Shitshow Creative: Unleash bold creativity—Use the right domain name!

In early May I came across a tongue-in-cheek press release by Justin Kramm on LinkedIn—a social medium used primarily to connect employees, companies, and professionals with their peers.

Shitshow Creative, an imaginary agency at the time, was ready—and willing—to take on large, demanding projects out of this world. Using a standard grade school profanity (“shit”) Justin’s endeavor grew wings pretty fast and the post went viral.

“We got tired of pretending this was all going according to plan […] So we built an agency that doesn’t hide the late nights, shifting briefs, or creative directors who vanish for two weeks and return from an ayahuasca retreat with a completely different strategy.”

Justin Kramm, in his own words:

A Creative Director and advertising copywriter since the days of Napoleon Dynamite, he has built lasting industry relationships, created impactful campaigns, met his wife at a launch party, and became the father of two future copywriters—despite their current ambitions in pro soccer. Justin holds a master’s in International Business from the University of Florida and graduated from Miami Ad School’s portfolio program. His work earned a Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival—an achievement he’s proud of, even if the local soccer dads haven’t heard of Cannes. He has led global campaigns for brands including Nike, Red Bull, Philips, Intel, and Microsoft.

That’s all serious stuff, showcasing Justin’s solid career in the real, primarily conservative, and often humor-lacking world of media and public relations.

What Justin did next was nothing short of pure genius.

The fictional, parody story was turned into a real side-agency aimed at poking fun at one’s own fun, adventures, and hardships with clients and projects. Despite its profane name, Shitshow Creative, it really means business—no shit! 😀

Within minutes of reading that initial press release I contacted Justin letting him know that he had a golden opportunity in his hands: Turning a bag of laughs into permanent impact with traction, by registering the matching domain. Thankfully, he decided to spend ten bucks at Squarespace and registered ShitshowCreative.com.

In the weeks since, Shitshow Creative has grown by leaps and bounds, as traffic shows. The web site at ShitshowCreative.com has expanded to share the creative process and seriousness that the name itself seems to lack; FAQ sections and even a shop full of Shitshow merchandise! 💩💩💩


Justin’s been empowered by the daily dose of shit he has to put up with. His Shitshow Creative thrives on chaos but it’s all intentional and in good will. He’s humoring his achievement to utilize a load of crap into something meaningful and fun.

As this is a domain-centric & branding publication, I just had to ask Justin for his first interview as Creative Director of Shitshow Creative; without further ado, here it is.

Shitshow Creative is a bold, irreverent, and rather unforgettable name! What possessed you to slap that name on a brand and go all in?

Justin Kramm: Ah, but names arrive like thunderclouds, not logos. “Shitshow” didn’t come to me: it unfurled from the sky, screamed its own birth in flaming Helvetica, and smeared itself on the side of the barn of reason.

I didn’t choose it: I simply stopped resisting the name the universe had already tattooed on my frontal cortex. What else do you name a house for beautiful disasters?

You’re working with traditional PR and marketing, likely the world of sanitized taglines. What was the breaking point that pushed you to trade clean buzzwords for chuckles?

Justin Kramm:  One day, I awoke gagging on a gluten-free mission statement. I saw my reflection in a puddle of AI-generated SEO slurry and wept.

The final straw: a campaign for margarine that used the word “authentic” eight times. So I shaved my soul bald, danced naked in a circle of burning brand decks, and swore an oath to the gods of satire and chaos.

The domain name, ShitshowCreative.com, is a statement all by itself. Did you have backup names that were safer, or was this your first and only pick?

Justin Kramm: Yes: “The Whisper Co.” “Mint & Antler.” “Hoverhaus.” All of them whiter than a startup hoodie. But every time I said them out loud, a part of me died and turned into a LinkedIn poll.

Shitshow Creative was the first and only name that made my ancestors high-five each other across dimensions.

How do clients and associates react when you share the brand & site, especially on buttoned-up platforms like LinkedIn? Has it helped filter out the uptight clients and attract the fun ones?

Justin Kramm: The stiff ones squint. The brave ones howl. The good ones send us ideas at 2 a.m. from inside airport bathrooms. LinkedIn has become a self-cleaning portal: if our name offends you, you were never going to survive our brainstorms anyway.

We aren’t here for the faint of font.

Your content blends humor with strategy and it clearly resonates. What’s your process when crafting a piece for Shitshow Creative? Do you begin with the joke or with the marketing message?

Justin Kramm: We begin with a scream. Sometimes it’s a joke. Sometimes it’s a truth dressed as a banana. We chase the emotion first: joy, rage, absurdity. Then we reverse-engineer the brief so it doesn’t feel like a meeting in paragraph form.

We laugh first, then ask: “Would this make someone feel something besides boredom?”

Not sounding as if you’re trying too hard to be edgy is an art. How do you keep the tone cheeky without crossing into try-hard territory?

Justin Kramm: We flirt with the abyss but never date it. We respect the line: not because we’re scared of crossing it, but because the line is where the best jokes smoke cigarettes and tell secrets. We punch up, not down. And we know the difference between edge and ego.

You’ve essentially branded chaos. Is there a long-term plan behind Shitshow Creative or are you riding the wave and seeing where this idea takes you?

Justin Kramm: The plan is to make noise until the quiet begs us for mercy. The plan is to keep going until a museum mistakes us for art. The plan is that there isn’t a plan: just a compass that points to weird.

But behind the curtain? Oh yes, there’s strategy. There’s infrastructure. There are spreadsheets held together by duct tape and caffeine.

How important do you think domain names are in modern branding? Any advice for creatives trying to snag a memorable domain without going full Shitshow?

Justin Kramm: Name your company like it’s a band, not a startup. Bleed in the URL. If it scares you a little, it’s probably good. If your domain name gets flagged by corporate firewalls, you’re probably doing something right. But if you go full Shitshow: know this— you’ll never go back to beige again.

Also, side note for inspiring this Shitshow! Your advice was key!

Justin, it’s been a pleasure shooting the shit with you in this great interview!

Don’t forget to visit ShitshowCreative.com.

Copyright © 2025 DomainGang.com · All Rights Reserved.

Comments

One Response to “Shitshow Creative: Unleash bold creativity—Use the right domain name!”
  1. BullS says:

    Now that my kind of website i like!!!
    good Job 👍👏👍

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 characters available