SwellShark is down to fight. For OKCupid’s script-flipping DTF campaign, created by Wieden & Kennedy, this media buying shop had to take the fight to city halls in Portland, New York and Austin, where transit authorities objected to having “DTF” plastered all over the subways and buses. 

Founded in 2010 by a husband-and-wife duo of media buying and strategy veterans, Swellshark was also more than happy to bring the fight to the pink tax. In work for European Wax Center, the team worked to shine a light on the fact that women lose an average of more than $1,351 a year because they are charged more for things than their male counterparts. For #AxThePinkTax, SwellShark took its cues from #MeToo and #TimesUp to raise awareness for the issue—and the EWC brand. 

SwellShark’s work, sassy and smart, is informed by founders Mary Perhach and Nick Pappas’ “moments of influence” approach that seeks opportunities for brands to contribute value to its audiences. “As a small agency,” Perhach wrote in their submission to Ad Age, “it’s an existential necessity for us to be thought leaders or we will find ourselves disintermediated by publishers or displaced by consultants.”