Does originality matter?

Should the makers of TV commercials try to be original? Does it matter anymore? Did it ever matter? Are today’s TV commercials so much digital fish wrap ... somewhat useful today, a smelly nuisance tomorrow?

As someone who has, over the years, occasionally been tasked to develop concepts and write scripts for brand television ad campaigns, I always tried to come up with ideas that were new and fresh. But was I fooling myself? Have things changed so much that it is now okay to effectively swipe a campaign that’s no more than a few years old?

I give you, as Exhibit 1, the fairly new campaign for Sling TV. To say it has echoes of the not-too-distant campaign for Holiday Inn Express might be viewed as a personal effort to Echo. You remember her, the mountain nymph from Greek mythology? Of course you do. 

Please judge for yourself. First Sling … then Holiday Inn Express … 

Sure, some of the furniture has been moved around the edge of the room, but architecture is the same.  

Do you think it matters? Personally, it makes me think less of the Sling brand, but I may be the special case who a) remembers the HIE spot and 2) thinks originality is an attribute and 3) <winks> thinks enough of my own opinion to maintain a blog. 

There are certain fundamental truths you should embrace when thinking, writing and creating in a strategic way. But if YOUR truths are different than the other folks’—and they should be, right—then shouldn’t your creative expression of them be unique, too?

by John Taylor, Principal, The Strategic Marketing Group