Diversity. Of thinking. (Maybe the most important reason for diversity.)

Many years ago, Chiat\Day produced a great spot for Apple called “The Crazy Ones.”

To my mind, it was one of the great spots of all time. It not only captured the spirit of Apple and its believers, it, like “Just Do It” did for putative athletes everywhere, captured the spirit of aspiration, creativity and the power of contrariness.

The spot cemented Apple’s hold on the notion of “Creativity.”

Today, as the grey steel vise of conformity squeezes all our heads tighter and tighter, I wonder if it makes sense to do a quick re-write for the choking vestiges of our once vibrant industry. An industry, today, that seems bent on dicta, dogma, best-practices and conformity.

I thought I’d try one.

Let’s call it, “Scared.”

VO:

Here’s to the frightened ones.

The cautious. The risk avoiders.

The ‘that’s not how we’ve always done-it-ists.’

The round pegs in the equally round holes.

Who are waiting till next year to try last year’s innovations.

They’re very fond of rules. And they love saying ‘no.’

They don’t need a reason.
Other than it’s new, or it’s not my idea,

or it isn’t best practices,

and we should kill it before it startles someone.

And gets attention.

Here’s to the technocrats.

The jargonaires.

The play-it-safers.

The white-board poseurs and the keynote canoodlers.
Here's to the agile abra-cadabras.
The powerpoint prestidigitators.

You can’t quote them, learn from them, respect them.

About the only thing you can do is…obey them.

Because they do your 360.

They can fire you at any minute.

And slap you down and slap your hand.

And threaten you.

And freeze your salary.

And throw you on nothing but banner ads, resizes and pool-outs.

Here’s to to the frightened ones, to the scared, to the timid.

To all those who know that only people who are brave enough to think they can change the world, will actually end up on unemployment, driving Ubers or moving back in with Mom.

TITLE:        Think Same.