Creativity is more than breaking rules.

Similarly, Joseph Heller was able to break rules of English grammar in his book, Something Happened (Scribner, 1974), only because he was intimately familiar with them. Having taught English at University of South Carolina, he was a master of grammar. And only out of his expertise could he creatively exploit, expand and redefine boundaries of grammar. And so it is with regard to thinking outside box.

Thinking outside box apart from being able to think inside box is worthless.

Such thought is just plain sloppy. Thus, suggestion that creativity lies in ability to think outside box is mostly nonsense. Creativity issues from talent, ability and discipline. Talent must be forged and shaped on anvil of discipline in order to develop ability. Great ability is always result of study, discipline and practice.

Creativity is more a matter of seeing that boxes themselves are inadequate and suggesting a better arrangement or a better definition. Creativity doesn't simply discard boxes, it redefines and/or rearranges them after becoming intimately familiar with them. Real creativity is always fruit of discipline and order. Creativity, in order to be genuinely creative and not simply sloppy disorganization, must emerge out of discipline and order as an intentional effort.

While a creative idea often comes unbidden out of unexpected places, it requires discipline, study and order to make something of it. Apart from discipline and order, what passes for creativity is nonsense, and to suggest otherwise actually undermines and/or weakens creative process.

What does this mean for our industry? Distributors and suppliers should apply themselves to mastering basics before attempting to break rules in name of creativity. Don't start outside box. First, establish your ability to think within box. Master rules before you suggest breaking them. For example, before a distributorship presents a wild, innovative concept to a client for a campaign, it should first establish its expertise with campaigns and/or ideas that have a track record of yielding good ROI. Designers, artists, and copy writers should establish their mastery of basics before experimenting outside box. For most part important stuff is inside box.

©2002 Phillip A. Ross

The moral logic goes like this: if everyone in a particular culture accepts something or some way of doing or saying something, then it must be okay. If they don’t, appealing to it will be offensive. And if something is commonly loved or adored, appealing to it, suggesting it, or associating with it will illicit feelings of love and adoration. In addition, we find that advertisements are being used to change social values, ostensibly to make their products more acceptable. But values and morals of advertisers are being foisted upon public in process. What “makes sense” to owners and advertisers is communicated through ads. And it is being done through an appeal to popularity.

Appeal To Popularity The word popular literally means of people, or by people, and even for people—the populus. Thus, an appeal to popularity always requires and carries moral and political overtones. That is to say that all advertising is necessarily political, as well as moral. The point of this discussion is to demonstrate that advertising industry and its people are endowed with greater moral responsibility than average bear, simply because of what they do for a living, like it or not.

We began by talking about state of world, moral crisis that currently engulfs United States of America. For instance, consider Enron and unfolding fiasco of corporate scandal, graft and corruption at highest levels of American society—the levels at which advertising is determined. Owners and CEOs establish or approve advertising polities.

Or consider alcoholism and substance abuse that runs rampant in every community, large or small, urban, rural or suburban. Or consider blatant sexual promiscuity that saturates both media and corporate world. What effect, if any, do you suppose that our moral crisis has in minds of faithful Muslims? Or in minds of anyone concerned about honesty, integrity or justice? Might this be related to our war on terrorism?

See The Mosque to Commerce: Bin Laden's special complaint with World Trade Center, by Laurie Kerr, See The Mosque to Commerce: Bin Laden's special complaint with World Trade Center, by Laurie Kerr, http://slate.msn.com/id/2060207/

Responsibilty Regardless of who is responsible for moral morass in which we find our nation, we can each take responsibility for not contributing to problem. If we can’t make things better, we can at least do everything we can to keep them from getting worse.

People in advertising industry, and particularly creative people—designers, artists, and writers—face a moral dilemma every day, just by very nature of work they do. To fail to recognize it as a moral concern is itself immoral or amoral, neither of which are morally neutral positions. As influencers of social morality, we can accept our responsibility and take high road by appealing to moral virtues, like maturity, honesty, integrity, character, industry and excellence. Or we can take low road and appeal to what we call in our house adolescent values of bump and grind, values that imply, are associated with, or suggest sexual promiscuity, violence, destruction, dishonesty, lust, greed and laziness.

Neither list is comprehensive.

As old saying goes, you can be part of problem, or part of solution. This is a free country. It’s your choice.

©2003 Phillip A. Ross