kick out the jams: creative thinking in sadvertising part I

So today has been all about jamming. And I don't mean the kind of jamming that Bob Marley did with all his various Wailers. Or even the kind you do to your pockets when you're trying to steal candy from the 7/11. This is the kind of jamming that you do at advertising agencies. It involves real "creative" thinking.

Everyone gets together in a boardroom. There is a buzz in the air, the buzz of creative minds coming together like hot & heavy teenagers in the backseat of a Toyota, like AA failures on a case of shitty beer. The energy! The enthusiasm! Ok, there really is none of that, it's more like an awkward silence, puncuated every so often by bad joke attempts and equally bad guffaws.


Creative sessions that run on really tight deadlines are way too serious to involve light-hearted "jamming". Board rooms become "WAR" rooms. Strategies are battle plans. Ideas are ammunition. You can almost see the crazed look in the eyes of the really sincere -- these guys really think they are saving the world through brochure composition, toppling totalitarian regimes one self-mailer at a time. Do they have what it takes? Will World War III be all about direct marketing letters and bill inserts? Doubtful. But we'll continue this discussion once I return from my 2 pm JAM and my 3 pm BATTLE.

rock.