11. Identity and Creativity, How to Do It

On the pages that follow are print ads and commercials that have been deconstructed and analyzed to show the relationship between brand, individual and group identity and creative concepts. They have been divided into 20 categories based on their conceptual techniques and characteristics. Some could just as well be included in another category because very often more than one of these techniques contribute to the overall concept. As you look through them you might very well think of other ads these categories don’t encompass. There is nothing official about these categories. The reason these ads have been chosen, is not because they won awards or are famous classics, but because they are excellent examples of the best work being done in advertising at this moment in time. Most appeared in the past few years in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and other leading magazines. For demonstration purposes magazine print ads predominate but no matter which media you are working in, the conceptual process is the same.

If you are an advertising writer or art director, or aspire to be, they present an array of the techniques at your disposal. If you are someone who just likes ads and commercials they may help you understand why some ads are worth a second look, or why you look forward to seeing a particular television commercial again and again. The people who created them were probably not consciously imitating another ads, nor should you. Creating advertising is an imaginative process that arises from the subconscious mind and hopefully after thinking about these examples, they will be stored somewhere in your brain like good jokes, odd facts and other scraps of information ,to percolate and provoke a fresh idea, seemingly from out of no where, on just the day you need it.

 

 

© 2011 – Stanley Herbert Schulman