Please Feed The Animals

“What else you got?”

We’ve all heard it. Many of us have asked it. It’s code in our business for “the ideas you have are not fresh.” And we’ve all learned how to push ourselves to try and find fresh ideas. We know the tricks — change your patterns, force yourself into a different mode of thought, consider more perspectives. And we all know the game — the idea won’t be born until it’s ready. We’ve learned to make the uncertainty and messiness of idea generation a friend.

At least, we have when it comes to advertising.

How about the rest of our lives? How many of us fall into patterns in our lives that we never question? How many of us make a pilgrimage to Starbucks every morning? Or forget Starbucks — how many of us just drink coffee every morning? How many of us listen to the same music, or same type of music — that’s the whole idea of a playlist, right? How many of us shop at the same stores or frequent the same restaurants?

Those patterns are a prison we make for ourselves. The brain does a funny thing — it strengthens the synaptic connections around common or familiar behaviors and allows the synaptic connections around uncommon behaviors to wither. Reinforcing patterns is an old evolutionary survival trick that works for everything from food choices — familiar berry good, strange berry bad — to strengthening societal bonds — familiar people good, strange people bad. And anybody who’s ever raised a child — or a puppy, for that matter — knows how important it is to reinforce positive patterns of behavior.

But there’s a point, as we all know, where those patterns become a liability. That’s true whether we’re talking about ad concepts or, say, racial profiling. And the great thing about our brains is that they are able to recognize when a pattern has become a liability. If we are mindful about our behaviors.

So be mindful. What do you do every day reflexively, without thinking about it?

Do you go to work?

I’m not talking about your choice of a career — that should be a passion, and if it isn’t, that’s a whole different issue. I’m talking about the trappings of work. Coworkers. Lunch hangouts. Commuter routes. Work routines. A paycheck and benefits. Are you mindful about these things and the role they play in your life? Or are they habits?

If they are, do yourself a favor. Apply the same tricks as you do with your ad concepts. Look at different perspectives. Mindfully change your patterns. See where it takes you.

Find out “What else you got?”