Author Archives: duncombe
Charting Creativity: Neurologically
Charting Creativity: Signposts of a Hazy Territory NY Times, Patricia Cohen, May 7, 2010 Grab a timer and set it for one minute. Now list as many creative uses for a brick as you can imagine. Go. The question is part of a classic test for creativity, a quality that scientists are trying for the [...]
Posted in research, science example Leave a comment
Art Power
Boris Guys, Art Power (MIT Press: 2008) “Art becomes politically effective only when it is made outside the art market — in the context of direct political propaganda.” [7] “Of course, one can easily argue that such propaganda art is simply political design- and image-making….They are making advertisements for a certain ideological goal — and [...]
Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising
“Thing is, you cannot truly quantify creativity. And in ever-increasing fashion, our clients’ (and our own) rote dependence on the dusty world of metrics is exactly why creativity is going to hell. When marketing decisions are based on numbers, we lose completely the desire to “waste” time being creative. And heaven forbid we ever again [...]
Posted in advertising example Leave a comment
Sublime Accidents
A public service ad for a seatbelt campaign in the UK, gone viral with lots of press too. Nice tension between beauty and horror. But if I didn’t before, will I wear a seatbelt now? Or does this serve the function of reinforcement? Or merely an e-mail forward as banal statement of concern? Hard to [...]
Posted in advertising example Leave a comment
A promise not satisfied
“Aesthetic art promises a political accomplishment that it cannot satisfy, and thrives on that ambiguity. That is why those who want to isolate it from politics are somewhat beside the point. It is also why those who want to fulfill its political promise are condemned to a certain melancholy.” Jacques Ranciere, “The Aesthetic Revolution and [...]
Posted in brain dump 1 Comment
Bottle Bank Arcade
OK, it’s essentially an off-beat ad campaign by Volkswagon, but it does say something about modeling social behavior through fun. Bottle Bank Video
Posted in advertising example Leave a comment
Test Marketing Michael Moore
NY Times article (9/20/09) on Michael Moore and how he tests the effect of his movies: < blockquote>“Although I’m trying to say things I want to say politically, I primarily want to make an entertaining movie,” he said. “If the art of the movie doesn’t work, the politics won’t get through.” To make sure the [...]
Posted in brain dump Leave a comment
Where’s Conservative Art? Crunchy Con
Asking our question (kind of) from the other side of the aisle. See especially the comments section. Where’s Conservative Art?
Posted in brain dump Leave a comment
Politcal Communications Strategy
Interesting blog piece from the Huffington Post from a political communications strategist about How To Win: Ill Communication: President Obama’s Misguided Health Care Strategy, by Ben Wyskida
Posted in brain dump Leave a comment
BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model