This is what happens when you fetishise "creativity" over effectiveness. Which is the default agency mindset . Being cleverly creative is only helpful if it's in ruthless pursuit of a commercial effect. Adland has a strong tendency to see "creative" as the outcome, not just one of the important parts of making one type of advertising more effective... See more

If you couldn’t release it as a normal commercial, then why release it at all? Answer: Because the story deserved to be told. Because we weren’t going to be bound by traditional methods when the whole concept was untraditional. If you’re trying to reach consumers in a new way, then you have to be willing to forgo how things normally work. That’s th

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Effective communication will always require some degree of irrationality in its creation because if it’s perfectly rational it becomes, like water, entirely lacking in flavour. This explains why working with an advertising agency can be frustrating: it is difficult to produce good advertising, but good advertising is only good because it is difficu

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Creativity absolutely has to be applied to all four Ps, and not just to the promotional P. Otherwise, the ads are just lipstick on a pig. It’s a lot more fun when your product is ‘the world’s rarest beer’ instead of a slightly more hoppy IPA, or when your distribution mechanic is a travelling beer roulette vending machine and not just shelf facings... See more