Does originality matter?
I’m sure we’ve all seen the latest T-mobile flashmob TV ad – and this post is not about that ad per se. Rather it’s about the debate that seems to have sprung up around it.
Because the professionals seem to hate the ad, but the public just love it.
Look at the advertising blogs and you’ll see the same criticism again and again – “unoriginal”, “seen it all before”, “old hat”, “rip off”, etc.
For it’s worth, I don’t like it either, for much the same reasons. There are at least three other flashmob-type events at the very same station on YouTube. And there are far too many obvious stooges in the ad for my liking and not nearly enough ‘ordinary’ people joining in, which is what flashmobbing is supposed to be about.
But as I say, that’s not really the point of this post. The question is, how important is originality?
We ‘professionals’ hold it very dear indeed. But it seems the punters couldn’t care less about borrowed ideas. Over 4.5 million hits so far on YouTube with almost universal approval.
You have to say that’s pretty impressive. People are clearly engaging with it, passing it on, copying it, enjoying it.
So why are we so obsessed with originality? I know many of us would rather poke our eyes out with a stick than admit we have anything to do with actually selling stuff. But have we gone too far down the road of “actually we’re artists, actually, and original thinking is the most important measure of artistic merit and creativity, actually”?
The people we’re aiming this stuff at don’t really seem to give a toss if something has been done before. They just want to be entertained, amused, informed and delighted.
I’m sure I remember reading somewhere that Ogilvy claimed originality was less important than appropriateness in advertising. And perhaps it is just a measure of our discomfort at being labelled salesmen that leads to our obsessive pursuit of the unique.
Or does originality matter? And if so, why?
Damien Parsonage
Saw it again at the cinema last night and I think it’s brilliant — memorable, new, funny and, yes, ashamedly populist. It’s nice to see a mobile phone ad that’s not cast entirely with 20-something models, set in Barcelona and rammed with CGI.
Is originality overrated? I know it’s easier to say “seen that before” as a dismissive aside, than it is is to think whether it’s “a new way of doing that” or “a new way of using that image.” Originality should draw a) a response from the consumer and b) a response from creatives “how did they think of that?”