SoreThumbThinking #4 - The Scientist

Re-blog

I've always wondered if being a scientist isn't closer to being an artist than most people think! What I mean is that we have to be incredibly creative in our experimental designs and particularly imaginative when we analyse data and need to find a meaning out of black and white lines!

I’ve always found that scientists despite their geekiness and nerdy looks could be super creative. When I was one of them (actually, I still am a scientist, it’s a way of life really…), I would see countless videos of fellow scientists parodying songs to depict the true life of lab researchers.

But of course, this goes completely against what we all know, which is that the left brain is the analytical, practical, organised and logical (i.e. Science) side; and the creative, passionate, arty part sits on the right side of the brain.

How do we then explain why scientists spend hours and hours pouring their hearts out and losing their minds over scientific enigmas if there is no passion and poetic craziness involved?

Although there is some truth to the left brain/right brain distinction, there is undeniably a more complex relationship between both sides of our brain.

(If you have time to watch it, this is a very interesting video… and his voice is very addictive!) 
 
For example, on the neuroscience of creativity, latest findings by neuroscientists have now shown that the entire creative process – from preparation to incubation to illumination to verification – consists of many interacting cognitive processes (both conscious and unconscious) and emotions.

Depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions from both the right and the left side are recruited in large-scale networks to handle the task.

So if we accept that science is not just the left side of the brain and can be interlinked with the artistic potential of an individual, could it be considered as a mean for influential creativity?
From my own definition: “Influential creativity is about connecting with an audience on a personal, emotional or practical level; it is about understanding their lives, getting comfortable with them and letting them know that you are there to make them feel better, or be better, or make them question themselves by providing them with an emotion, an ideal, a service, or a product.“
I do think you could apply this definition to the concept of science by saying: “Science is about connecting on a practical level, understanding lives, and it is there to make us question ourselves by providing us with both emotions and product i.e. knowledge.”
What do you think? Is it too farfetched?

SoreThumbThinking #3 - Hypnotize

Hello Beautiful Creature,

This post is a Re-blog from my company's employees' blog. I would like to share with you what I write over there. Feel free to visit it as well :)

Hypnotize

Have you ever read a book that makes you enter a trance and nothing can quite get you out of it?
I’m into such book at the moment. In fact, I have been for a month or so, ever since I discovered Liane Moriarty’s novels. I already devoured 3 of her books, am famished to finish this one and cannot wait to feast on her earlier titles!
Enough with the eating metaphor and let me tell you about the one I’m reading at the moment which is about hypnotherapy!

I e-read so, very conveniently, I can highlight sentences whenever I’m wowed by her insights – which happen to be quite often with her! One such quote I recently highlighted was the following:

‘From the moment we’re born, everyone is hypnotizing us. We are all, to some degree, in a trance. Our clients think we’re “putting them to sleep” but our ultimate goal is the opposite!’

And that is one of those things that made me stop reading!

 'From the moment we are born, everyone is hypnotizing us' - TWEET THIS

I got out of my own reading trance, my neurons firing new messages, telling me I should think about that for a minute.
Now I’m reading this sentence through my copywriter-in-a-healthcare-advertising-agency’s eyes and I’m reminded of the BIGGER PICTURE:

‘Our clients think we’re “putting them to sleep” but our ultimate goal is the opposite!’

As a creative agency, we are trying to shake our clients up, hypnotize them into unreservedly trusting us to create better advertising for their drugs. Why? Because

‘Their clients (GPs, HCPs, etc…) think they’re “putting them to sleep” but their ultimate goal is the opposite!’

‘Yes, there is a lot of money involved but here is a drug that can save more lives or increase quality of life, you do whatever you want with this information but please make the right decision by your patients, because

Your patients think you’re “putting them to sleep” but your and our ultimate goal is the opposite!’

At the count of 3, you will wake up and feel refreshed, 1… 2… 3… Discuss!

(The title of this post refers to a song, can you guess what it is?)

 See you Soon,

SoreThumbThinking #2 - Roses Are Red

Hello Beautiful Creature,

This post is a Re-blog from my company's employees' blog. I would like to share with you what I write over there. Feel free to visit it as well :)

Roses are Red

I’m new to the advertising world.
Not that I’ve never watched/been intrigued/shocked/appalled by TV adverts… But now, it’s my job to transform complicated medical data into appealing, exciting, influential information while being uncompromisingly scientifically accurate!!!
To do the best job possible, ideally I need to come up with ‘fresh’ ideas, to quote John Hegarty. However, as he explained his book:

‘Your idea only exists in relation to another idea’
‘In fact, the value of an idea is in how it draws its inspiration from the world around us and then reinterprets it in a way we haven’t seen before.

‘Hegarty on Creativity’ by John Hegarty

So naturally, I’m looking around… I am more attentive to ads on TV, on the tube, the bus, youtube, etc…
And what I came up with recently is that in the advertising world, we can encounter dramatically opposite messages that would still appeal to anyone and everyone in this day and age:

1. SUPER FRESH: The Coca-Cola ad on the Social Media Guard

2. Fresh-ish EE’s Kevin Bacon “It’s a no Brainer” advert
‘It’s a no brainer’ is the perfect opposite to the above Social Media Guard.
While EE and Kevin Bacon promote the possibility of accessing the same network whatever device each family member uses, Coca-Cola promotes bringing people together by guarding family members from the restricted view of a cyber world.

3. Not so Fresh (once you know about 1. and 2.) Vodafone Power to the family 
Vodafone latest TV advert is all about sharing important moments with family thanks to our increasing inter-connectivity. Power to the family encourages multi-generations to work better together, stay open about those all-important family values ie. stay “connected”.


Somehow, all three of them could appeal to anyone because although we think that we all need a reliable internet broadband, we also would like to respect traditional values.

Now, the tricky question: would you be able to choose the one that appeals to you the most? Did the execution determine your choice or did the message?

The title of this post refers to a song, can you guess which and why I chose it?

See you Soon,

SoreThumbThinking #1 - Imagine There's No Right Track Baby

Re-blog

When I asked my mum and friends about what influential creativity meant to them, they all said something different; my mum said “Oh well, it’s advertising, isn’t it?” whereas my friend who’s a professional singer confidently said “It is Music!”

Have you ever asked yourself what influences you in this world?

Are we even aware of what influences us? Some of us will say “Yes, that’s why I’m taking control of what I put on and in my body”. But even then aren’t we influenced by a new movement that dictates us to lead a more natural way of living?

And this is my point, influential creativity is all around us, from everything we see and hear. People who want or need to creatively influence you will go about doing it differently depending on their own surroundings and influences, and will choose a certain vector they will be comfortable with to convey their message.

For example, music is a big influence in my life. From the beat to the lyrics, I feel and love songs for different reasons. Some songs are more influential than others, either to me, you or the world. I associate songs to moods and life events. And when I have to recall events, I’ll usually first remember which songs I was listening to at the time.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to do that though, am I?


Some songwriters are more influential than others for different reasons, and sometimes for reasons we can’t even explain because we weren’t touched by the message or weren’t the targeted audience.
An example of influential songwriter could be Stephanie Germanotta.

How many of us knew of her existence when she was an unremarkable-looking piano player and not the Lady Gaga we now know?

She wasn’t getting her messages across so she chose to alter her looks and do all sorts of attention-seeking stuff to draw us within her world of music. I’m not saying there are hidden messages in her songs, but even if she’s not your cup of tea, you can’t deny that through her extraordinary attires and catchy tune “Born this way” she was trying to use influential creativity to make us feel and behave differently… Beyond the act of buying her album.

In earlier days, other songwriters didn’t have to go to such length to achieve a similar goal. I’m thinking about John Lennon and his iconic song “Imagine”.

The goal of “Imagine” was and still is to make you think about what the world could be if we stopped focusing on borders, religions, and material possessions. Is it working? Obviously not at the moment but John Lennon’s song still appeals to people because we all want to live in peace, it’s an ideal we would all like to reach. John Lennon used his influential creativity to make us question ourselves in the hope that it would make us behave differently.


How we use creativity to influence our surroundings through music, art or advertising, to me, is about connecting with an audience on a personal, emotional or practical level; it is about understanding their lives, getting comfortable with them and letting them know that you are there to make them feel better, or be better, or make them question themselves by providing them with an emotion, an ideal, a service, or a product.

And there you have it, what influential creativity means to me!

But what about you? What are the first words that come into your mind when you hear “influential creativity”?

(The title of this article is a mash up of 2 songs, can you guess which? Clues are in the post)

SoreThumbThinking

SoreThumbThinking is a independent blog by employees of PAN Unlimited..., the healthcare advertising agency branch of Creston Health.

The Blog started a few months ago and as a blogger and employee of PAN, I was invited to write for it.
I was a bit skeptic at first: I'm good at writing crap on my life, and smart things on Science but never had to write essays-like article on advertising and influential creativity.

When I went through the interview process for this job, I had to prepare a presentation on what influential creativity meant to me. It was an exhilarating thing to do having so far only written on Science subjects!

To keep a record of my writing efforts for that particular blog, I'm going to re-blog my articles.