Things Clicking Into Place

It's amazing how long you can go learning something without actually getting it.

I learned and played guitar for years and years, but when I gave it up recently (or at least gave up being in a band), I felt I was only just getting what it was all about - playing the right part at the right time. That's all.

It's not something you can really teach. I'm sure I could teach a kid to play guitar OK, but who really wants to hear "this is how you keep time with the drummer" when you can learn cool solos to impress your friends?

Well it's the same in advertising. We're well into Term 2 and I'm only just getting what it's all about. It's not about great lines (though they help) and it's not about sudden flashes of inspiration (again, not to be sniffed at, but not always necessary).

It's about finding a Creative Strategy. Once you've done that, you'll produce work that will look to outsiders like a flash of inspiration without breaking a sweat. It's this illusion that adverts are created in a sudden lateral brainwave that is the equivalent of kids wanting to learn guitar solos before they can play rhythm.

As King Charles I once said, "don't rush to execution".

Memorable Quotations from last night's Creative Social

Attended a Creative Social event at LBi London last night entitled "Creative Looting", all about where ideas come from, and where the line between inspiration and stealing lies.

Some memorable phrases from the night, some very much paraphrased:

"Bet he could top cosmic boy!" - a perhaps unintentionally homoerotic frame from one of Tom  Eslinger's childhood comics.

"Put ideas into the client's head so they think that they thought of it" - Liz Sivell gets underhand inspiration from Derren Brown.

"[The] PC is the LSD of the 90s" - Timothy Leary, via Andy Sandoz.

"Keep digging" - Dave Bedwood on finding ideas. Which made Tool's "Stinkfist" run through my head for most of the rest of the evening.

I'll keep digging 'til I feel something...
Elbow deep inside the borderline
Show me that you love me and that we belong together


"The Apprentice is the ultimate MacGuffin" - me, while listening to Nathan Cooper go through the 7 types of story (tragedy, comedy, monster, voyage, quest, rags-to-riches, and rebirth). Think about it - no-one remotely gives a shit who gets to work with Lord Sugar, that's just a device on which to hang their grotesque personalities and ego struggles.

Last word for Dave Bedwood, I think.

"You just have to be good".

Thanks to LBi for the free beer!