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Nick Asbury

@nickasbury.bsky.social
191 followers 109 following 63 posts

Writer and one half of Asbury & Asbury. Thoughts on Writing: nickasbury.substack.com Songwritings: songwritings.substack.com Other things: nickasbury.com

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Reposted by Nick Asbury
Ian Leslie @ianleslie.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
This post from @nickasbury.bsky.social sums it up well nickasbury.substack.com/p/embarrassi...
nickasbury.substack.com
Embarrassing busybodies
Channel 4's latest 'Mirror on the Industry' report is diversity-by-spreadsheet from a clueless, self-appointed authority. Advertisers should reject it out of hand.
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Reposted by Nick Asbury
Daniel Benneworth-Gray @danielgray.com · 01/08/2025
Excellent and insightful as always – @nickasbury.bsky.social on the Sweeney Jeans furore and the concept of manufactured dissent.
nickasbury.substack.com
Genes, memes and manufactured dissent
The story of a Gen Z backlash that never was, a right-wing backlash that eventually was, a left-wing-influencer-academic backlash that definitely was, and a raging culture war that maybe isn’t
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Latest and possibly last post on purpose in advertising and branding, for anyone interested nickasbury.substack.com/p/stengel-an...
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Reposted by Nick Asbury
Eye, the international review of graphic design @eyemagazine.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
‘Lost in the wash’, Patrick Baglee reviews Nick Asbury’s book The Road to Hell on the Eye blog, www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/lo... #brandmadness #purpose
Cover of The Road to Hell by Nick Asbury. Cover artwork by David Pearson shows a golden halo in the top (blue) half of the cover and a gold coin against a white background in the bottom half.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Review of The Road to Hell in @eyemagazine.bsky.social www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/lo...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Further dispatches from Wordlesworth, where I plan my guesses to maximise the chances of poetry occurring, then post the results to an account no one follows on Instagram.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Every parent prays their kid is never the victim, but the deeper terror is that they could somehow turn into the perpetrator. A barely 13-year-old kid from an apparently happy, functional family phoning Childline to ask this – the heart breaks.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Reposting my tweet here as such is modern life
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
If anyone who follows me can suggest a few other people for me to follow, that would be nice - feel like I’m well short of critical mass. Heterodox-in-a-good-way or cheerfully apolitical would be cool.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
I have pontificated about the purpose vibe shift in Marketing Week today. Please read if you have a subscription, or just assume I’m right. marketingweek.com/brand-purpose-…
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Reposted by Nick Asbury
John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
@nickasbury.bsky.social I accidentally played Wordlesworth today
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Anagrampersand – a poem where each line is an anagram of ‘ampersand’. My contribution to Studio Sutherland’s excellent ‘A collaboration of ampersands’, which documents an ongoing creative obsession.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
See the face you love light up with the realisation that purpose is the dry ice in the disco of corporatism amzn.eu/d/5sZTAVc
amzn.eu
The Road to Hell: How purposeful business leads to bad marketing and a worse world And how human creativity is the way out
Buy The Road to Hell: How purposeful business leads to bad marketing and a worse world And how human creativity is the way out by Asbury, Nick (ISBN: 9781789634488) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Nice shot of me and the 1985 Everton lads out in the pub last night
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
From 1933  www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91631/...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Cruising into the holidays with a nice, uncontroversial post about DEI in advertising. nickasbury.substack.com/p/my-inheren...
nickasbury.substack.com
My inherently problematic Christmas ad diversity audit
This year's crop of Christmas ads is ethnically and gender diverse to a fault. But there's a weird reluctance to admit it in adland.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Instead of sending Christmas cards this year, I’m making a donation to Unilever, to support their unsung work in making the world a better place via sales of mayonnaise and deodorant. In return, all I ask is a reasonable tax deduction and some borrowed interest for my book...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Fun to be part of this conversation with Martin Farrar-Smith, Gemma Ballinger, Daisy Phillips (Sheppard) and Alex Myers. We talked all things Purpose, from Simon Sinek to Jesus Christ, altruism to cancel culture. Spotify: lnkd.in/eg82RnkC Apple: lnkd.in/eh26JmHP
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
A Syria poem and a Notre Dame poem – both from five years ago, when I was chronicling the news with chronic wordplay. #realtime_notes
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Still quietly plugging away at Wordlesworth, where I try to plan guesses to maximise the chances of a decent poem. Fun coming up with the titles too. Full collection over on Instagram.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I believe the attack will start in Kansas
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
True test of Bluesky is how it deals with a logo controversy
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Feels like too nice a place to be posting this, but if you feel like some down-and-dirty politics, here's my latest post on Substack nickasbury.substack.com/p/the-post-p...
nickasbury.substack.com
The post-purpose election
If the 2007-2008 financial crisis marked the start of the purpose era, the 2024 election might just mark its end.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Posting some really good stuff over on X if anyone wants to find me there x.com/asburyandasb...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Me talking about the thing I always talk about – purpose. Mixed in with questions of credibility, authenticity and specific mentions of Dove, Nike, Jack Daniel's, Airbnb, Audi, BrewDog, Haagen-Dazs, Baileys and VW. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxtN...
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NICK ASBURY | The Myth of Purpose Marketing
YouTube video by Masters of Credibility
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 17/04/2024
I have so far failed to engage properly in BlueSky and I hang my head/profile pic in shame. But now I have a book to promote, so I'll try again. It's called The Road to Hell. Cover by David Pearson. Pre-order here (and pre-thanks if you do). amzn.eu/d/6ZXuji9
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Latest from Songwritings, my ongoing conversation with @katevanderborgh.bsky.social about songs, writing and songwriting. This is a song written by me and brought to life by Kate, set to a 1935 cartoon by Max Fleischer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-oF...
youtube.com
Songbird - original song from Songwritings
Songwritings is a conversation about songs, writing and songwriting between Kate van der Borgh and Nick Asbury. The conversation includes the writing and per...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 19/01/2024
If you’ve never seen The Book Cover Review, you’re in for a treat – smart reviews by some of the best in the business. I’ve snuck in with a review that’s more about the writing than the design. bookcoverreview.co.uk/reviews/lyri...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
One from the archives for Gerard Houllier. There were many ‘instant obituary’ poems in Realtime Notes, which I like to think resonate more because you know they were written in the moment.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 10/12/2023
Perpetual Disappointments Diary: not a new edition but works equally disappointingly for any year. Click the link and get it done. www.amazon.co.uk/Perpetual-Di...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 03/12/2023
Quiet nod of solidarity to whichever writer had to come up with 100 puns for the Observer gift guide. You played a tough hand well.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 27/11/2023
Memories of Andy Burnham, with whom not much rhymes #realtime_notes
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 21/11/2023
That time when Noel Edmonds was first to be voted off #ImACeleb Always liked writing about this stuff – I think poetry should do more of it #realtime_notes #poetry
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 16/11/2023
Still trying to get into the habit of using Bluesky more often – seems like a nice place with an unexpectedly bookish and arty slant. For anyone interested, here are some things I've been writing recently: nickasbury.substack.com/p/dispatches...
nickasbury.substack.com
Dispatches from the pre-post-purpose age
A round-up of recent thoughts on politics, purpose and Christmas ads. Plus a book announcement and request.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 07/11/2023
Found poem with a killer last couplet. #NorthernOuthouse
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 05/11/2023
Nice to appear in The Greenhouse with four poems from Realtime Notes. The project continues to have an afterlife after I spent 3.5 strange years writing poems at a rate of at least on a day. #poetry #books
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Reposted by Nick Asbury
Robert Wright @robertwrighter.bsky.social · 04/11/2023
Had a great chat with Joshua Landis about the Gaza War and its long term implications. You can watch here or listen on the Nonzero podcast. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhh...
youtube.com
Where Is the Israel-Hamas War Heading? | Robert Wright & Joshua Landis
Subscribe to The Nonzero Newsletter at https://nonzero.substack.com1:55 What Iran hopes to gain from the Israel-Hamas war 9:01 Did Hamas expect such a massiv...
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 03/11/2023
From 2018, but good to see words used with such skill under the highest pressure. Don’t know the name of the writer but it’s for Muslims Against Anti-Semitism UK.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 03/11/2023
I'm a writer/poet mainly but have a side-interest in Tin Pan Alley songwriting. I write songs and musician/writer Kate van der Borgh performs & records them. Then we both have deep, rambling conversations about it. Niche, but nice. #songwriting #tinpanalley songwritings.substack.com/p/to-the-hea...
songwritings.substack.com
To the heart machine!
On disarming simplicity, personal boundaries, desk-based music, the tortured artist, Nick Cave, corporate purpose, human purpose and Robot Maria.
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Nick Asbury @nickasbury.bsky.social · 02/11/2023
Please blame @john-self.bsky.social for me being here
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