There is a specific energy that defines the advertising industry in New York City. It is a relentless current, a mixture of grit, high intellect, exhaustion, and the absolute euphoria of seeing an idea manifest into reality. For many young creatives, this city is not just a location but a proving ground, a place where the theory learned in design school is tested against the concrete realities of client demands, tight deadlines, and the sheer volume of talent competing for the same space. Among those rising through these ranks with a distinct voice and undeniable momentum is Emma Gubitz.
Known affectionately in professional and creative circles as GUBGUB, Gubitz represents a new generation of copywriters who blend the strategic rigor of traditional branding with the chaotic, authentic pulse of digital culture. Originally from Toronto, Canada, her journey to Manhattan was not a calculated drift but a decisive plunge. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising and Branding at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a perfect 4.0 GPA, she made the choice that defines many great New York stories. She dropped everything, moved to the city, and spent her first month sleeping on an air mattress. It was a move driven by a singular focus: the pursuit of excellence in advertising.
Now, sitting in February 2026, Gubitz has been in the city for over two years, transforming from a hopeful graduate into a formidable creative force. Currently serving as a Copywriter at GALE, she has crafted narratives for major brands, including Pella Windows & Doors, and contributed to major new-business pitches. Her resume reads like a map of rapid ascension, moving from internships at 24/7 Laundry Service and Oberland to a pivotal Associate Copywriter role at MRM, and finally to her current position at GALE. But her impact extends beyond her day job. Gubitz has garnered global recognition, including the prestigious Red Dot Design Award and multiple accolades from the American Advertising Federation.
What makes Gubitz fascinating is not just her accolades but her approach to the work and the life that surrounds it. She admits to a candid personality that reflects in her writing, bold, outgoing, and authentic. She is a creative who is unafraid to admit that her day-to-day shoes are her dad’s ASICS sneakers from 20 years ago, or that she is still trying to pretend she fits into the eclectic rhythm of Bushwick. When she is not lifting heavy weights for fun or working toward her personal trainer certification, she is deeply embedded in the local creative fabric, frequenting the Bushwick Zine Club or exploring new corners of the city with friends.
In this extensive conversation, we sat down with Emma Gubitz to dissect the reality of breaking into the New York advertising scene as an international creative. We discuss the transition from academic theory to agency practice, the mechanics of writing copy that resonates in a saturated market, and the importance of maintaining a distinct personal identity amidst the corporate landscape. Gubitz opens up about the toughest feedback she has received, the process of protecting creative concepts, and what she plans to build next.
New York Art Life: Emma, thank you for joining us. To set the stage for our readers who might look at your portfolio and see a polished professional, let us start with the reality of your day to day existence. In one sentence, what do you do as a copywriter in New York right now, and what kind of work are you hungry to do more of?
Emma Gubitz: I am a Torontonian city girl who found herself at an art college in Georgia and now works in Manhattan, where my job is to solve business problems with words that are bold enough to make people stop scrolling. At GALE, I spend my days crafting copy for brands like Pella and contributing to major new business pitches, ensuring that every piece of communication, from a subject line to a radio script, carries a distinct voice that cuts through the noise.
What I am hungry for, and what drives me every time I open a new brief, is the opportunity to create brand content that transcends the medium, work that makes people say “remember when that brand did that?” ten years after it was produced. I want to build campaigns that are not just viewed but experienced, the kind of work that would compel someone to fly out just to see it in person. I want to push the boundaries of traditional advertising into something that feels more like cultural entertainment.
New York Art Life: You have been in New York for a few years now, which in “ad years” can feel like a decade. When you look back at your arrival, the air mattress, the uncertainty—what is the biggest difference between your first 90 days in the industry and your life now, three years post graduation?
Emma Gubitz: The difference is night and day, primarily in terms of confidence and belonging. The first 90 days were defined by a beautiful but terrifying chaos. I had just finished my degree at SCAD, dropped everything to move to NYC, and was literally sleeping on an air mattress in an apartment that barely felt like home. I was operating on pure adrenaline and the fear that I might have to pack up and leave if I did not make it work instantly. And I was trying to figure out the subway, the unspoken rules of agency culture, and how to just exist in a city that demands so much energy.
Now, three years post graduation, the anxiety has been replaced by a sense of purpose and stability. I am still trying to pretend I fit into Bushwick, but I have found my corners of the city where I truly belong, like the Bushwick Zine Club or my gym. Professionally, the biggest shift is that I am no longer just happy to be in the room; I am an active participant in shaping the room. At first, you are just trying to execute what you are told without messing up. Now, I have the experience to push back, offer alternative perspectives, and own my projects end to end. The imposter syndrome still visits, as it does for everyone, but I now have a track record of wins, like the ManifestOff victory and my time at GALE, that serves as a reminder that I earned my place here.
New York Art Life: Let us get into the mechanics of the craft. Writing for advertising is often misunderstood as just “being clever,” but we know it is a rigorous discipline. Walk us through your process from the brief to the first routes and finally to the final line. Where do you start, and how do you know when the copy is “right”?
Emma Gubitz: My process is a mixture of chaotic gathering and ruthless editing. It always starts with the brief, but I try to look beyond the immediate deliverables to find the human truth at the core of the ask. I start by consuming everything I can about the product and the audience. I read Reddit threads, Amazon reviews, and social media comments to hear how real people talk about the problem we are solving. This research phase is crucial because you cannot write authentic copy without knowing the consumer’s vernacular.
Once I have that foundation, I move to what I call the “vomit draft.” I write down every single thought, pun, sentence fragment, and half baked idea that comes to mind. No judgment, just volume. I fill pages with absolute nonsense just to get the bad ideas out of my system. From that chaos, themes start to emerge. I will group these thoughts into “buckets” or territories—maybe one route is humorous, one is emotional, and one is functional.
I then start refining those buckets into actual headlines or scripts. I work closely with art directors during this phase because the visual and the verbal need to dance together. The copy is “right” when it feels inevitable—when you read it and think, “of course, that is the only way this could have been said.” It needs to be surprising yet familiar. I also test it by reading it out loud. If I stumble over the words, or if it sounds like “marketing speak,” I cut it. The final line has to sound like a human being said it, not a corporation.
New York Art Life: You have achieved significant recognition early in your career, including the Red Dot Design Award and multiple accolades from the SCAD Advertising Awards. Can you share one piece of work you are particularly proud of? What was the insight, and what did you write that made it click?
Emma Gubitz: The project that remains nearest to my heart is a student, mock Knix Period Underwear integrated campaign I developed while at SCAD. This conceptual work won the Red Dot Design Award, Best in Show at the SCAD Advertising Awards, and gold at the AAF Awards. It was a school project only; I did not work for Knix directly.
The challenge was to market period underwear in a way that felt both revolutionary and incredibly normalized. The category often leans into clinical language or overly sanitized imagery, which feels dishonest to anyone who actually experiences a period.
The core insight was that periods are a biological reality that society still treats as a dirty secret, yet Knix offers a product that lets you live your life without pausing for them. We wanted to strip away the shame and the euphemisms. The campaign focused on the idea that life does not stop, and neither should you.
I wrote copy that was direct, bold, and slightly provocative without being gratuitous. It was about reclaiming the narrative of the menstrual cycle as something powerful rather than debilitating. The line that made it click balanced the product’s functionality with the emotional liberation it offered. Seeing that work recognized by international bodies like Red Dot was validating because it proved that advertising for women’s health products could be high design and high concept. It did not have to be pink and flowery; it could be strong, graphic, and incredibly smart.
New York Art Life: New York is known for its brutal honesty. What is the toughest feedback you have gotten in NYC since starting your career, and how did it change your approach to your work?
Emma Gubitz: The toughest feedback I received wasn’t about the quality of my writing, but about my attachment to it. Early on, a creative director told me, “You are not your work. Kill your darlings before I have to kill them for you.” It stung because, as a creative, you pour so much of your personal identity into what you create. When an idea gets shot down, it can feel like a rejection of you.
New York Art Life: That transition from taking feedback personally to viewing it objectively is a significant milestone. However, there is a flip side to that coin. Describe a moment when the work started to get watered down. What did you do to protect the concept?
Emma Gubitz: This is the eternal struggle of the creative industry. You start with a sharp, provocative idea, and then it goes through layers of approval. Legal has concerns, the client is worried about alienating a specific demographic, or the budget gets slashed. Suddenly, your lion of an idea looks more like a house cat. I can think of many early projects where, as feedback rounds came in, the request was to make things “cleaner” and “safer.”
To protect the concept, I realized I could not just argue from a place of “it looks cool” or “it sounds better.” I had to speak the language of business results. I went back to the strategy and the original brief. I showed the team that watering down the creative was actually drifting away from the core insight we had all agreed on. I presented the “safe” version alongside the “bold” version and asked, “Which one of these would stop you if you were scrolling at 2 am?” By framing the creative risk as a strategic necessity rather than an artistic preference, I was able to save the core of the idea. We compromised on some visual elements, but the headline and the tone of voice remained intact. You have to pick your battles, and for me, the voice is the hill I will die on.
New York Art Life: Advertising is rarely a solo sport. You are constantly working with art directors, strategists, and account managers. How do you collaborate with these teams day to day, and what makes collaboration genuinely great in your eyes?
Emma Gubitz: Collaboration is the oxygen of this industry. If I am writing in a silo, the work is dead on arrival. My day-to-day involves a lot of back and forth with my art director partners. I do not just hand over a script and say “make it look good,” and they do not just give me a layout and say “fill in the blanks.” We built the house together. I might have a visual idea that sparks a headline, or they might have a design concept that changes the entire structure of the copy.
Truly great collaboration happens when there is no ego in the room. It is when a strategist feels comfortable suggesting a line of copy, or when I feel safe asking questions about the media buy. It is about respect for the craft but flexibility in the execution. At GALE and previously at MRM, the best work always came from the friction between different disciplines. The account team keeps us grounded in reality, strategy gives us the map, and creative drives the car. When everyone trusts that the other person is good at their job, the friction becomes productive heat rather than destructive fire. I love it when an account manager fights for a creative idea because they understand its value. That is when you know the team is aligned.
New York Art Life: You mentioned earlier that you have to be “shameless” in your pursuit of great work. Let’s talk about a specific move you made post graduation that accelerated your growth. We know that Mojo Supermarket and its competition, ManifestOff, played a huge role in your career. Can you tell us about that experience?
Emma Gubitz: Absolutely. ManifestOff was a pivotal moment for me. Mojo Supermarket is this incredible independent agency that represents everything I love about modern advertising—they are disruptive, culturally literate, and fearless. They host this competition called ManifestOff, which is a juried, application based creative gauntlet. Entering it was a no brainer, but winning it in 2024 changed the trajectory of my career.
The competition forces you to solve a brief in a way that is totally uninhibited. You are not bogged down by the usual agency bureaucracy; it is pure creativity. Winning ManifestOff gave me a platform and visibility that would have taken years to build organically. It validated that my “weird” ideas had commercial viability. But the story did not end there. In 2025, following my win, I was invited back to serve as a Jury Member for the next ManifestOff.
Sitting on the other side of the table, alongside senior creative leaders, was a surreal experience. I went from being the scrappy entrant trying to prove myself to being a peer evaluating the next wave of talent. It forced me to articulate why something was good, not just that it was good. That experience accelerated my growth by pulling me out of a junior mindset and placing me in a leadership context. It taught me how to critique work constructively and how to spot potential in others, which has made me a better writer and a better teammate.
New York Art Life: You are originally from Toronto, and you made a very deliberate choice to come to New York. What did you learn about breaking into the NYC advertising scene as someone from an international background?
Emma Gubitz: Breaking into NYC as a Canadian adds a layer of complexity that people often overlook. There is the logistical nightmare of visas and paperwork, of course, but there is also a cultural shift. Toronto is polite; New York is direct. In Toronto, you might wait for your turn. In New York, if you wait for your turn, you will be waiting forever.
I learned very quickly that I had to be my own biggest advocate. No one was going to hand me an opportunity just because I had a 4.0 GPA from SCAD. I had to hustle harder. I had to show up at events like Type Thursday or the Bushwick Zine Club not just to network, but to embed myself in the culture. I realized that being “international” was actually a strength. I had a slightly different perspective, a different cultural reference point that allowed me to look at American consumerism with fresh eyes.
The biggest lesson was that this city respects hustle above all else. When I told people I was sleeping on an air mattress and had dropped everything to be here, they did not look at me with pity; they looked at me with respect. They recognized the hunger. That shared struggle is a bonding agent in the NYC creative community. You realize everyone here is from somewhere else, and everyone is fighting for their spot. It creates a camaraderie that I have not found anywhere else.
New York Art Life: Speaking of SCAD, your academic career was stellar—Summa Cum Laude, Red Dot Awards, and the PUMA Design Competition. Can you tell us about that specific PUMA challenge? It sounds like a unique bridge between student work and professional reality.
Emma Gubitz: The SCAD x PUMA Design Challenge was one of those experiences that felt like a trial by fire. It was not just a classroom assignment; it was a competitive design challenge selected from over 50 teams. The prompt was to design a future facing concept for PUMA, a global brand with a massive legacy.
Our team worked nonstop to develop a concept that balanced the heritage of the brand with forward thinking innovation. We did not just design a shoe or a campaign; we designed an ecosystem. When we presented our concept, we had to defend every decision to PUMA industry professionals. It was intense.
Winning that competition was incredibly validating. We were awarded first place and invited to PUMA’s Boston headquarters for an immersive experience. Even so, the win itself was a headspace shift. It showed me that my ideas had currency in the real world. It was also a lesson in storytelling. You can have the best design in the world, but if you cannot sell the narrative, the “why” behind the “what”, it will die on the vine. That experience honed my presentation skills, which I use every day at GALE when I present work to clients or contribute to major new business pitches.
New York Art Life: You are currently at GALE working on accounts such as Pella Windows & Doors, as well as brands across categories, from home improvement to financial services and dining. These are very different industries. How do you switch gears between such distinct brand voices?
Emma Gubitz: It is like being a method actor. In the morning, I might be writing for Pella, where the voice is about durability, craftsmanship, and the emotional weight of “home.” I have to think about homeowners who are making a significant investment. I need to sound trustworthy, established, and assuring.
Then, I might switch to a fintech brand in the afternoon. The stakes there are incredibly high; it is about supporting family, making sacrifices, and maintaining connection. The voice needs to be empathetic, clear, and globally minded.
And then there might be a restaurant or hospitality brand, which is all about warmth, generosity, and the joy of sharing a meal. That is where I can have a bit more fun with the language, leaning into sensory descriptions and the feeling of a crowded table.
Switching gears requires a mental reset. I usually take a walk, listen to a specific playlist, or just step away from the screen for five minutes to clear the previous voice from my head. The common thread across all of them, though, is human emotion. Whether you are buying a window, sending money to your mom, or ordering pasta, you are doing it for a reason. My job is to tap into that reason. At GALE, we focus heavily on performance and data, so I am also constantly balancing the creative craft with the analytical side, ensuring the copy not only sounds right but performs right.
New York Art Life: You mentioned mentors earlier, specifically Luke Sullivan, in your first ad class. Who else has been instrumental in your journey, and how are you paying that forward now?
Emma Gubitz: Luke Sullivan was the catalyst. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This is the bible for a reason, and having him as a teacher at SCAD was like learning guitar from Jimi Hendrix. He taught me to love the problem, not just the solution. But beyond Luke, I have found mentors in the senior creatives I have worked with at Oberland, MRM, and now GALE. They are the ones who taught me how to navigate agency politics, present to a difficult client, and stay sane.
Now, I am actively trying to pay that forward. I am an upcoming mentor for the SCAD Ad Club, where I will host an AMA and give a speech. I remember sitting in those seats, terrified of the future, so I want to be the person who tells them, “It is scary, but you can do it.” I am also involved with the Bushwick Zine Club and am a soon-to-be volunteer with Free Arts NYC. Mentorship does not always have to be formal; sometimes it is just looking at a junior creative’s portfolio and giving them one piece of honest, actionable advice. I want to be a resource for the next generation of “GUBGUBs” who are thinking about dropping everything and moving to New York.
New York Art Life: You have a very distinct personal brand. You call yourself GUBGUB, you have a history with a small T-shirt company you ran in high school, and you were a jewelry designer. How do these side hustles and personal identities feed into your professional work?
Emma Gubitz: I think the best creatives are the ones who have lived lives outside of advertising. If all you do is look at ads, your work will just look like other ads. My background in jewelry design taught me patience and precision. You cannot rush soldering silver; you have to respect the material. That applies to writing headlines; sometimes, you have to sit with it and refine it until it shines.
I used to run a small T-shirt company in high school; it was my first crash course in branding. I had to figure out how to make people care about a piece of cotton. I learned about community building and customer loyalty before I even knew those were marketing terms.
Being “GUBGUB” is about authenticity. It is a nickname that stuck, and I decided to own it because it feels approachable. It signals to people that while I take the work seriously, I do not take myself too seriously. In an industry that can be full of egos, being a human being first is a competitive advantage. All these side projects—the zines, the jewelry, the lifting, keep my creative well filled. They remind me that creativity is meant to be fun.
New York Art Life: Let’s talk about the future. You mentioned you are planning a Substack. What are you building now, and what do you want to be known for next?
Emma Gubitz: Right now, I am building a life that integrates my creative ambition with my personal curiosity. The Substack I am planning will focus on real life coincidence stories. I am fascinated by those moments where the universe seems to wink at you, strangers meeting in impossible circumstances, or finding a lost object in a random place. I think there is a deep human need for those stories; they make us feel connected.
I want to be known for work that defies the “skippable” nature of modern media. I want to create campaigns that are so engaging, so weird, or so beautiful that people seek them out. I want to move toward more experiential and activation based work. I love the idea of advertising that you can touch and interact with, not just watch.
New York Art Life: What advice would you give to current students or recent graduates who are looking at your trajectory, the awards, the agency roles, the move to NYC, and wondering how to replicate it?
Emma Gubitz: My advice is simple: embrace the chaos. Do not try to plan every single step because the best opportunities are the ones you never saw coming. If I had stuck to a rigid plan, I might never have entered ManifestOff, or I might not have taken the leap to move to NYC without a permanent address.
Start before you are ready. Apply for the job you think you are underqualified for. Enter the competition even if you think you will lose. Write the “vomit draft.” The paralysis of perfectionism is the enemy. You have to be willing to be bad at something before you can be good at it.
And specifically for those looking to move to New York: just get here. The energy of this city rewards presence. It is hard to convince someone to hire you from another country, but if you are here, willing to meet for coffee at 8 am or 8 pm, doors start to open. Build your community. Find your “zine club” or your gym. You need a support system outside of work to survive work.
Links:
Emma Gubitz Official Web Site
Red Dot Design Award: Knix Period Underwear Campaign
https://www.red-dot.org/project/knix-period-underwear-campaign-66232
SCAD Alumni Feature: Emma Gubitz’s Year of Radical Change
