When Tariffs from Washington Hit Our Studio in London

Feeling the pinch already?

There’s a widespread belief that tariffs—especially those imposed by President Trump this week — only affect American tech stock markets and giant corporations. Like it’s all just numbers bouncing around Wall Street, far away from the rest of us.

But sitting here in London, running a creative agency, we’re feeling it ALREADY. Hard.

This week, in fact last night, we lost a brilliant advertising job. One of those nice projects that was both creatively fulfilling and financially solid. The client was happy, the work was smart, and the collaboration was smooth. Then, boom—tariffs.

Our client manufactures their product in China. They’re US-based, but we’ve worked with them for a while. When the latest wave of tariffs kicked in, their production costs doubled overnight. Literally. One day, it was business as usual; the next, they were slashing their marketing budget in half.

Their solution? Cut costs. Fast. And slashing the advertising budget was one of the first moves.

Despite the fact that we were delivering strong results on a very reasonable budget, we were asked to halve our fees. We simply couldn’t do the same level of work for half the money, so the job vanished, and they are going to do the job internally.

That’s how a policy decision made in Washington D.C., ends up shutting down work in a small London studio.

It’s maddening. Because we weren’t reckless or inefficient. We got caught in a geopolitical storm we had nothing to do with. And this isn’t an isolated story—these decisions are affecting independent agencies, small businesses, freelancers, and creatives all over the UK. ALready. Within days. What is going to happen next?

So no, tariffs don’t just affect investors in New York. They also affect real people, doing real work on this side of the Atlantic. People like us.

We’re asking: when will the madness end?

Have you felt the knock-on effects of all this too? Let’s talk about it. Because the more we speak up, the harder it becomes to ignore just how far-reaching this damage is.

Let's stick to one another to go through these wild, turbulent times. This is what #shorts2features is about.

📆Our next events at Shorts2features (website in comments) are:

🎥 S2F MAKERS CLUB 22nd APRIL - Online Production catch up - 5 minutes slot to talk about what you are working on

💰 S2F MAKERS CLUB 8th MAY - Online Free Webinar on How to develop your Proof of concept short film - to raise finance for a feature film

🍻 LIVE NETWORKING night @Elysee West End - 12th MAY - Our regular event to connect film-makers in London.

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