Welcome to the first Brave New Word of 2025!

Actually, to be honest, we recorded this one before Christmas. You won’t hear us offering salutations or welcoming the new year or any of that malarkey, because we didn’t think about it at the time.

Prepare yourself for a lot of me (Hayden) talking in this one. But it’s in service of one of the best questions we’ve received: how do you charge for naming a brand or product?

I won’t give away the answer here, but suffice it to say: it ain’t easy.

We also answer a question that bubbles up from time to time: can booze improve your copy?

Charlie and Gemima chime in with their answers, and they actually aren’t too far off this time.

We’re still on our much-needed breaks from the rigours of writing, but we will be back to the Brave New Word coalface very soon with some very exciting developments.

Until then, enjoy and keep sending us your questions!

Hayden

WHOA.

Hundreds of entries. Hundreds of puns. Hundreds of better-than-what-most-brands-use taglines and slogans.

But there can only be one winner - and you’ll need to listen to find out who it is.

Bonus content includes hate mail, Hayden sweating bullets as he tries to distinguish Martin’s submission from those of Charlie and Gemima, and a brief discussion about Moët & Chandon and valet parking.

Congratulations to the shortlisted entrants and, of course, the eventual winner. Stay tuned for more Y-Fronts in 2025, and make sure to #spreadthebravenewword.

Most importantly: have a fantastic Christmas.

- Hayden and Martin

That’s right: our new Y-Fronts mini-brief is to create a slogan or tagline for jaGUar! You can even go the whole hog and make a full-on advertisement if you like.

Martin and I have different takes on the Jaguar thing. Martin, probably quite rightly, thinks it’s off the mark. I, on the other hand, absolutely want a new Jaguar and love at least 67% of what they’ve done with it.

But if you listen to the [quite short] episode, you’ll note that one thing Martin and I share is our grief over the death of great car advertising. We both Could this be your opportunity to win hearts, minds and the Jaguar account?

Not to mention a bottle of Champagne from Martin. S**T JUST GOT REAL.

Make sure to submit your Y-Fronts entries as soon as possible. Use our hashtag(s) #spreadthebravenewword and #yfronts to make sure we see it; you can also tag us in your posts.

Until next time!