The advertising industry was, hitherto, attuned to `out-of-the-box' thinking to get creative ideas. Now, a new tool-TRIZ-may be adopted to think linear and devise compelling marketing decisions. Let us move on to learn `in-the-box' thinking.Creative thinking is not a talent; it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities, which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits. The creativity guru Edward de Bono would appreciate the ability of advertising agencies to produce humorous advertisements. But why is humor in advertising so important? Is it an indicator of something more profound than just being someone's sense of humor or possession of a funnybone?
The linkage between humor, creativity, intelligence and ultimately innovation is of significant importance today. The effective use of humor in advertising is also a case of innovative thinking: Figure 1, overleaf, shows an interesting advertisement for an adhesive product Fevicol. The storyboard, a man passes by a Fevicol banner painted on a shop's shutter, his shadow that falls on to the Fevicol logo and gets stuck to the logo to the amazement of that person. Funny it is, but what does that have to do with innovation. A good joke in itself has the ability to offer the listener the lateral shift from a linear thought process, i.e., the joke leads the thinker linearly, but ultimately does a paradigm shift or a lateral shift, bringing a different perspective to the context; this gives the out-of-the-box or the `eureka' experience.Is creativity a trait people are born with or can it be cultivated through sustained training? There is evidence that points to the ability of the human brain to learn lateral thinking but the conditioning has to begin early in life. Still, there is nothing to despair; old dogs do learn new tricks. |
