they say all ideas are borrowed from somewhere and as we are in the ideas business i wondered if
there is any credibility in copying? Can you become original by adding your own creativity to something you have copied? Or is this theft...I saw these Lego pictures and thought they were truly original. But really they are a simple recreation of past events.
In a industry where agencies benefit from both parodying popular culture and on the other hand inspiring it, is there any credibility in throwing an idea out there that has been thrown at you?
5 comments:
We live in a recycle culture. The skill is to repackage in an original way with a current spin. Even Newton admitted he had "built on the shoulder's of giants". Without cultural reference, does anything really make sense?
I was reading the novel Self Help by Edward Docx recently and there is a chapter which is written in a style reminiscent of rthe Bob Dylan song It's Alright Ma (I'm only bleeding). If you get that cultural reference your enjoyment of the story is enhanced - given the story is about the relationship between mother and children. Of course, Docx was 'copying' Dylan, he was drawing upon the song as a refernce. Which is what good advertising does. My enjoyment of Sony Balls was enhanced when I came across a film of an artist doing the ad as a stunt in Rome. I'm not even 100% sure which came first and I'm not sure I care. Looking for inspiration in more original works of art isn't a bad thing as long as you are honest about what you are doing - and pay the artist if necessary.
Not an original post (to prove a point of sorts) but I like this view from a Times blogger....
"Advertising agencies have always proudly built their business models on the notion that they are producers of original creative ideas, which they sell to their clients to build their brands, help sell stuff and win awards.
Ad people are stereotypically seen as being a bit off the wall. They tend to think laterally and pitch up to presentations in the client’s oak-paneled boardroom wearing a FCUK t-shirt and sporting bad hair, because they’re ‘the creative people’ and it’s kinda expected.
But at the heart of it all, advertising is not about winning creativity awards, but is meant to facilitate the growth of the company’s brand who has paid a large amount of money for it. As long as the produced piece of communication delivers on it’s objective, who really cares if Vernon Koekemoer becomes the official spokeman for every single blue chip South African company. Or if a large cellular service provider takes direct inspiration for its series of ads from successful creative clips found on Youtube. There is really no such thing as an original creative idea. New ideas come from a mashup of a number past ideas morphed into something new and ultimately (with a little luck) more successful than the previous concepts.
Original ideas are overrated. If a wheel has already been invented, the creative evolution is not to rethink the thing, but to put a Bugatti Veyron on top of it and go very fast."
And if you don't know who Vernon Koekemoer is, Google him, it's an interesting story.
yeah, i agree! The ability to build and move fast is much better than wasting time trying to come up with something 'original'. Innovation to serve a brief is what we should strive for, not creativity for creativity's sake.
Wow, Vernon Koekemoer. most interesting is his dress sense.
http://radiodeconstruction.blogspot.com/2008/03/who-fuck-is-vernon-koekemoer-anyway.html
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