It's not stifling creativity
but it does, thankfully seem to be stamping out laziness. All the things you claim not to be allowed to do seem to be the lowest common denominator of the pre-PC culture. These days, if you want to make an ad that reaches people, you actually have to make it interesting. Try thinking of an ad as content that people actually would like to see, rather than re-hashing the same old stupid fucking jokes and obtuse shit starring overpaid Hollywood dickheads (j'adore? fuck me).

Apologies if it's the clients making you do this, but maybe if the advertising industry pulled its heads out of its collective arse, we'd have more ads like the Honda ones and less "Bang! And the dirt is gone."
( argyleblanket The man on the roof works for me, Tue 20 Apr 2010, 20:36, 1 reply)

Honda
Funny you should mention Honda actually. They're often held up as a bastion of innovative, interesting advertising (and not unfairly), but they're also responsible for one of the wankiest briefs I've ever received. Last year I got hold of a brief from them that had some very choice quotes that give you an insight into the wonderfully wanky world of advertising.

I won't bore you with all of it, but I will give you my favourite client quote from the brief, repeated verbatim:

"Honda is an exciting, interesting company – one that society wants to exist."

One that society wants to exist? Fuck me, a couple of clever ads and a strong brand position and they've disappeared completely up their own arse.
(.click, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 12:41, closed)