The banality of advertising confounds me. As a viewer, I wonder sometimes whether ad producers think I'm stupid. Or is it that they desperately want to instill new values in me? Or is it that their creative juices have stagnated?

Some tv commercials tell me that I need to do more cleaning, after I buy all this stuff for my backyard. Some tell me that an unearthly green lawn should be my goal. Others tell me that masking scents is the way to go, forget cleaning. None of these ads have convinced me to buy. Instead their banal attempts frustrate me. Is this all you've got in your arsenal?

Book covers in a particular genre replicate a common theme. If word of mouth hasn't caught your attention for a specific book, then publishers attempt to grab your attention with covers. So how do you decide on the next romance book to read when they all sell the same sexy look?

The internet's vastness beckons the masses. Searching for information is the primary motivator. What else pulls you into a website? Have you noticed that so many websites look the same? "They can't all look different", I admonish myself.

Where do we find new ideas when everything's been already done? Or has it all been done before? The problem is most designers or creative teams are stuck in one particular time period, the one where they came of age. No problem if the designer is in their early twenties; their advertising ideas are probably fresh. They can turn out innovate ideas.

Yet what happens when their new ideas are no longer new? Everyone is comfortable with their coworkers at the advertising agency, the communications department, or the publishing house. They constantly push reworked creative ideas out the door. Over time it gets kind of old. Why would a supervisor fire team player when s/he had good ideas in the past? Good people are hard to find, especially decent coworkers.

Therein lies our conundrum. Everyone is just way too comfortably secure. Butterflies of daring no longer permeate the advertising department. How can we bring back originality into advertising? We need to hire young people, very young people.

Hire an eighteen year old who does not know it can't be done, or hasn't been done. New ideas will emanate from youth. You will face two challenges as the boss. The first is to cultivate the young person to meet your deadlines. The second is to protect this young person from constraints and jaded opinions, including your own. You will experience stomach butterflies again when you strive to meet these challenges. But your reward if you can remain open and responsive to youthful ideas will be advertising originality.

May 19, 2013