JOURNAL

It’s complicated: My relationship with purchasing things as an advertising girlie

Words & Illustrations by Nikitha Banda
September 1, 2025

If overthinking were an Olympic sport, then the girls in advertising are winning with every scroll. 

Sounds overdramatic, but when you’ve been writing persuasive copy and purchasing stuff simultaneously, the lines get blurry. But, being a part of the industry must mean that buying decisions must be easy, no? Quite on the contrary. 

Shoe-ing away my sanity

Last year, I had to invest in rainproof shoes for my first on-site, full-time job. I was a fresh advertising graduate with the highest marks in the subject of research. Naturally, I thought I’d be a conscious consumer who’d buy the best goddamn pair with the best ROI. 

But nope, it was a nightmare. Should I opt for a trusted legacy brand or a rising homegrown one? Dupes or invest in OGs? Trendy Mary Janes or functional clogs? And just when I’d settle on something, another micro-trend would come along and make me question everything. I ended up buying a pair almost 3 months later, we were well into the winter. 

1 Shitty haircut, 5 expensive solutions

Recently, my barber gave me random mini bangs. Given that I had frizzy hair, one wash and the blow-dry turned into crumpled chaos. Having crafted a few outdoor activations for an emerging curly hair brand, I knew the Curly Girl Method (CGM) was my final salvation. But this routine had way too many steps and products. TL;DR: I had to research my ass off, but shout out to targeted ads, they know me so well.

Since buying into CGM meant resisting beauty norms in hair care, I not only had to overthink about the functionality of these products but also what the entire brand stood for. Here are some questions I kept asking myself: 

• What does the brand stand for?
• Is the founder’s story convincing enough?
• Does it rely on insecurities or empower the quirks?
• Is the brand’s influencer campaign authentic enough?

Anyway, I gave in and bought a bunch of products, and my curls turned out fab. But apparently, I need a silk pillow case, a frizz-free serum, and a bonnet to maintain my curls. YAY, CLTV formula, count me in!

"It doesn’t help that growing up, the media would represent the strong, creative woman as fiscally aloof yet creatively calculated."

Financially fun and not so fun

Often in my trips to the retail store, my cart is loaded with new stuff, from period soothing balms to instant food. I brush them off as ‘oh, it’s for research,’ but it leads to an absurd bill and a lecture from parents to invest in SIPs. To be fair, my curious shopping detours are the reason my dad now takes masala tea premix sachets on his flights instead of buying them for double the price. Perhaps, behind every early adoption habit in desi homes, there is an elder ad agency daughter, notorious for influencing convenience.

Media representation and mass consumption

It doesn’t help that growing up, the media would represent the strong, creative woman as fiscally aloof yet creatively calculated. I remember watching Confessions of a Shopaholic and knew that it was a ritual of passage as a creative writer to splurge on things, analyse and write a quirky first-person point of view blog. I just hope that I don’t have to live through Rebecca Bloomwood’s second act plotline.

Afterthoughts, AIDA model, and self-actualisation

No VALS model, AIDA, or Roger’s curve has saved me from my dilemma of perfect choice. Over the years, I’ve realised that this obsession might just stem from the PTSD of being creative in a desi, middle-class household. From getting into a creative course to buying a decent processing laptop, all my decisions had to be backed up with concrete proof to avoid unnecessary splurging. The result is an instinct to intellectualise every purchase.

So far, the solution has been to go on a mental health walk, hang out with friends, avoid the Reddit research, take up grandma hobbies, and invest in people, too, and not just products.

About the Writer

Nikitha is a Copywriter at Thought Over Design. Born and brought up on the Internet and pop culture, she is a jack of all trades, master of none. From copywriting to illustration, she loves dipping her toes in all things fun and serious. In her spare time, she doomscrolls cat memes and runs her small art business.

A note about the Journal

For us at Thought Over Design ‘Creativity’ isn’t an end product. It’s an ongoing journey of inspiration that comes from fresh observations of the world, headlong dives into curious obsessions, explorations of art and culture, listening to diverse voices, and a million more places we’re still discovering.

The Journal is an experiment in sharing these musings with the world. It’s a mixed bag of scribbles from our research, inspiration sessions, lateral think pieces, work from designers we admire, pop-culture takes and often our own agenda-free creative pursuits.

The stories and ideas we share here are an attempt to not just gather our own thoughts but also leave the world a little more inspired than we found it.