There’s a story I love about an ex student of mine.
He was very talented, very creative, and turned into a good copywriter.
He did some nice ads, and got a job at a really good agency.
The CEO of this agency was very rich and famous.
He noticed that Charlie Saatchi was into modern art.
This piqued his interest.
And he decided to get into modern art too.
So he visited all the galleries and saw lots of modern art.
Eventually he found a large brightly, coloured piece he liked.
It was an acrylic painting, made up of lots of small, brightly coloured squares.
He had it hung, in pride of place, in his office.
It was very impressive.
My ex student was thinking about this, one night after work in the pub.
When everyone else had gone home he went back into the agency.
He went to the press production office.
He took a Pantone book and a pair of scissors.
A Pantone book is made up of little swatches of every colour there is.
He took this book to the CEO’s office.
He held it up to the painting against the coloured squares.
Then he cut out some exactly matched squares from the Pantone book.
And he laid them on the carpet at the bottom of the picture.
Then he went home.
The next morning the CEO went into his office.
He stood admiring his new piece of modern art.
He called his PA in and pointed out to her the finer points of its artistic merit.
Then she asked, “What are those little coloured squares on the floor?”
He picked them up and examined them.
They were exactly the size and colour of the ones in his painting.
He said ominously to his PA, “Get the art dealer who sold me this painting on the phone.”
Calmly, he said to the dealer, “Look, I’ve got a bit of a problem with this painting you sold me.”
The art dealer asked what it was.
Controlling his anger, he said, “Some of the little squares have started falling off.”
The dealer said that wasn’t possible.
The CEO yelled, “Don’t tell me it’s not bloody possible, I’m sitting here holding the little coloured paper squares in my hand.”
The dealer said, “I’m sorry, but that can’t happen. That’s an acrylic painting. The squares can’t fall off, they’re painted on.”
The CEO went quiet.
Gradually the penny dropped.
He put the phone down.
This was embarrassing.
He’d been humiliated in front of his art dealer and his PA.
And subsequently, the CEO stopped collecting modern art.
And my ex student didn’t wait to get fired.
He quickly found himself another job.
Personally I thought what he did was very creative.
And what made it so creative was the simplicity.
The understatement.
He didn’t do, or say, anything.
He just left some little bits of coloured paper on the floor.
And let imagination do the rest.
I think we can learn a lot about the way the mind works from that.
And the human mind is our medium.
It wasn’t advertising, but it was very creative.
RSS Feed
Twitter
Email
http://twitter.com/twitqwotes/status/8179642660
That’s from today. Can be read both ways but still…
Ha ha ha. That’s great - and that, to me, is a lot better than the “Ideas Man” book I brought up in another post a few days back. I think this kind of mischief is not malicious. As opposed to what my ex-colleague did: hack into my office email and send rude messages to global directors. When asked, the prankster said, ‘it was all for fun. Where’s your sense of humour?’
tee hee!
Hi Dave,
This isn’t mischievous but thought you’d like it.
I’m in an Agency over in Hammersmith at the moment.
The kitchen here is quite small and gets messy pretty quickly.
After about 11 O’clock all of the teaspoons are dirty and piled up in the sink.
So when you go to make a tea or a coffee there aren’t any spoons to do the job.
The office manager has tried various tactics to solve the problem.
The first one felt a bit like a brand ad, it was a poster put up in the kitchen that said ‘Please keep the kitchen tidy, it’s for everyone’
11 O’clock the next day, the spoons were still dirty and in the sink.
Next he tried a viral approach and sent an e-mail asking everyone to pledge to keep the kitchen tidy. People signed up to it.
11 O’clock the next day, the spoons were still dirty and in the sink.
About a week ago he traced around a teaspoon, drew a face on it and wrote next to it. “Hi, I’m a teaspoon. I’m tired of you chucking my brothers and me into the sink everyday. Why don’t you wash me up and put me straight back. Simple.”
This was laminated and stuck on the counter next to the kettle.
The real spoon was then placed on top of the out lined spoon.
I think it’s a good idea. The planning’s good, (it’s not about the kitchen, it’s about the spoons). The media is perfect (next to the kettle) and the tone is fun (no one likes being told off).
Best of all, this little piece of laminated paper has changed the behaviour of the whole agency.
Since it was put there, every time you go to make a cuppa there’s always a clean teaspoon right next to the kettle.
Brilliant Jack,
Good story, nice analysis.
I may have to nick it.
Personify the spoon. I like it too.
Thanks for that Dave.
A great Matt story with a Hi-Gloss finish.
Oooh Jack. Kitchens.
I was working at an agency in Russia.
The staff were an explosive cocktail of expats:
The Russians hated the Germans with venom.
The Germans hated the Brits because they got on the Russians.
The Brits just took the money and went down the pub.
One day a German girl complained about the sink.
So the German MD bought a dishwasher.
The sink was still loaded with plates every day.
It infuriated the German girl so much she put a sign up.
Nothing changed.
One day she threw a spoon in the plate-filled basin with fury:
\Why don’t these stupid Russians use the dishwasher!!!
Can’t they see the sign I’ve written over the sink???\
The truth was, she couldn’t see the sign that was writtten over
every Russian’s face in the office saying \Go home.\
They didn’t like her, but I couldn’t tell her that, so
I just said; \You know, maybe they find the sign a bit
of an insult because it’s written in German and English.
Perhaps if you wrote it in Russian you would get a better response.
The logic overloaded her brain.
She wanted to kill me but she couldn’t because she knew for once
I was right.
Dave, This reminds me of a famous story about Ed McCabe. The details are sketchy but here goes. Ed needed a place to stay for a while, so Marvin Sloves, his partner, let Ed stay at his house in Westchester while Marvin was away. Marvin had a large wine collection that included many famous and expensive wines. As a prank, just before Marvin got back, Ed went to a liquor store and but a lot of cheap wine. Then he called Marvin and said he had thrown a party and opened some of Marvin’s wine. But what he had done was to dump all the cheap wine down the sink and he threw all the cheap wine bottles all over the front yard of Marvin’s house. Marvin came home and assumed Ed had thrown all his expensive wine bottles all over the lawn. Ed had to calm him down and show him it was all cheap wine and that his wine collection was intact. There’s no moral to this tory, it was just done for fun.
My first London agency was owned by Charles and Maurice.
And next to the lift hung one of the paintings Charles had acquired. In full view of every member of staff and every client.
Abstract. Spotches of paint. Bits of bare canvas. No frame, just the canvas tacked to the stretchers.
A masterpiece?
After an evening on the red infuriator down the Intrepid Fox, I lurched back to the agency.
Took down the picture with great care, and then hung it back on the wall.
Upside down.
And it stayed like that for the next two years. Still in full view of all the agency staff and all the clients.
Which goes to show that whether or not you’ve got talent, if no-one notices, it’s all academic.
Brilliant Tom,
Great story, I will definitely nick it.
It’s amazing the thinks we can think if only we try.