A partner came back to us recently. The leadership team specifically asked to work with nuja again because they loved the work we'd done before. Flattering. We said yes. We got going. There was even another project in the pipeline that everyone seemed genuinely excited about.

And then they hired a new head of marketing.

Who, within what felt like one meeting and a handful of emails, made it very clear that she was now God in the building and the rest of us were here to take notes. Having an actual, educated conversation with us was treated like pulling teeth. God forbid we used our brains and our mouths and pushed back on a single thing, instead of nodding along to whatever was being said.

The tone. The passive aggression. The energy of being talked at like we'd never done this before, when, ironically, we'd done it for them before, and well enough that they came looking for us a second time. I genuinely thought I'd left this kind of corporate theatre behind when I started nuja. Turns out it just finds new addresses.

So we walked. The current project quietly fizzled and the next one (the one everyone was excited about), I told them still politely that we won’t be able to take it up. But in all of this drama that I avoid like the plague, the bit I cannot get over is the original client. The person who actually brought us in, who knew the work, who'd been there the whole time. She watched it all happen and said nothing. Did nothing. Which, honestly, was its own kind of answer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I'm not someone who burns bridges. I've written before about how walking away can be quiet, can be considered, can leave the door open. And I still believe that. But here, there is a quieter, less polite thing I will do, and I'll be honest about it. When small agency friends ask me about working with certain people in this city (and they do ask because Dubai is a village pretending to be a city), I will tell them. Not loudly or proudly. Just honestly.

Because no amount of money is worth being treated like an idiot by someone playing dress-up in a leadership title. You're launching a product here. You want Dubai to fall in love with you. And you have no idea how quickly word travels among the people who actually make brands feel like something - the creatives, agencies, freelancers, studios.

Yes, us mere mortals, who do the job bloody well without needing to play God.

M.

A small thing I loved this week: no structure or theme, just sharing some favourites.

Listen: Something about the Eid break made me rediscover (reobsess?) over Moby. Porcelain will always be achingly beautiful.

xx

Manuja

Not for everyone. Never was.