AgencyThink

A New Idea: Priceless

posted by Just A Nick @ September 16th, 2008

At the Milwaukee zoo this past weekend, I was innocently eating lunch with my family. When I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that read “Got Freedom?”

I skipped over trying to figure out what social/political statement he was trying to make, and went straight to rage over the excessive use of the phrase “Got [insert something here]?”

Don’t get me wrong, the Got Milk campaign is arguably one of the greatest of all time. And the fact that it’s constantly parroted means that it has crossed the line into the lexicon of pop-culture slogans (it’s not just selling milk any more). That being said, can we please kill it now?! The campaign was launched in 1993!

Poor Apple has suffered the same fate with their ground-breaking iPod ads. Marketing campaigns sporting silhouettes of people dancing over brightly colored backgrounds were winning awards in Southeast Wisconsin as late as 2006! I hope the winners at least sent a thank-you note and a Starbucks gift card to the apple team atTBWA\Chiat\Day.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe “nothing is original” as someone said when I self-righteously scoffed at the notion of an award winning rip-off. But if nothing is original, where did Apple get it?

I can tell you that when brainstorming campaign concepts, being influenced by great ideas is not only acceptable, it’s necessary. Understanding conceptual trends is important, and finding ways to modify/advance those ideas in order to communicate with the right audience at the right time is what geniuses do. However, aping a concept wholesale is a cop-out. Even if it does immortalize of the influencer.

Let us marvel at the cultural impact of great ideas. Let us be influenced by them. Let us produce great campaigns. And let us never belch the phrase “Got [anything]” again.

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