The Two Best Strategies for Ideation

Glen O’Brien was a legendary writer, fashion icon, and cultural critic known most notably as the GQ Style Guy and the Host of TV Party.

Glen wrote regularly about advertising in Artforum and quickly became the Creative Director behind fashion powerhouses like Barneys and Calvin Klein.

O’Brien said the reason he was comfortable working for brands on Madison Avenue was because while art and advertising were once separated by a logo, the emergence of Pop Art stripped down the walls between these two outputs.

Somehow, that was not my favorite Glenism.

My favorite was about the two best things to do as you concept ideas.

The first, he said, was to create the greatest ad possible.

And the second was to create the worst.

At the end of 2019, the BBDO strategy team got together. We ate cake, shared pieces of work we were most jealous of from our colleagues, and, last but definitely not least, like every group of ad professionals we made predictions.

Some talked about brand purpose. Others went on about Tik Tok’s future.

Then it came to me. I had only been at the agency for a few months. My heart was beating, my face turned its normal crimson red. And I said it.

“I think more brands will come out with purposefully bad advertising next year.”

The room gasped. Not really. It just adds to the story.

Just one week earlier, Peloton had released its infamous A Gift Like No Other spot. In it, a young fit woman becomes tormented by her husband’s gift. For some reason, the spot concludes with her watching her own TV commercial.

The business world was calling it one the worst commercial of the year. Thought pieces were written. “Peloton Mom” trended across social media. Major TV stations discussed it. Other brands parodied the spot themselves.

And, yet, the company’s stock price rose nearly 5% on the Monday after its release.

So, I took the contrarian perspective behind my tomato of a face.

In a world where what you say isn’t as impactful as the fact that you said it, why couldn’t more brands stand out by producing purposefully bad advertising?

Fast forward a few months later and Burger King, the industry’s favorite client, released The Moldy Whopper to tell the world that it was removing all artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its signature product.

Let’s put this into perspective.

An iconic brand chose to show its most important product decaying over time.

Strategists everywhere hated it.

You’re a food brand and you decided to show your core offering going bad? How does that create impactful memory structures? How does that improve trust?

With all due respect to the Planning Community, I could not disagree more.

Burger King is the prototypical challenger brand. With so much space between them and their chief competitor, they must dive into insights and creativity in order to steal brain space, wallet share, and headlines from The Golden Arches.

And the results speak for themselves.

According to BK’s Chief Marketing Office Fernando Machado, the campaign achieved 8.4 billion organic media impressions by mid March.

The campaign reached awareness levels that were 50% higher than Burger King’s most recent Super Bowl work.

And “consideration to visitation” rates increased by 22.8%.

Let’s be clear.

I’m not Glen O’Brien.

I do not have the swag or the writing skills.

And I certainly do not have his knack for artistic prophecy.

However, if there’s only thing I have learned from Glen it’s that developing your own perspective on art, creativity, and people, even if that perspective looks crazy to most, is the only way to leave your mark.

If you don’t believe me, ask Tommy Wiseau.

A man who created “the worst movie of all time” with a $6 million budget and just $1,800 at the box office transformed his film into a cult-obsession and, ultimately, an award-winning Hollywood movie starring James Franco.

Creativity is, and will always be, subjective.

The true sign of creative success is when your work elicits an emotion.

Not a box office number. Not a sexy headline. Not even critical acclaim.

Just a simple answer to an even simpler question.

Did you feel something?

When Oatly was faced with an enormous lawsuit from the milk industry in its home of Sweden, the “best idea” would’ve been to change its slogan.

Instead, they did the opposite by publishing the 700-page lawsuit in print publications across the country. Sales soared overnight and the provocative idea catapulted the brand into a position ready for a lucrative U.S. entrance.

In advertising, we have forgot this question of emotion and replaced it with one of ROI.

In reality, the only metric of success we should quantify is memorability.

Because if you remember the ad, you had to have felt something, regardless of what that feeling might have been.

So the next time your client gives you a challenge, keep that in mind.

And maybe advocate for the PeloMom to make out with Tommy while eating a moldy hamburger to solve whatever that client challenge may be.

I’m kidding.

That’s a joke.

Or is it?