behind Kendrick's hit track ‘Not Like Us’ – to star in its ‘Mustard x Mustard’ campaign. “They spotted something going on in culture... they moved and they went all in,” said Daniel. “They didn't just sort of half tell the human thing. They made him the chief mustard officer, which is an amazing flex.” He added that because the brand understood the joke, “they went quick,” bypassing traditional, sluggish approval processes.

Sometimes, a brand’s truth is simply its cheeky tone of voice. Popeyes proved this with its ‘Pope Yes’ real-time social response, a masterclass in hijacking a global news event created by GUT Miami. The speed and simplicity of the execution elicited pure creative envy from the jury. “We were all very jealous of this,” Daniel admitted, while Geoff confessed, “This idea terrifies me.” Not only did it achieve a massive return on zero impressions, but it incredibly exceeded the Vatican’s own social post engagement.

Nourhan Moaz, co-founder of 6FNGRS, argued that the sheer audacity of the joke forged a permanent link in the consumer’s mind. “The impact you leave this case or you leave this whole campaign remembering Popeyes. You don't remember anything else,” she observed. “So it doesn't have to be related. The idea itself, or how impactful it is, makes you automatically remember the brand.”

The execution was so perfectly timed that it turned the public into an amplification tool. Geoff noted, “They mobilised the entire world as their advertising agency. Because once this tweet went out with these two words, everyone shared it and so the blast radius of this idea was built out in influence.”

Executing the Cultural Hack

When brands and organisations deeply understand their audience, they can execute structural “cultural hacks” that solve real problems or elevate a community.

This deep understanding shone through in a cultural partnership between Bad Bunny, Spotify, and Google. As Geoff noted: “Art is best when it reacts to the establishment.” Highlighting the vibrancy of Puerto Rico in response to a comedian's derogatory remarks labelling it a "floating island of garbage," the campaign succeeded because it authentically embedded itself within the artist's fanbase. This was proven by the campaign's highly nuanced use of the light blue Puerto Rican flag – a symbol of the island's independence. It was a subtly political statement rather than a purely cultural one, showcasing the exact kind of deep, specialist detail that only true ‘culture vultures’ would know to include.

Similarly, the Chicago Hearing Society’s ‘Caption with Intention’ initiative, created by FCB Chicago, reimagined static closed captions as dynamic, emotive typography, The jury didn't just take the slick case study at face value; they diligently researched the campaign's real-world impact and adoption rates, proving that it fundamentally changing how deaf audiences experience cinema.

Taking a more rebellious approach, Tecate’s ‘Gulf of Mexico (Bar)’ campaign, created by LePub Mexico City, showed how a brand can tackle a heavy political issue with a light, culturally astute touch. Reacting to Google Maps temporarily relabelling the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," Tecate used the platform's own tools to drop pins for a physical bar reclaimed under the rightful name. 

Nourhan praised the elegance of taking "something political and tackling it in a way that’s not political at all. What made the idea slightly smarter is that the problem was caused by Google Maps. [...] Through the same app, through Google Maps, they used the location tool – just the location – to add their solution to that,” she said. “They used their own tools to fight them back. It shows how the power of creativity can be solved through being witty and humorous. It doesn't have to be just being loud everywhere. It's very simple and simplicity has all the power.”

As Daniel perfectly summarised the campaign’s impact: “They just dropped this pin and it went bang in culture.”