Introducing The MAC Stack

A system for marketers who want to do better—built in public, piece by piece.

Let’s be honest: marketing doesn’t need more frameworks that sound good in theory and vanish in execution. It needs tools that hold up under pressure. Standards that match our values. Language that cuts through the noise.

So we’re building it.

The MAC Stack is a system in progress—created by marketers who are tired of spin and ready to do the work. It’s not locked. It’s not finished. And that’s the point.

We’re building it with the community, not just for it. Weekly meetings. Real debates. Unfiltered feedback. You can be part of it.

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

💡 What Is the MAC Stack?

The MAC Stack is a work-in-progress reality check for marketers tired of pretending everything’s fine.

It’s a system built to:

• Spot the symptoms of broken marketing habits

• Understand the root causes behind them

• Stress-test ideas before they ship

• And eventually build toward a shared ethical standard that works

It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress with a spine.

🛠️ Built by the Council, Piece by Piece

The MAC Stack wasn’t dreamed up in a vacuum. It’s been pressure-tested, debated, and sharpened by a crew of marketers who’ve lived inside the chaos—and are done with the spin.

Each layer has a MAC steward:

🪦 SYMPTOMS → The Graveyard

Steward: Jay Mandel
Jay’s building a rolling obituary for bad marketing ideas that just won’t die. It’s a place to bury the tactics we know are broken—and understand how they became so common in the first place.

Think:

• Loyalty programs that punish loyalty

• Spray-and-pray content strategies

• Martech stacks that are 80% shelfware

🎣 CAUSES → The Delusion Series

Steward: Jacob Sanders
Jacob unpacks why marketing keeps falling for the same old lies:

• “It worked for Nike.”

• “The algorithm hates us.”

• “Customers want hyper-personalization.”

His work connects cultural delusions to tactical misfires and gives us language to break the spell.

🧠 TESTS → The Heuristics Project

Steward: Moni Oloyede
Heuristics are mental shortcuts. Not guesses—filters.
They help you cut through complexity and make clearer, faster decisions—especially when you don’t have all the time, data, or perfect conditions.

In marketing, heuristics help us slow down just enough to ask:

• Are we solving a real problem or just reacting?

• Would we trust this if we saw it in the wild?

• Are we optimizing for people—or just pleasing a dashboard?

The MAC Heuristics Project, led by Moni Oloyede, is about building a simple but brutal checklist to run every campaign, strategy, or piece of copy through before it leaves the room.

Because good marketing doesn’t just come from inspiration—it comes from discipline.
Heuristics give you that. They’re your internal BS filter. And right now, we need one more than ever.

⚠️ TREATMENT → The TRUST Framework

Still in progress. But this is where it’s headed.

The TRUST Framework is the next evolution of the MAC Stack. It’s where we move from individual decision filters to a shared standard for how marketing should operate—ethically, effectively, and with long-term impact in mind.

It’s not a checklist. It’s an operating system.

Here’s what TRUST stands for:

• T — Transparency
  Say what you mean. Show your work. Let your audience see the why behind the message—not just the pitch.

• R — Relevance
  Don’t hijack attention. Earn it by solving real problems, serving real needs, and speaking in a way that makes sense to real people.

• U — Utility
  Marketing should be useful. Even your ads should give something—clarity, confidence, next steps, actual value.

• S — Storytelling
  Not just noise. Not just brand fluff. Storytelling is how humans understand meaning, context, and possibility. If you’re not telling a true story, you’re just filling space.

• T — Tangible Impact
  Measure what matters. Are you actually helping people? Driving real change? Or just looking busy in a spreadsheet?

The TRUST Framework isn’t about being nice. It’s about being worth believing.
It gives your team a compass. A shared language. A way to gut-check campaigns before they go live—and defend better decisions when they get challenged.

We’re still defining it. Stress-testing it. Turning it into something usable across teams, orgs, and roles. But when it’s ready, it won’t be just another poster in a hallway.
It’ll be a standard.

🧭 The Compass: How We Keep the Stack Honest

The MAC Stack gives us structure. The Compass keeps us honest.

Let’s break that down.

The Stack is where we diagnose broken habits (🪦 Graveyard), unpack the beliefs that fuel them (🎣 Delusion Series), apply filters to catch them early (🧠 Heuristics Project), and build something better in their place (⚠️ TRUST Framework).

But even with all that structure, something was missing: a final gut check.

That’s what the MAC Accountability Compass is for.

It’s not another layer. It’s the throughline. The thing we use to pressure-test our own intentions before we ship anything out into the world. Whether we’re writing a report, publishing a keynote, or crafting a tweet—we run it through the Compass.

Because frameworks don’t make your work ethical. Follow-through does.

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🧭 So Where Does the Compass Fit?

If the Stack is the system, the Compass is the conscience.

• The Graveyard tells us what to bury.

• The Delusion Series tells us what beliefs to question.

• The Heuristics help us make sharper decisions.

• The TRUST Framework gives us a shared ethical standard.

But the Compass? It makes sure we’re not lying to ourselves about any of it.

It asks:

• Are we being transparent or just clever?

• Are we citing real sources—or dressing up a hunch?

• Could someone mistake this for objective truth when it's just our POV?

The Compass doesn’t add red tape. It adds rigor.

It forces clarity.
It catches the slippage.
It closes the loop between what we say we value—and what we’re actually putting into the world.

When we say our content runs through the MAC Stack, this is what we mean:

• The thinking gets filtered.

• The standards get applied.

• And the Compass makes sure we’re not just playing dress-up with ethics.

No vibes. No excuses. Just accountability.

Want to help build it? You’re invited.

The Stack in Motion

We use the MAC Stack every week—on ourselves.

To write. To review. To coach. To call BS when we see it, and to catch ourselves when we’re tempted to default to safe, shallow thinking.

Every newsletter, workshop, article—it all runs through the Stack—not because we need another process but because we need a pulse check.

Why It Matters

The MAC Stack doesn’t give you all the answers. It gives you a spine.

• It helps you spot the red flags sooner.

• It helps you say no to the tactics that make your brand forgettable.

• It helps you market without selling out.

We call it accountability.
You might call it relief.

Want In? Join the Friday MAC Sessions

Fun. Sharp. Occasionally confrontational. Always worth it.

Every Friday at 3PM EST, the MAC crew gets together to unpack what’s broken in marketing—and how to fix it. It’s not a webinar. It’s not a panel. It’s a live working session where bold ideas get tested, old habits get questioned, and good marketers get sharper.

Whether you're in strategy, creative, media, or just tired of pretending performance theater is working—we want you in the room.

Come curious. Leave provoked. Repeat.

🧠 Fridays @ 3PM EST
🔗 Join here

Bring your brain. Leave your buzzwords.