What The Devil Wears Prada Taught Us About Work, Culture, and Standards at PDG Advertising

We did something a little different at PDG this week.

We watched The Devil Wears Prada (yes—both of them). On the surface, it’s a film about fashion, media, and a demanding boss.

But underneath that, it’s a study of standards, communication, pressure, and culture.

And like anything worth watching, it holds a mirror up to how we work.

Here’s what we took from it.

(And what we thought of the film at the end.👠)

1. A Job Interview Works Both Ways

An interview isn’t an interrogation, it’s alignment.

It’s a chance for the business to understand the candidate, and equally for the candidate to understand the business. Expectations, standards, pace, culture, all of it should be clear on both sides.

Bad hires often come from one side “selling” too hard. Good hires come from honesty.

2. Names Matter

Remembering someone’s name is a small act that signals something bigger: respect.

In fast-paced environments, it’s easy to reduce people to roles or tasks.

But businesses are built by people, not job titles. Using someone’s name properly is the baseline of treating them like they matter, because they do.

3. Appearance ≠ Capability

One of the biggest traps in business is judging competence by presentation.

How someone dresses, speaks, or carries themselves does not determine how good they are at their job.

Some of the most capable people don’t “look the part” at first glance.

The only thing that matters in the end is output.

4. Every Opinion Deserves Consideration

Not every idea is right. But every idea deserves to be heard.

High-performing teams don’t shut people down they create space for input, challenge it properly, and then decide. The decision might not go your way, but the process should always be respectful.

That’s how you build buy-in and better thinking.

5. Respect Isn’t Optional

There’s a difference between high standards and poor behaviour.

You can demand excellence without diminishing people. In fact, if you want sustained performance, you have to.

Colleagues deserve respect, full stop.

6. Impossible Pressure Isn’t Leadership

Pushing people to achieve is one thing.

Setting them up to fail is another.

When expectations become unrealistic, it stops being performance-driven and starts becoming destructive.

That’s not leadership, that’s bullying dressed up as ambition.

The goal is stretch, not break.

7. Get Good at Your Job

There’s a moment in the film where drifting stops working.

That applies everywhere.

If you want to progress, you need to care about getting good, really good, at what you do.

Effort, attention to detail, and pride in output separate those who move forward from those who stay stuck.

8. Immerse Yourself

The people who succeed don’t stay on the surface.

They learn the business.

They understand the clients.

They go deeper than what’s asked.

Immersion creates context.

Context creates better decisions.

9. Unhappiness Projects

This one hits hardest.

If you’re unhappy, it shows, in your tone, your work, your interactions. You don’t need to say it.

People feel it.

The same is true the other way around: energy, enthusiasm, and belief are contagious.

What you bring into the room spreads.

Final Thought

The Devil Wears Prada isn’t really about fashion.

It’s about standards.

And in business, standards are everything, how you treat people, how you communicate, how you perform, and how you show up every day.

At PDG, we’re not aiming for perfection.

But we are aiming for clarity, respect, and getting really, really good at what we do.

Interested in seeing what we are about?

Visit us over here: www.pdgadvertising.com

Oh and what did we think of the film?

We loved it. That's all.