Foul Mouth Creative, a new women-led agency, has joined the Seattle scene. The agency offers to meet brands’ desire for less bloat, fewer layers and a simplified process, according to a release. The agency is led by former Mekanism employees Rachel Carlson, creative director/copywriter, Jourdan Huys, managing director, and a soon-to-be-named creative director/art director.
Foul Mouth will offer multiple services, including brand strategy and positioning, visual identity and design systems; campaign concept development, execution and production; short- and long-form video, digital content, photography, graphics and illustration.
“We’re looking at a concerning lack of female leadership in the industry, with fewer than 1% of agencies having women ownership. That’s wild, as women consumers control 85% of spending power,” said Carlson in a statement. “With Foul Mouth, we’re making a deliberate decision to shift away from the industry’s uber-competitive grind culture that’s burning out talent, weakening business relationships, and harming creative output. We prioritize humanity and want to bring the joy back.”
Carlson comes from Deutsch LA, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, DonerLA and Mekanism as creative director. She was also a partner at a small creative studio called World Famous. Carlson has led creative and developed campaigns for clients including Alaska Airlines, Target, Old Navy, Vitaminwater, Amazon Small Business, DiGiorno and several Netflix shows.
Recently, Carlson was behind the new GameStop campaign “There’s a Place for Us,” and the Frida Baby “Stream of Lactation” breast-care campaign with Mekanism.
Huys is a creatively driven brand marketer with nearly 15 years of experience across multiple industries, including food, retail, tech and travel. She ran the Ace Hardware and Chili’s AORs at OKRP in Chicago, where she had a hand in the “Chili’s is Back, Baby” brand reintroduction. She then moved on to Mekanism West, where she spearheaded campaigns for Alaska Airlines, Sling TV, Weber, Amazon and Adobe.
“We come to our brand partners as a trio who can go in Swat-team-style to land solutions quickly and effectively. And by utilizing AI, we can devise strategic platforms quickly, using our expertise to analyze and interpret the results to eliminate any unconscious bias from understanding what motivates people,” said Huys in a statement.
Huys continued that many agencies claim to make work people care about, but Foul Mouth makes work that cares about people.
“We approach every problem from a deep understanding of the philosophical motivations of clients, their audiences and how to translate that to creative. Without a true appreciation of humanity, you’re not going to get work that motivates people.”
Carlson said that the name comes from the point that passion and creativity should never be censored.
“As for any brand, the riskiest thing is to be ignored. So as creative partners, our job is to make sure that people give a shit about our partnership brands, getting noticed through an outspoken and unapologetic embrace of humanity. And that’s exactly the sentiment behind Foul Mouth. Also, we swear, often,” said Carlson.