Finding Inspiration for Ads from Ads.

As a creative I spend most of my time surfing the net (between thinking and pointlessly "brainstorming" of course). As a self-confessed nerd I probably spend more time online than most. This blog being a notable by-product of said nerdiness. When I began my career I frequented the usual haunts of the junior creative: adsoftheworld, bestadsontv, and ad-critic (because someone else paid for it). Three years on they still rate highly on my inspiration go-to list. They still inspire me, it's just how they inspire that has changed.

I've read many books about advertising, most of which advise you not to spend too much of time reading about or looking at advertising (there's a head f**k right there). They recommend you experience things external to advertising, then use these experiences to approach a problem in a new way. I don't wholly disagree with this part. Some go as far as suggesting the great ad-man or woman, lives completely outside of the world of advertising; a near-ethereal being, immune to capitalistism and consumerism. I strongly disagree with this part as much as I disagree with the idea of the advertising creative as an "artist", but lets leave that rant for another time.

You must look at advertising to understand advertising. Yes, looking a brilliant piece of film by a genius such as Chris Cunningham or Michel Gondry can spark the greatest idea of your career and sound a lot cooler in a pub with your fellow creatives, but when you're struggling to crack that brief you've been working on for a few weeks, simply seeing an ad that has already overcome such obstacles can do wonders for the creative mind. Looking at how an ad has "cracked" a difficult brief, repositioned an established brand, adopted a completely fresh visual approach to a cliched concept, or re-invented a old fuddy brand can spark the eureka moment you've been waiting for. The difference however, is how you look at advertising.

It took me a little while to realise that when experienced creatives recommend you find inspiration outside of advertising, they did not mean for you never to look at ads ever again, you just have to look at advertising in a different way. Or put simply: DON'T COPY.

Our industry is small and insular. Rip-offs will be spotted in seconds. An example of this happened just recently in the Cannes Junior Lions competition. This is something I spotted immediately and I'm only 3 years in the job, and never been on a jury of any kind. A complete noob by any standards.

Here is an ad uploaded by eikosia for the competition:



And here is an ad created 4 years ago that won at Cannes:



Look familiar?

When a junior (or anyone for that matter) looks at an ad they need to look at it and think about the how the solution was solved, not how it was executed. How did the original creators distill such a complex thought into a simple and elegant solution? How did they sell it in? How did they manufacture a brilliant ground-breaking solution that was also relevant to the audience it was targeting.

Transplanting somebody else's idea onto a new product never works. When looking at advertising for inspiration it should come from the thought process behind the ad not the execution.

Do you agree, do you think I'm talking a pile of s**t, or being unnecessarily harsh? Let me know.