Some time in the mid-1990s I spent a day in a windowless room watching endless presentations of European television commercials. In the style of the times, most were filmed in exotic tropical locations with lavish production values, sumptuous photography and a pulsating soundtrack.
As the day drew to an end, the creative director of an Oslo advertising agency stood up to present his own work. He gave a self-deprecating cough. ‘Back in Norway we have no advertising money at all… so unfortunately we have to have an idea.’ He went on to show charming and imaginative advertisements, typically shot on video cameras. One series simply featured two people talking on a tram.
As he proved, imagination can be a good substitute for a big budget. Winston Churchill said something similar: ‘We have no money so we have to think.’ I have a friend who believes there is a direct relationship between inventiveness and parsimony, encouraged by the fact that supposedly stingy people (Scandinavians, Scots, Midwesterners, Jews) originate the world’s most important ideas.
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