My son was born 03-02-06. I should know this because I was there. Really there. I was the first person to touch him. My hands cradled his tiny, trembling body as he made his entrance into the world. But for the life of me, I often have to think twice about “06” when asked to provide his date of birth. Yet, I have no trouble recalling some obscure print ad by a little-known agency in Istanbul that I saw in an award show annual seven years ago.
Do I love advertising more than my only son? No. At least, I don’t think so.
But I can’t deny that my talent for remembering one-off ads that were most certainly created to win the affections of award show judges is stronger than my ability to remember one of the most important years in my life.
While my quasi-photographic memory for award-winning newspaper ads, public service campaigns and stuntvertising has been somewhat useful in my career, it has also been a hindrance. I’ve dismissed dozens of quality ideas while concepting because I suddenly recalled a poster series from a ‘08 issue of Lüzer’s Archive. And I think it’s safe to say I’m not alone. Many industry veterans – who have willingly exposed themselves to dangerous levels of anthropomorphic liquids and dancing babies – struggle because they’re afraid of being branded as hacks by the very small percentage of the global population that seriously pays attention to advertising: us.
So I offer the following advice to anyone just starting out so they can protect themselves from the same creative paralysis that hamstrings every would-be genius.
Hit the books. Then forget what you saw.
This isn’t permission to open the latest One Show annual and just plagiarize. That’s not the point of this…because you will open many annuals in your career. We are weak to the temptation, much like those donuts in the break room. Just don’t commit every single thing you see to memory. That’s a wrong turn down the long road to torment. Spend more time streaming shows and movies, listening to music and podcasts, reading novels, blogs and biographies. That’s what your clients’ customers are doing. And they’re the ones you’re really trying to please. Right?
Don’t read the comments on creative websites.
The comments are almost always negative and are posted by the same handful of knuckleheads who will not only claim something is derivative, but they will also know where to dig up a link to the work they accuse it of copying. “Lame! This idea was done five years ago! Here’s a link to prove it!” Just don’t do it. It’s poisonous.
Please don’t look at us like that.
One of our creative directors is around my age. She’s been just about everywhere. Fallon. Chiat. BBH. BBDO. Wieden & Kennedy. 180 Amsterdam. Together, she and I are like the advertising equivalent of Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine; we can recite taglines, headlines…even jingle lyrics. Of course, the creatives at our agency too young to know “Aaron Burr” think we’re crazy. We are. Because we’ve been inhaling metaphor fumes for the past twenty years.
Know what the competition is doing.
This is one of the few times when it’s safe to binge watch commercials because you have to know what your clients’ competitors are up to. If you’re pitching a brokerage account, do a category deep dive. Watch, read and listen to every brokerage ad you can find. This will help you in your attempt to create work that’s different.
Do what has never been done before…if you’re lucky.
This is our Prime Directive. But very few of us are able to achieve absolute originality every single time, especially when we so often have only a few days to come up with the goods. And even when we do have the luxury of time, some of us fall back on the familiar. For example, one of the commercials for Super Bowl 50 feels a lot like a series of web videos from 2014. As soon as I saw it, I recalled the name of the brand, the actors and the agency. The Super Bowl commercial in question is for a different product, but play them side-by-side and you can see striking similarities. Again, it feels like a facsimile to me because I’m covered in advertising particles. But will the millions of fans watching the game scream for a penalty flag? “That ad is a blatant rip-off of web videos from 2014! Look, I found a link to them on YouTube!” I doubt it, because as good as those videos are, they didn’t achieve untouchable status. “Like a Girl,” “Epic Split,” “Unskippable”… those are untouchable. We’ll never see their kind again. So don’t beat yourself up if the next thing you think of sort of feels like it’s been done before because chances are, it has.
I have little doubt that some industry veteran shared similar opinions a generation earlier. Someone reading this may even post a link to it on our Twitter account. “This article was better the first time it was written, loser!” But you’re young. You only know the advertising you see in front of you today. And, most likely, so does your audience.
– Glen