Day four has gone out the door.

The fourth day of the Cannes Lions Festival started off with a seminar held with the wonderful writer, producer, and director, Spike Jonzes. His topic was that of creativity. The main sticking point of his speech was that at the center of everything is a core idea. No matter if it’s an advertisement or a film, the core idea is what makes it or breaks it. I agreed with Spike that most advertisers out there have this great core idea, but then something happens to it. It gets lost. It gets smothered by un-needed baggage. Advertisers try to expand on this core idea with too much shit basically. Sometimes this happens because the client is too afraid to trust in the idea. Therefore, they want something bigger and more expensive. Something they believe will catch the consumer’s eyes, but as Spike said this is usually not the case. People connect with emotion, not with huge production. The simplest ad in the world can change lives if the core idea is communicated effectively through emotion. I believe in this strategy because those are the ads that I connect with the most. They are the ones I remember.