When Dee Madigan’s name was announced as number one on B&T’s Women in Media Power List at the 2025 Women in Media Awards last Friday, the room broke out into cheers. For many in the room, and in fact for Madigan herself, the moment represented a victory for every woman who has ever been told she was “too loud,” “too opinionated,” or “too much.”
Madigan, executive creative director of Campaign Edge, admitted the honour came as a surprise. “I’ve got to say I was not expecting it. I was genuinely not expecting it,” she told B&T in a live Vox Pop interview. “I always think it goes to women who are in charge of these huge companies and things like that.”
Madigan’s recognition is a testament to a different kind of power. Madigan’s work has changed the trajectory of Australian politics. As the creative force behind Labor’s 2025 election campaign, she helped deliver a landslide victory, securing 17 additional seats and reducing the Coalition to its weakest showing in decades. It was a campaign that proved the strength of storytelling, persuasion, and purpose-driven creativity, qualities that Madigan has made her signature.
Reflecting on her earliest days in the industry, Madigan told B&T that her presence had been treated as a liability rather than an asset. “Two senior guys in the first agency I worked in… said that I’d probably be fired because I was too loud and too opinionated”.
Quoting Taylor Swift, Madigan sent a message to those creatives who had targeted her for being too much. “If you wanted me dead, you should have just said. Nothing makes me feel more alive. And guys, f*ck you,” she said before flipping off the camera.
The defiant statement was a declaration of survival. Madigan’s voice, once criticised, has become her greatest weapon. Her recognition on the Power List shows that qualities once labelled as flaws can, in fact, be the foundation of leadership and influence.
Check out the full Power List here!
The Power of Female Friendship and Mentorship
In her acceptance speech, Madigan shifted the spotlight from herself to the women who had supported her journey. She spoke about her 15-year-old daughter and the lessons she tries to impart.
“If anyone’s got teenage daughters, you know how fraught teenage female friendships are. What I say to her… is, it’s worth it, because the friendships that females have later are probably the best thing in their lives. It’s the thing that keeps us going, and I feel sorry for blokes that they skim a little bit on the surface.”
She credited female mentors who had backed her from the start: “I have been incredibly lucky in my career with female mentors… Esther Clerehan was always in my corner. There were so many other women in advertising, including the brilliant Sunita Gloster, Jane Carro and the lovely Elizabeth McIntyre.”
And she acknowledged the women who stood alongside her in the media spotlight and her own “girl pack”, without whom “I wouldn’t be half the person I am”.
Her words drew a standing ovation, resonating with an audience built on the same bonds of mentorship, sisterhood, and solidarity.
Purpose Over Prestige
Beyond politics and advertising, Madigan offered advice to other women charting their own careers: find your purpose and pursue it relentlessly.
“Find the things that you’re passionate about. And I know that sounds like a wank… but don’t do it because you think there’s a market. Find the thing you actually feel is your purpose,” she said.
She recalled her first election campaign, a loss, as a turning point in her life. “I remember still the first time I did an election campaign, just feeling like for the first time in my life, I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing, and we got smashed in that election… but it is the best feeling in the world.”
Since that moment, Madigan has seen every campaign as another opportunity to fight for change.
Madigan’s number one position redefines what power looks like for women in media. It’s not just reserved for CEOs of multinationals or those with billion-dollar budgets. It’s in the courage to be unapologetically yourself, in the friendships that sustain you, and in the work that drives real-world change.
Madigan’s journey is an empowering reminder to the next generation: don’t mute yourself, don’t shrink your ambition, and don’t compromise your purpose.
