Juice box modified pears?
Photo: foodiggity.com
When creativity meets science, the possibilities are endless. As part of their new ad campaign to emphasize that their fruit juices are 100% natural, Brazilian juice company Camp Nectar grew fruit in the shape of juice boxes. Yes, you heard me correctly - real, natural fruit grown in the shape of the company's juice boxes, complete with impressions of the Camp Nectar logo and the bendable straw. The company then had these juice box-shaped fruits dispersed in the fruit bins throughout grocery stores as an eye-catching edible advertisement. The video below displays how the juice box fruits were created and it's nothing short of awesome. Props to Camp Nectar.
Snow as an art form
Photo: inhabitant.com
I recently came across a unique English artist, Simon Beck, who creates amazing works of art in vast snow fields. I can only imagine the sheer amount of patience and persistence required to create these impressively precise crop circle-like patterns. Using an orienteering compass and measuring tape to get his bearings and form the design, Beck then uses a clothes line and central anchor to create curves and circles. The final product is nothing short of amazing. I highly recommend taking a look at all of his snowscapes - he has a Facebook page devoted to his snow art where you can see all of his masterpieces, as well as higher contrasted versions of some of his designs. Creativity at its finest.
With Help Remedies, simplicity is key
Lately, instead of picking up my usual bottle of Advil or Benadryl from the pharmaceutical aisle, I've been buying the Help Remedies brand of cold medicine and pain relievers. I was first drawn to this brand because of its unique packaging...and the fact that it's $1.00. Upon opening my first blister pack of Help Remedies' acetaminophen ( called Help I have a headache), I noticed a funny one-liner above the drug facts: "Help I have a headache does not contain Red Dye #40. If you enjoy dye, you will have to eat it separately." Cute packaging? Check. Cheap? Check. Company with a sense of humor? Check. I'm officially sold on this new, random drug brand and have since done some investigating regarding their marketing tactics. The CEO of the company was tired of sifting through needlessly complex pharmaceuticals in the drugstores with names he couldn't pronounce, so he created Help Remedies. Simplicity being the most important factor, the brand's packaging names the one active ingredient and the symptom it treats: Help I'm nauseous, Help I have allergies, Help I can't sleep, etc. The straight forward labels make choosing the correct drug for your ailment 100% idiot-proof. Have a cold? Pick up Help I have a cold - done and done - no having to stand there and read 100 different labels. Complete with weird YouTube spots and an awesome interactive website, this is my new favorite brand.
Photo: theschumpeterproject.wordpress.com
“The perfect bum is the one you’re sitting on.”
Dove's Real Beauty campaign, which began in 2004, is one of my favorite campaigns to date. I'm a big proponent of honest campaigns that not only sell a product but send positive and uplifting messages. Advertising is a platform that can and should be used for good. The newest addition to Dove's Real Beauty campaign is a brilliant call to action. Before I continue, let me ask you a question: do you get as peeved as I do when you log in to your Facebook and find that your page is lined with ads for weight loss gimmicks and GIFs insisting that you need to shrink those thighs? Well, Dove Australia has decided to combat those self esteem-killing online ads with their Ad Makeover campaign. With Dove's Ad Makeover Facebook application, Australian women can go online and literally replace the negative media cluttering their Facebooks (and their friends' Facebooks) with body positive messages, courtesy of Dove. Check out this video to see how it works - I LOVE this idea and I hope it makes it across the ocean and into the States soon.
Do you need a Pintermission? Honda thinks so…
Photo: adweek.com
Over the past couple of months, companies left and right have been flocking to Pinterest, adding the virtual pin board to their laundry list of social media sites to maintain. In a previous post, I talked about how I thought Pinterest was essentially useless for companies/products that didn't revolve around "lifestyle" - fashion, food, decorating, beauty, fitness, etc. Well, I stand partially corrected. Honda (yep, the car manufacturer) has come up with one of the most clever ways to utilize Pinterest in a way that's relevant to their brand. Instead of pinning pictures of their cars - boring - they are asking you to take a "Pintermission." As part of its Leap List campaign for their CR-V they are encouraging people to live life to the fullest. How does Pinterest come into play? Honda's agency, RPA, "is offering $500 each to the most active pinners (as identified by Mashable) if they'll take a 24-hour break from Pinterest and actually go out and do the stuff they've been pinning about." The pinners who accept the challenge immediately receive the $500 and are asked to create a Pintermission board where they will pin photos of the stuff they do during their break from the site and then Honda will repin those pins onto their Pinterest board. The whole campaign is one giant oxymoron, which I love - I think it's a great tongue-in-cheek way to draw attention to the company. It's clear that Honda is in touch with what's popular and they manipulated Pinterest so that it works for them - that's smart.
Nature as a canvas
The idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is more than relevant when we're talking about art. Tastes in art range from traditional to contemporary to the absolutely bizarre. Art truly is in the eye of the beholder. However, if there's one thing every art-lover can agree on it's the innate beauty of nature. Andrew Goldworthy is an environmental artist based in Ireland. His work is especially unique and creative because his canvas is nature and he only uses materials provided by nature. I've never seen anything like this before and although his work may seem a little strange, there's no denying the exquisiteness of his "pieces." It's too bad you can't wrap up his work and take it home to place above your fireplace.
Would your pitch make the cut on The Pitch?
Photo: democracyofgoodideas.com
With the dozens of reality competitions that television offers - including fashion designing, modeling, singing, dancing, cooking, creating art and interior designing - it's no surprise that advertising has finally been added to the queue. With the return of AMC's Mad Men, it seems as though advertising has reclaimed a seat in the spotlight as one of the most glamorous and cutthroat professions. A sneak preview of a new reality show competition called The Pitch aired after this week's episode of Mad Men and I couldn't NOT watch. In the episode, two well-known agencies - McKinney and WDCW - competed against one another to create a winning ad campaign for Subway's breakfast menu. The agencies met with Subway's marketing director to get a feel for what the restaurant was hoping for in an ad campaign, which was to get the elusive 18-24 year-old demographic to eat breakfast at Subway, and after a ten-minute briefing the agencies parted ways and got to work on creating their pitches. I won't reveal any spoilers, but my only negative comment is that I wasn't all too impressed with the ideas tossed around during the brainstorming sessions. But, who am I to judge creativity? That said, I'm not a huge fan of WDCW's work in general (Does anyone else recall the awful Quizno's commercials with the hamsters? Um, yea...), but it was interesting to see the disparity between the creative processes of two very different agencies. You'll have to tune in to the actual premiere on April 30th to find out which group of creatives won, but I highly recommend this reality show. It's not only interesting, but also boasts more substance and legitimacy than, say, Fashion Star - don't even get me started on that one...
What’s white and white, and white, all over?
When you're perusing the grocery store aisles for your favorite carbonated beverage maybe you keep your eyes peeled until you see that famous red label with the white script, or perhaps you're a fan of that soft drink with the green and silver label. No matter your preferences, so much of what we know and love about our favorite brands is invested in their labels. I mean, yes, we love the taste of Coca Cola and that's why we drink it, but the red and white label is just so classically American - I guarantee there would be a worldwide uprising if Coca Cola decided to alter their label in any way. That said, would you be able to recognize your favorite brands if their labels were completely missing and were replaced with plain, stark-white "packaging?" Well, a strategic agent at Carbone Smolan Agency by day and a student at the SVA Master's in Branding program by night has taken it upon himself to paint famously branded objects white. For his "art project" he will select one branded object and paint it white; he will do this every day for 100 days, "removing all visual branding." Try your hand at identifying the label-less objects below and see how well you do!
Don’t judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes
Photo: mylifeistrue.org
If you need to feel inspired or reminded of the blessings in your own life, you should tune in to the My Life is True project. The thought-provoking My Life is True project invites you into the lives of ordinary people who volunteer their own profound trials and tribulations that resulted from the harsh economic times. Each person's story, produced by KQED, is no longer than two minutes and airs as public radio commentary on Perspectives and Marketplace. It's truly eye-opening to hear from people who have been on the front lines of the recession and survived. This project is a testament to Atticus Finch's famous words: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view; until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
Encouraging Creativity at Work
Author Jonah Lehrer has some news for you on those brainstorming meetings your boss thinks are so effective. They don't work. In fact, good ideas are more likely to come out of taking a walk...or a nap. Of course, I don't recommend asking your boss for a pillow and a blanket quite yet...
Lehrer's new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, talks about the science of creativity.
He indicates that scientists are discovering that creativity comes in unexpected flashes and not so much when forced.
In fact, he tells a story about Procter & Gamble's search for a better cleaning product for use with a common household mop. After years of trial and error where P&G chemists had tried to create a better mousetrap, er mop, executives handed the problem off to an outside firm.
Realizing that they didn't know more chemistry than the "innovation powerhouse" that was P&G's chemistry staff, the consultants decided to get out in the field and actually watch people in action. The first thing they discovered, after watching people mop floors for more than nine months, was that people were spending more time cleaning the mop than they were doing the actual mopping.
One day during a site visit, they surreptitiously spilled coffee on the floor to see how someone would clean it. Instead of using a mop, as this person claimed she always did, she grabbed a paper towel and cleaned up the mess.
This little action led these chemists to realize that it wasn't the soap/cleaning product that was the problem...it was the tool itself. This small discovery led to the creation of P&G's wildly successful Swiffer, which is not much more than a mop handle with a disposable cloth on the end. But, it's fast, effective, allows people to see how much dirt they cleaned off their floors, and (probably most importantly) eliminates the problem of having to get the tool itself clean, because you just throw out the cloth when you're done.
He also discusses mental illness and creativity...and the fact that successful creatives are more than 40% more likely to suffer from bi-polar disorder than the general population (that explains your nutter of a boss, right?).
I personally think one of the most interesting things that came out his recent NPR interview was age as it relates to creativity. Studies show there are actually creative peaks based on the field you're in...careful...if you read on you may realize you're in middle age or even past your prime!
- Physicist/Poet: late 20s/early 30
- Biologist: late 30s
- Historian: late 40s
However, he says, the loss of creativity is not inevitable, which is why some people can (and do) maintain their creativity for the duration of their careers.
Additionally, he talks about a recent study where scientists gave two groups of people a set of facts and asked them to come up with some solutions. The only difference is, one of the groups is told, as part of their instructions, to "...pretend you're seven years old."
The group that pretended to be seven years old solved more problems, even though they were only pretending for a few minutes. Simply by remembering what it's like to be a little kid, we're able to be more creative.
So, my takeaway lesson here is, to be my creative best in the office I need to wear a Hello Kitty T-shirt, leave one shoe untied, watch some more Phineas & Ferb, (re)read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and dig in the dirt...and the ideas will come!