Advertising needs more orginality and less copycatting

It is said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

It is also a sign of lack of originality and creativity.

A Hitachi banner at The Economist's website invites readers to learn how Hitachi has helped light up the small town of Bandon Oregon as a 'real world' illustration of its product benefit and brand reach.

















If this sounds familiar, rewind about a year ago when Nikon launched the very same initiative in Georgetown South Carolina. Dubbing it Picturetown USA, it aimed to showcase how the ordinary lives of its town folk were transformed by the picture taking qualities of Nikon cameras.

















Surely Hitachi could have taken a more distinctive and brand differentiating route?

Think different?

Field research this week took the form of exploring the content of fridges belonging to a random sample of people willing to allow OFD researchers to look inside without a warrant.

We made an alarming discovery, particularly regarding condiments. There was an incredibly high occurence not only of same kinds of condiments, but brands too.

It got us hungry and got us thinking. About not thinking.

This is exactly the problem in the marketing, branding and advertising world today. Everybody's reading the same thing. The same blogs. The same books. Recommended by the same sources. No wonder there is a dearth of creativity across our fields. We've not dumbed ourselves down, we've numbed ourselves through collective consensus exposure.

We've been too willing to idolatrize writers like Russel Davis, Malcolm Gladwell, David Droga. The sycophantic agreement needs to stop and more discriminating thinking needs to begin. But it won't happen when we're all reading the same material.

Participation culture expects more than merely voicing opinions on others people's opinions. It means coming up with you own thinking. Original ideas. Are you up for it?