Two years ago, Mischief @ No Fixed Address did not exist. Today, it tops Ad Age’s 2022 A-List.
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The agency has skyrocketed since opening its doors 21 months ago—an origin story that no doubt will go down as legend in advertising history. In April 2020, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Greg Hahn became the industry’s poster child of pandemic casualties when he was laid off from his role as BBDO New York chief creative officer after 15 years. It was arguably the highest-profile creative shakeup in the midst of COVID chaos, a signal that even the most proven Madison Avenue stars were vulnerable in the new world order.
Yet Hahn reemerged less than two months later with new purpose and a new M.O., partnering with indie Canadian agency No Fixed Address to open its first U.S. outpost. Untethered to a big agency overhead and bottom line, the fledgling shop was free to chart a new course. The name on the shingle—Mischief—made its intentions clear. And serving as its guiding force was NFA’s mantra: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
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Fearlessness characterizes the agency’s brow-raising, sometimes controversial ideas. In its first few months, Mischief was pranking kids with Capri Sun packs full of water (for a good cause), and more notoriously, it asked consumers to “Send Noods” on behalf of Kraft Mac & Cheese, a campaign that riled certain moms and QAnon groups, yet ultimately was a business success. In 2021, the ideas got even wilder: a shaving cream line for Eos with the NSFW name “Bless Your F#@%ing Cooch”; a seltzer launch for Molson Coors’ Miller Genuine Draft—all the way into outer space; and a campaign for Jay-Z’s cannabis brand Monogram that challenged local weed legislation by juxtaposing it with more “lax” restrictions around bestiality, incest and cannibalism.