Bianca Guimaraes continues to defy convention

Bianca Guimaraes had already been making plenty of noise at BBDO New York when she made the leap. After steering high-profile campaigns such as the Emmy-winning “Back to School Essentials” for Sandy Hook Promise, Thinx’s spot that imagined a world where guys had periods and Monica Lewinsky’s anti-cyber-bullying campaign “The Epidemic,” she made her move in the middle of the pandemic. Last July, she followed her former boss Greg Hahn to his new independent shop Mischief @ No Fixed Address to become a founding partner and executive creative director. Ever since, she's been creating attention-grabbing ideas that defy convention. Among them, a Kraft Mac & Cheese push that positioned the product as a “noods” (but not the NSFW kind); a campaign for Jay-Z’s weed brand that called out the hypocrisy on cannabis laws—by juxtaposing them to states’ lack of regulations around bestiality and cannibalism; a faux hard seltzer "launch" from Miller Genuine Draft that underscored its commitment as a true beer brand. Departing her last gig “wasn’t a hard decision to make,” she says. “Especially when the vision was to build an agency where people weren’t afraid to take chances.” See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here. What advice would you give your younger self? As an art director, I’d tell myself to practice writing and presenting. I feel like too many art directors leave all of that to their partners, and when they find themselves needing to do that later on, when they’re creative directors, they struggle. I had to learn the hard way after my partner left and we were in the middle of a long production. It didn’t make sense at the time to add another writer to the mix so I just handled it. After that I started doing it more and more while I was searching for a new partner and that made me feel more confident in general. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? I’d say the biggest risk would’ve been staying in Brazil 11 years ago at a job that wasn’t fulfilling me creatively. If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing and why? I’m glad advertising worked out because I never had a plan B. Back when I started in the industry, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and I was lucky to have found myself enjoying working. I do until today. Sometimes a bit too much. What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? Leaders in the industry need to dedicate time to nurture talent. We can’t just hire with diversity in mind and expect that they’ll thrive as well as people who have had better opportunities in the past, more confidence or even who see themselves reflected at the leadership level. Which campaign or other piece of work have you seen in the last year that you wish you had done? So many. Burger King’s “Stevenage Challenge” comes to mind. It’s such a clever and unexpected idea. It’s just brilliant. Props to the team for selling it and for Burger King for the vision. It’s not every client that would see the benefit in investing in an idea that wouldn’t give any return for a while. See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here.

Bianca Guimaraes continues to defy convention

Featured Stories