The importance of staying childish
I’ve always hated timesheets. Little square boxes in which I put a number that says how long I spent thinking of an idea to go in another square box. They’ve always felt like the opposite of creativity, and while I can see the use in them for project management types, I can’t see the use in them for me. And that makes me sad.
Timesheets are one of many things we have to do more of as we advance in our careers, and one of many things that takes us further away from the thing we were any good at in the first place. In order to stay good at whatever it is, I think it’s really very important to approach every aspect of the mundane parts of your job in as childish a way as possible.
This blog will show you why, how, and also who is doing it well.
Why be childish?
Children don’t understand failure, simply because they’ve never experienced it. The worst thing that’s happened to many of them is that they’ve not been allowed fish fingers for tea every night, which is only a minor issue compared to the bigger problems we face as adults.
Because of this, they’re not afraid to try new things. They see a stick in the garden and make it a dragon. They see a puddle and they become a pirate. They don’t understand something and they ask why, again and again, until they’re satisfied with the answer, which is never. As you get older you’re trained out of these behaviours, being told to accept things for what they are, play less and ask fewer questions. You learn to be afraid of trying anything new, because there’s a chance it won’t work and you’ll look stupid, be criticised or have to do the whole thing all over again.
This is because we’ve experienced failure, and lots of it. We’ve tried new jobs that haven’t worked out, done some work that the client has hated, or had an idea that no-one else understands. We know what failure tastes like and we don’t like it.
That’s why so many ads look the same.
They follow tried and tested formulas that haven’t failed before. They do an alright job of explaining a concept, get decent engagement, and most importantly no-one hates them. They’re safe, and when you’ve been burned a few too many times, safety feels nice.
The problem with safety is it all blends into one homogenous blog. It becomes instantly ignorable. It doesn’t do the job of advertising, which is ultimately to make itself seen.
Being childish means taking risks, but those risks can be glorious.
How to be childish with your creative
Being childish doesn’t mean being TOTALLY childish. Like don’t spit your dummy out if your ideas get rejected, and use the toilet in a proper manner. But there are some aspect of being a small human that really lend themselves to being good at this shit. Aspects like:
Curiousity
Kids have a favourite words, and that word is ‘why’. They ask it of everything, all the time, until the point where you regret trying to make small talk with a 4-year old. NO YOU SMELL.
But ‘why’ is an excellent question to ask. If you ask it every time you’re given a brief, you come up with some interesting answers. Why are we doing this? Why does it need to be in that medium? Why should people care? Why is this product different?
Seriously, you can’t ask it enough. Eventually the account manager will stop answering your emails, but by that point you’ll have loads of interesting information that you didn’t have before.
Playfullness
Small people love to play. It doesn’t matter what the game is, or what tools you’ve got available, they’ll find a way to make it fun. Advertising deserves the same lack of respect. Even the most boring sounding product can be played with. In fact, often they’re even more enjoyable, cos of how surprising the idea ends up.
It’s hard to stay playful when you’ve answered thousands of briefs - the temptation is just to do what comes easily and move onto the next one. But playing sparks new ideas and keeps the work fun. You can find new ways to play, even if that involves going so far away from the brief that it’s barely visible on the horizon, and sometimes you’ll end up with a really interesting new idea that reminds you why you do what you do at all.
A lack of self-awareness
Did you know that children only become self-aware when they turn 15 months old? Until that point they’re just fleshly little balls of unawareness, flailing their limbs and pooing freely. They don’t care about much at this age, just crying and eating and sleeping, and they really don’t care what other people think about them.
You need to have a bit of that about you too. Not to the point when you shit yourself, but to the point where you’re not bothered if other people find you a bit annoying, or a bit too chatty, or a bit too jokey (hiya). Be your best creative self and don’t worry about how that makes you seem. If you’re doing good work, no-one will care in the end.
Adventure
Kids see adventure in anything. My mate’s kids came round for a BBQ once (with their parents, otherwise that’d be weird.) They were enchanted by what was behind my shed, which I knew to be just weeds and bricks, but because they couldn’t see it they believed it could be anything. I went along with this, telling them a secret lived behind my shed. I thought they’d never find out I was lying, because there was no way they could ever get behind my shed to see. I was wrong. They defied the thorns and uneven paving slabs and clambered their way to a space no-one had ever been before, where they turned to me and said, “Where’s the secret?”
Adventure had led them to believe in something, and that something was wonderful. The next time a brief lands on your desk, imagine what might live behind its shed. It might just be weeds, but it might be amazing.
Who’s doing this stuff well?
Some brands still see the joy in advertising, and I will reward those brands with a place on this blog which on average gets around 62 views every time I updated it. You’re welcome.
Skittles
Skittles have always done childish well. Their brand book is one of the only ones worth reading, and their TV ads are beautifully silly.
Orkney Library
There’s no reason why I should follow a library in Orkney on Twitter, but I do religiously. Most libraries would just talk about books or children’s reading groups, but not this library.
Apple
You don’t always think of gigantic tech behemoths as being childish, but Apple often are. Ever since their lovely print ads for the iPod (you know the ones, where the silhouettes are dancing,) they’ve shown they’ve got a playful side to them. There’s a freedom to their ads that almost make you forget they control your mind, and I like that.
Fancy doing something childish together?
I love having a laugh, me. I do what I do to have fun (and pay my mortgage), and try to take risks wherever possible with my work. If you want to push the limit a little, if you want to put smiles on faces, and if you want to stand out in a world of blah, talk to me about how I could help.
I’m ever so friendly.