"Another word for creativity is courage."
- George Prince
I must admit that I have a GUILTY PLEASURE… I love "The 'Celebrity' Apprentice." I love the concept of challenging SUCCESSFUL celebrities to work in groups, forge creativity and execute effectively with one another. It is like throwing a steak amongst a group of dogs and seeing who comes out on top!
Yet, to Mr. Trump, I do have a CRITIQUE. Last night, the show FAILED based on its sponsor, Australian Gold tanning lotions. Their executives asked for CREATIVITY, BRANDING and INTERACTION with a marketing campaign. One group delivered a beach theme – ho hum – filled with sand and sun concepts (doesn't that SCREAM creativity?!), while the other played off a pirate theme, with the "Gold Booty" being the product (which was a HUGE success with client interaction, aka "sales").
The team that WON was (you guessed it) the creative genius of a… BEACH THEME! Holy effin cow poop! You have to be kidding me!! Creativity is RECREATING someone's tired, traditional, boring expected campaign?!?! Australian Gold… YOU SUCK!!
2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
As leaders, we often ask for "out of the box" thinking, only to prove ourselves unable to LET GO enough to allow people the capacity to truly be creative.
When you ask for "creative," you had better have an open mind of what your final GOAL is. If it is to create increased INTERACTION and an untraditional campaign achieves that with positive review, then it would seem to REASON that you ACHIEVED your goal! If you do not like the theme, and still achieved your goal, maybe you SHOULD change YOUR attitude about creativity…
Quit being a DICTATOR. Stop being a HYPOCRITE. If you want creative – allow it to happen. If you want "YES MEN" to execute your boring, bland ideas, hire more admin staff. Stop wasting good talent on crap… because the rest of us are ACTUALLY looking for real talent!
Shame on you Australian Gold and your BORING, executive "know-it-all's." Shame.
Cheers,
Zach
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