Turn Off Your Brain for These Mouthy Food-Delivery Ads

The human brain is pretty impressive. It can get through more data in 30 seconds than the Hubble Telescope has processed in 30 years.

Yet when it comes to ideas, our brains get way too much credit.

We have a saying at Colenso, which is the “the right amount of wrong.”  When an idea has the right amount of wrong, you know it will infect everything. But the reverse is also true. When an idea has too much right, you’re fucked.

And that is what happens when we rely on our brains to do the heavy lifting.

Recently, I got to hear a presentation from Justine Armour, the CCO at FIG. One thing that stuck out was the way she described the physicality of having an idea. It made me realize that creativity isn’t a sensible process. It’s terrifying and sweaty and occasionally euphoric.

History has shown that our bodies help us make important of decisions. There’s a reason we can feel something in our bones, and we’re told to trust our gut. These things are especially true for creativity.

Creatives will know the best ideas you’ll ever have will come without thinking. And nine times of out 10, those ideas will arrive when you’re lathered up in the shower, molar-deep in a cheeseburger or simply taking a walk. They come when we stimulate our bodies, not our brains.

There is tremendous pressure on agencies to deliver more for less. The result is tremendous pressure on creatives to sit and think. To have a large quantity of ideas—quickly.

The problem is, our brains are hardwired to generate rational solutions when we ask them to work like this. In order to produce what our clients are paying us for, we have to cut those wires.

We managed to do that when we made these Delivereasy films. Instead of listing the benefits of an independently owned local delivery app, we listed the benefits of an independently owned local delivery app inside a human mouth.

But practicing this brain betrayal doesn’t just get you to funny stuff. The smartest of ideas come from the dumbest of places. The ideas that stick around in culture are the ones that are built on crazy leaps that no amount of staring at a wall could ever help you make.

We want our audiences to feel something when they see our work. So, we should feel something when we’re making it too.  

The way to do that is to perform a lobotomy on yourself.

Go for a walk. Have a hot shower or three. Eat your favorite meal. You’ll be amazed where your body takes you.