It's Friday night, which means it's my chance to engage in a little random thinking (and just think, Friday night used to mean club night). But these days, it's how I indulge myself in a little personal luxury. This may seem like a small thing to call a luxury, but actually, it's not. Random thinking is thinking about...whatever, sans the pressure of decision-making or prioritizing. A random thought that I just had is "what does thinking outside the box really mean?'
I know what it's supposed to mean; being creative, unconventional, even fearless. But it seems that this phrase is used all the time. At work, bosses are always saying things like, "you need to think outside the box" or "around here, we think outside the box". Advertisers tell us to think outside the box and buy their products. Politicians promise to think outside the box to find solutions. It just seems that everyone is thinking outside the box, or at least they're claiming to do so.
But how much outside the box thinking are we really doing? Has the term gone from being a call to creativity to nothing more than motivation speak for employers? Or another one of Madison Avenue's successful catchphrases? Or just a people-pleasing platitude spoken on the campaign stump? Of course I'm generalizing, because there are certainly companies, both large and small that enjoy successful breakout marketing and advertising campaigns. A great example of an outside the box ad campaign is the Old Spice commerical series. It was a bold move to abandon the old captain, in favor of a sexy, semi-clothed, young man (of color). The creatives behind this ad didn't even make the product the focus of the ad. And of course their shrewd use of social media catapulted the ads into the stratosphere and atop many industry lists as being the best ad of 2010.
But success stories don't happen because of some declaration of outside the box thinking. I'm convinced that true outside the box thinking is demonstrated when we conceive new ideas, methodologies or strategies; resist fear in our planning and execution, and show true courage by being committed to them.
Just a random thought.
2 comments:
I think if advertisers want people to stop fast forwarding through the commercials, they will have to continue to think outside of the box like this. Gotta give people a reason to stop!
Of course you're right. I think that the industry is so insular and they are so focused on profit that creativity is too often shut out of the process.
Thanks for posting.
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