Five Worst Creative Cliches

Next time you make a creative presentation, if you would like to avoid eye rolls and sudden creative death syndrome (SCDS), here are 5 ways not to describe your idea:

1. Aspirational: Sounds like it's having trouble breathing.

2. Edgy: Edgy was edgy in 1998. Edgy no longer edgy.

3. Hard-hitting: This means "We did exactly the kind of dumb-shit idea you wanted, Ms. Client. Aren't we good at kissing ass?"

4. Quirky: Quirky means almost funny. There's nothing less funny than something that's almost funny.

5. Anything-At-All-About-YouTube (AAAAY): There are about 624 million videos on YouTube. The chance of your quirky, edgy video getting any sort of attention is one in, um... 624 million.

Please send your favorite creative cliches to adcontrarian@gmail.com and we'll post 'em.

The Yellow and Brown Process

Prospective clients want to believe that there is a method to the madness.

More and more, success in winning new clients is not about the effectiveness of the advertising you create, but about how clever you are at articulating a convincing process behind your creative endeavors.

Well, there are processes for doing just about everything an agency does. But when it comes to creating ideas, sorry, there ain't no process. I once asked marketing icon Jack Trout how much of his success was due to his process and how much to inspiration. He said 95% inspiration.

Don't get me wrong, we all pretend there's a process (see Precision Guessing.) We have to. Clients insist. We sometimes even give it a name...oops, sorry...I mean, we brand it.

A prospective client once asked me what process I used to create an ad he particularly liked. I told him I used the "Yellow and Brown" process. He seemed excited, "Really? What's the 'Yellow and Brown' process?"

"I took a legal pad with me to the bathroom."

We didn't get the account.

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