We Made ChatGPT Our Brand Manager. Here’s What Happened.
Tengo
Most agencies hire brand managers.
We didn’t.
We hired a chatbot.
Not because we’re lazy. Because we’re obsessed with control and chaos at the same time.
When we launched Very Bad Agency, we wanted branding that felt like a drug. Addictive. Dangerous. Underground.
But building that voice? Hell. It’s hours of copywriting, brainstorming, and explaining “why we can’t use another generic tone.”
Then came ChatGPT. Everyone was using it like a homework cheat code. We didn’t want that.
We wanted a brand manager that doesn’t complain, doesn’t sleep, and doesn’t ask for “alignment meetings.”
Step One: Realization
AI doesn’t create your brand. You do.
AI doesn’t give you taste. It only reflects yours.
If you treat ChatGPT like a creative god, you’ll get soulless garbage.
If you treat it like an obedient intern with an attitude problem, you win.
So we gave it direction. Hard, strict, non-negotiable direction.
Our Path of Prompts
We didn’t start with “Write me Instagram captions.”
We started with a manifesto:
“You are not polite. You are not a corporate voice. You are raw, rebellious, honest. You speak like an underground cult. Your tone is addictive like drugs. Your purpose is to make design feel illegal.”
We taught it:
The mood → edgy, bold, zero fluff.
The language → mix of sarcasm, brutal honesty, and shock value.
The rules → no fake positivity, no “we’re thrilled to announce,” no marketing clichés.
Every time it drifted back to “Hi there! 😊,” we slapped it with more context.
Brand AI is like a dog—train it or it pees everywhere.
What AI Does for Us
Keeps the tone consistent across socials, blogs, and proposals.
Speeds up ideation for campaigns like Daily Dose and Bad Examples™.
Brainstorms without judgment (unlike that one intern who thinks he’s Don Draper).
But here’s the truth:
AI isn’t “creative.”
Creativity = taste + decision-making.
ChatGPT just amplifies what you feed it.
Our Attitude Towards AI
AI isn’t scary.
Bad taste is.
Most agencies fear AI because they think it replaces jobs.
We fear agencies that think AI makes creativity effortless.
No. It makes execution fast, but direction is still on you.
Our job? To stay on the correct branding path—even when AI tries to lure us into “safe” territory.
(And it will. AI loves mediocrity if you let it.)
The Rule We Live By
“AI should sound like us. Not like AI.”
If the copy feels like it came from a sterile content mill, we kill it.
Every post still passes the Very Bad Test:
Does it feel underground?
Does it hit like a punch, not a pillow?
Does it make someone uncomfortable in the best way?
If yes, publish.
If no, we throw it back into the digital void.
What We Learned
Prompts are everything. The first thing you write defines the brand.
Consistency beats creativity. AI helps maintain that over dozens of posts.
Direction is king. Without attitude, AI will default to LinkedIn corporate hell.
So, did AI replace our brand manager?
No.
We turned it into one—by giving it taste, rules, and zero room for compromise.
Because a brand without taste is just another Instagram account begging for likes.
And we’re not here to beg.
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Written by
Tengo
Tengo
UX/UI Designer exploring the edges of digital clarity and creativity. Co-founder of Very Bad Agency – Digital Pharmacy, where bold ideas meet honest design. I write about interface thinking, creative process, and building brands that actually mean something. Currently exploring new ways to communicate visually — through motion, interaction, and unconventional design methods.