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October 30th, 2026

Does your creative pass the Instagram test?

Opinion

We’re often told not to spend too much time on social media. Indeed, it has almost become the arsenic of the 21st century – once considered harmless and part of everyday life, but now suspected of having toxic effects that emerge over time.

But while we do, of course, need to monitor how much time we spend on social media, there is one section of society that perhaps needs to look at it more – the advertising industry. And advertising creatives in particular.

Instagram floral collage video on a smartphone, illustrating the creativity competing with creative advertising for attention.

Instagram and its ilk feature some of the most creative content – and content creators -in the world. In a landscape where TV channels and the mainstream entertainment industry struggle to hold our attention for more than 30 minutes, Instagram can swallow three hours of it whole. Calling it an Instagram rabbit hole doesn’t do it justice; it’s more like falling into a polar bear hole, with a very witty bear living inside. From carefully scripted skits to complete accidents, Instagram delivers hours of entertainment in tiny bursts.

Agencies around the world use platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to place ads and publish content. But they rarely use them as a benchmark for the quality of the work. They should.

If Instagram delivers thousands of hours of creative content every day, why don’t today’s advertising campaigns do the same?

My mother is 78 and constantly shares things she finds entertaining on Instagram, yet not one of them is a current advertising campaign. It wasn’t always this way. If you’re over 40, you’ll remember when advertising campaigns were conversation starters. Ask people of a certain vintage and they’ll be able to name their five favourite ads – ads that made them laugh, ads that were clever, ads that were shareable. Not via DM, but through conversation – the DM of its day.

Hands using a smartphone with a blurred TV in the background, illustrating competing screens for creative advertising.
Instagram makeup video on a smartphone, showing the social content creative advertising must compete with.

Agencies need to see platforms such as Instagram not just as places to run ads, but as creative arenas in which their work must compete with everything else in the feed. You wouldn’t expect to see a skit that you can’t skip, yet there are stacks of ads that you must watch for five seconds etc.

There’s a reason for that. Drop most creative work into an Instagram feed and they would stand out like a sore thumb—a septic one. Most simply aren’t funny or clever enough to make anyone watch, let alone share.

If advertising wants to remain truly creative, the work needs to pass the Instagram test. If it wouldn’t survive as a standalone piece of content on Instagram, it may need a rethink.