Hasta La Creative!

At the office, the other creatives and I were working on some concepts for a potential client, bouncing witty to wacky ideas around when someone rained on the parade with “let’s be sure not to get too smart or clever for the general public,” and then sighs and “aww man”s filled the office because we all knew the glum-chum was right. There, the creative juices no longer flowed but leaked, the witty banter withered, and the beautiful minds were bound.

But, I ask you, where is the bar set when it comes to the general public’s “clever threshold”? When is clever too clever? How much wit can a creative expend before going over the heads of said general public? And who constitutes the “general public”? So that you have a better idea of where I’m coming from, we were working on  an online video for a workout product. Should we run with stereotypes and assume our target audience is nothing more than meatheads whose I.Q. is far less than the dumbbells he curls? Or the ditzy blondes who wear open toe shoes so they can count up to 20?

That seems rather unfair. I’ve met individuals who are plenty smart and capable of bench-pressing me for a warm up as well as individuals who’ll count my fingers when the weather’s cold. A tricky game this advertising business is. Here are a few demonstrations of clever advertising that the “general public” may have missed:

Did you get them all? Are you an advertising maven? On a scale of 1-100 where does the “general public’s” “clever threshold” rank? I’m just full of questions in this post, so maybe I’m just not as smart as I think I am. Damn it, what’s my clever threshold?

Tommy Liu, the man, the legend (to be) wields his pen of creativity against the injustice of mediocriety plaguing the world as the Creative Officer at Supercool Creative where he also manages the blog. Click here to view some of his battles (he doesn’t always win).