The Virtuous Ones

Meet the Mad Men of the 21st Century!

In this work of fiction, Pure Creative, an ad agency, has set its sights on popular rap star Markus in hopes of cinching one of the most profitable collaborations ever: turning the viral music video for his number-one song "Holy War"-in which he ventures into poor neighborhoods to make broad gestures of generosity-into an ad campaign for their most lucrative client, the telecommunications giant Telco.

Pure Creative's client services lead, Ella, is dealing with other challenges. She's struggling with deteriorating judgment and frayed nerves caused not only by work overload but by several traumatic events in her past. As a result, she's mismanaging the Telco account, putting her career, and the entire Holy War project, at risk. As if that weren't enough, an onslaught of bad press about Markus's very politically incorrect private life will begin to threaten Pure's squeaky clean image as the "woke-est" agency in the world. Despite these hurdles standing between Pure Creative and success, its creative director, Link, has convinced himself that this campaign will finally give him a chance to do some real good in the world. Why, then, can't he shake the nagging feeling of being an imposter?

In this Swiftian, often comical narrative, Stoddard satirizes the newest and perhaps most manipulative weapon of today's advertising industry: branded content that promotes progressive social values-and all for the "pure" and unadulterated goal of... sheer profit.