A few lessons from Elvis, Jacko and Johnny Cash.

re: A few lessons from Elvis, Jacko and Johnny Cash.

MARTIN HARRISON — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:05:06 GMT

Your point, while beautifully expressed, is an old one, as Mark demonstrates with the old camel quote. Equally, you could say "Why hire a dog and bark yourself?". When I was in Account Management, I used to impose a blanket ban on the phrase "What do you think?". Never ask that question of anyone. Much better to outline why something is brilliant then say "Don't you agree?". Ask someone what they think and they way they demonstrate their intelligence is by disagreeing with something.

Anyway, I went to your IPA talk the other week, Rory, the one on the social brain. Surely this is exactly the type of issue that could be tackled using some of the thinking behind behavioural economics? If this process is producing less effective outcomes, how do we go about changing the process, given that we know it is difficult not to intervene?

re: A few lessons from Elvis, Jacko and Johnny Cash.

Mark Pearson, TDA — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:17:39 GMT

Great comments, as usual, Rory. Reminds me of Mini-creator Sir Alec Issigonis’ quote: ‘a camel is a horse designed by committee’.

Surely one of the roles of a creative director is to find the best people, hire them, and let them do the job.

re: A few lessons from Elvis, Jacko and Johnny Cash.

James T Kirk — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:26:00 GMT

Interesting parallels with Steve Henry's latest post, Rory. I guess that, in advertising, the skill comes in anticipating when a strategy/campaign is about to outlive its usefulness, rather than after it is clear that it aleady has.

re: A few lessons from Elvis, Jacko and Johnny Cash.

Charles Frith — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:13:06 GMT

Johnny Cash and Iatrogenic. Quintessential Rory.

There's something Buddhist in that whole non interventionist line of thinking which I've never fully appreciated before.