In a world where
we need more
court jesters
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Creative director. Brand strategist. Writer. Speaker. Professional question-asker.
I help people build unforgettable brands, businesses, and big ideas, without flattening themselves into funnels, formulas, or content machines.
My work is part strategy, part creative direction, part cultural analysis.
By day, I run RKA INK, the brand reinvention studio for businesses that burn the rulebook.
I collage my creative director title atop my overlapping roles as speaker, consultant, writer, and researcher on the history & politics of branding.
See also: helluva good time! My body of work brings together comedy, muckraking, parody, satire, and performance art to examine brand culture from all angles.
The rainbow is both my creative palette and the paradigm through which I approach my work +/ the world. The answers we seek are not black & white; we'll find them in the rainbow prism of complexity + nuance + YES AND.
The RKA Greatest Hits
A little brand strategy, a little cultural criticism, a lotta making people think
Vox | Everyone's a Sellout Now | Rebecca Jennings
On the increasingly blurry line between being a person online and becoming your own marketing & PR department.
JSTOR Daily | American as Apple Pie | Rachael Kay Albers
From Winchester’s “boy plan” to today’s kidfluencers, I trace how gunmakers have deliberately targeted young people, and how those strategies helped make guns a part of American childhood and, ultimately, the American identity.
Newsweek | Gun Marketing Is Being Held Accountable. Don't Ignore Sponsoring Kidfluencers | Rachael Kay Albers
My essay on how gunmakers use child influencers to reach young audience, and why advertising practices matter in the fight for accountability.
I don't have The Answers™ but I have a helluvalot of questions. Here's what I believe:
I believe that "ethical" business without an analysis of the systemic harms of capitalism is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
I believe in intersectional feminism.
I believe in nuance, dialogue, and not being afraid to name the harmful systems holding everyone back (and the powerful perpetuating these harms).
I believe that every person on the planet deserves to live an enriching, meaningful, vibrant life that fulfills them, regardless of what they "produce" or how hard they hustle.
And I believe that capitalism doesn't provide those opportunities for all people, or even most people, which is why "making money and making change" will always be a temporary solution.
I believe in working with people who share these values and want to contribute their individual ideas to a greater collective shift towards change.
What about you?
About Rachael Kay Albers
The part where I talk about myself in the third person
Rachael Kay Albers is a creative director and brand strategist at RKA INK, the reinvention studio for businesses that burn the rulebook. When she's not helping brands set fire to the box instead of thinking inside it, she writes and speaks about the intersection of branding, pop culture, tech, and identity for places like NBC, Newsweek, NPR, JSTOR Daily, Vox, The Week, Digiday, and Bitch Magazine. She hosts the podcast, Marketing Muckraking, where she explores what brand culture is doing to us — and what to do about it.
When not muckraking about marketing, Rachael is a keynote speaker, stand-up comedian, and hosts a business comedy show, Awkward Marketing, using sketch and storytelling to teach about entrepreneurship in the Internet age. She has brought her comedy chops to television audiences as a featured guest on ABC Chicago’s Windy City Live and WCIU’s The Jam and performed on The Second City stage. And Rachael has delighted audiences across the country with her comedy keynotes in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, and San Diego, and hailed as “stupendous” and “one of the most engaging speakers I have seen.”
Oh! And did I mention she's a GIFluencer? Rachael's hilarious, viral GIFs are always trending somewhere on the Internet and are shared widely across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Slack, and, even LinkedIn — to the tune of 3.4 billion views. Her GIFs have been featured on CNN, BuzzFeed, and she’s a favorite on the IG meme machine @TalkThirtyToMe, for millennials who refuse to give up their side parts.
Find her on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok.
I have no freebie to tempt you with.
No automated email sequence to whisper sweet nothings into your inbox late at night.
Here’s what I do have: a hilarious show on how to market with integrity, sell your services & products successfully, and still not take yourself too seriously. Join me?