Several prominent sociologists have called social disruptions and their associated risk as the defining aspect of contemporary society, and marketers have increasingly become interested in this phenomenon. I propose the theory of active erasure to explain a series of robust patterns of change in brand advertising in response to three major social disruptions. This phenomenon is generalizable across disruptions, and consists of two parts: erasing images connected to the event, and actively replacing images with more comforting images of the home. This allows brand managers to anticipate the actions of competitors and choose their strategy accordingly. I situate this phenomenon in an institutional perspective, providing further evidence using depth interviews with brand managers and advertising creatives. Using structuration theory, I identify two external structures and two internal structures that shape the phenomena of active erasure during the advertising creation process and suggest intervention points in advertising strategy. I approach disruptions in a macro social way, and demonstrate that an institutional level of analysis allows new and different findings that are not always available to researchers focused in on smaller units of analysis.