Churn-and-burn-and-churn-and-burn
- Olivia Chiong
- Mar 3, 2025
- 5 min read
dumping my cringe uni case study here for shits and giggles cuz it's a shame to see it rotting in my archive files :<
Abstract
In recent years, the landscape of the advertising industry has seen significant change due to factors such as increasing competition, technological breakthroughs, and changing consumer behaviour. This has pressured agencies to offer clients with quicker, more cost-effective services to their business needs, giving rise to a profit-oriented culture where productivity rates are maximised and labour costs minimised. The term “churn-and-burn” refers to a workplace practice where employees are drastically overworked and frequently replaced, which has naturally introduced many ethical and sustainability dilemmas as creatives are now more vulnerable to exploitation and burnout. As a result, many industry creatives are turning to gig-based work, viewing traditional agency models as unsustainable in the long run. This paper will provide an insight on the context and effects of the churn-and-burn culture on the advertising industry and explore the gig economy as a potential alternative for creatives seeking more sustainable work environments.
Fun backstory on what led to me choosing this as my case study topic
Back when I was deciding what to study for my degree (comm design or advertising), I did what any responsible, chronically-online overthinker would do: I went to Reddit (no, i'm not proud of it).
Anyways, it quickly became apparent to me that people on the advertising subreddit was dragging the industry left and right—burnout, toxic agencies, "clients will eat your soul" type comments... and it freaked the shit out of me.
So I booked a Zoom call with my soon-to-be lecturer to see if this was really a pathway worth pursuing... and to emotionally offload the Reddit trauma I let stew the week prior.
And when addressing my concerns, he was like, “Nope, nope." or "It’s not like that.” or “Bullshit!” which, looking back, was either him genuinely reassuring me, or him being very committed to hitting enrollment KPIs (I'm joking Lee please visit malaysia again we love you very much).
Either way, I did what i usually do—everything the well intentioned internet people advised young creatives like me not to—major in advertising. Rebellious much? It’s not that I don’t think things through, I just blissfully ignore all the red flags waving in my face.
Guess the brainwashing worked.
Fast forward to the actual coursework, guess what topic I chose? The exact same industry problems the Reddit people warned about. I presented my essay, laid out all the issues, and probably lowkey spooked my soon-to-be graduating classmates with the hard facts of the path we collectively chose.
And this man (my lecturer) had the nerve to nod.
Meanwhile in my head I’m like: So you admit it >:/
In any case, after finishing this assignment and seeing the bigger picture, I could finally empathise with why many describe the creative industry as a collapsing hellscape of burnout and exploitation. (actually it's more like it solidified that gut feeling of doom lol)
Companies these days rarely hire true entry-level creatives, yet still expect “junior” applicants to already have years of experience. They want fully formed creatives without putting in the work to train them—then complain that there’s a shortage of “quality talent.”
Meanwhile, education sells the dream of a clear, career-ready pathway through bootcamps and degree courses. But in reality, they flood the already oversaturated market with talent that they don't support once the certificate is handed over.
From a systemic perspective, commoditising creativity is complicated business. Creativity in itself is inherently difficult to quantify, which makes it hard for agencies and clients to agree on a fair metric for measuring value, reducing creative work to a commodity rate. When ideas are treated like interchangeable outputs, clients can negotiate prices downward, driving agencies to produce faster and cheaper at the expense of quality. This not only fuels a “race to the bottom,” but also makes creativity easy to exploit, since its value isn’t tied to impact or originality, but to whatever the market is willing to pay at the moment.
Also, aside from the economy being… well, the economy, the industry feels stuck operating on legacy systems built for a different era. Meanwhile, emerging talent is locked out of the future we claim to be innovating toward. Younger creatives either get exploited or pushed straight into freelance—unequipped, underpaid, and inexperienced—which then drives down prices and quality standards even further. A perfect little feedback loop of chaos.
I initially resigned myself to the fact that it is just the nature of the industry we have come to accept, but the deeper I dig, the clearer it was that a lot of these systems were created by previous generations as reactionary or precautionary solutions to the challenges of their time. They made sense then; but they don't translate now.
In my case study, I explored some of the factors pushing creatives away from the traditional advertising pathway and toward the more flexible gig economy. Structural shifts in the industry, poor management practices, unhealthy price competition, and the lack of unionisation all feed into the churn-and-burn culture—and inevitably affect anyone entering the market. But honestly, these points only scratch the surface.
As for the options available to fresh-grads today, there are many pathways opening up as a result of globalisation and the rise of gig platforms, but there are also tradeoffs to young creatives going freelance right off the bat.
When fresh grads flood the market with cheap freelance work (partly due to low experience but partly because platforms make it easy to underprice themselves), they drive down overall rates for creative services. This “spoils the market” because clients come to expect lower prices, making it harder for more experienced or skilled creatives to earn fair compensation. Essentially, the value of creative work gets diluted, and the whole industry suffers from a race-to-the-bottom effect.
To me, it’s not simply a talent or budget issue—it’s a structural problem. The industry needs new employment channels and progression pathways that actually reflect the realities of this era, not the last one. Those that take into account the concerns of the three main parties (the creative, the agency, and the client) in today's context.
Maybe one day, when i meet the right people, or when someone gives me loads of money, maybe... just maybe we can change that. Or we're fucked and imma start selling chicken rice.
Anyhoo, no regrets. Majoring in Advertising has given me a clearer view of where creatives sit in a world where capitalism runs the game and consumerism is basically the final boss. We make things look pretty so the economy keeps going. At the end of the day, we gotta eat somehow, right?
Man, I could be a fine artist selling random splashes of paint on a canvas for millions of dollars but here I am. Choices, choices.
See ya,
Oli
