Internal approvals. Where creative work goes to die a slow death. You've seen it
By Oliver Bradley · May 15, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Internal approvals. Where creative work goes to die a slow death.
You've seen it. The HiPPO effect.
HiPPO: the Highest Paid Person's Opinion.
It's when a senior executive makes creative decisions based on personal preferences, assumptions, or gut feelings rather than data, user research, or best practice.
"I don't like it."
"It doesn't feel on-brand."
"Can we try something else?"
No data. No rationale. Just opinion from the most senior person in the room.
I experienced something of this for 11 years in Big Corporate firsthand.
When I led Experience Design and Content for Commerce in our Global Centre of Excellence for Digital Commerce, I'd spend weeks arguing with brand VPs about hero images. They didn't want to improve contrast because brand guidelines sadly written long before digital was the first touchpoint.
"Design for Screen, DigitalFirst Design and Design to win on TikTok"
wasn't even a conversation yet.
Designing for mobile and glance-readability, sadly, was not their priority.
That was the digital commerce team's problem.
And we inherited their poor pack design.
With terrible contrast issues.
and weak conversion.
Silo Mentality.
So I'd fight. And lose.
And watch unreadable, poor contrast hero images go live because the HiPPO won.
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A slow YES is the kiss of death. It's "no" in disguise.
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And feedback from a HiPPO not based on data? You'll never win that battle.
Until now.
Here's what I'm hearing firsthand from CPG clients using RHINO AI:
Approval time for visual content has dropped from 2 weeks to a 20-minute MS Teams call.
That's not a typo. Two weeks to twenty minutes.
How? Screen share the RHINO results.
→ Doesn't pass contrast?
Fix it. Must be glance-readable. Mobile is too important now.
→ Doesn't pass text size clarity? Declutter. Make space for less text that's actually readable.
No more woolly statements like "I don't like it."
No more authority bias swaying decisions unfairly.
Just data. Pass or fail. Cambridge-backed. APCA-tested.
RHINO AI removes the unhelpful opinion from the room.
What's left is proof:
✅ Proof, not opinion - Pass/fail clarity using APCA contrast and Cambridge visual clarity algorithms.
✅ Accessibility, not just aesthetics - Designed for real eyes on real screens, including the 40+ demographic whose eyesight is changing.
Winning the room so you can win the screen. Win the scroll.
It's never been easier.
Data beats Opinion Every Time.
Get the RHINO AI advantage.
Get Fast Approvals.
Fix Upstream Issues because RHINO proves they don't work for digital commerce, from Tesco to TikTok.