Straight talk > ST: Criticism: Ignore it? Ban it? Or fight it?

I think the starting point of real creativity is not to do it for anybody else. Especially in a field like advertising which has got a disease of learning to understand the consumer. That's the biggest bullshit in advertising. You can't even understand your mother, how will you understand a customer? So you always write for yourself, and if people like it - good!

Advertising has a lot to do with luck. There are fantastic people who have these fantastic ideas, but if their ideas are not liked by others, they become bad advertising people. If they like it, they become good. So I have been lucky

Someone recently told me that allowing criticism in brainstorming sessions will encourage people to look at alternative options. I don't agree; I would never do that. Nothing should be criticized in a creative exercise. Brainstorming is an interesting way to explore an idea. It costs nothing to write them down on paper. In fact, the brainstorming should focus on how to make a bad idea into a good idea, because even in a bad idea, you can find a lot of good. For example, I often conduct brainstorming sessions in corporate workshops where I ask the participants to come up with the unlikeliest of customers for their products and get them to think of ways to convert them into perfect customers. These sessions go a long way in making people strategize

I took up the challenge. I made an international call to an American friend who was also our potential customer. I said, "Hey Joe, I happen to be in town. Can we grab a meal together?" He said, "Ya, I'm free to meet you. What time?" and we went on talking for two minutes.

At the end of the conversation, I said, "So, Joe, you believe I am in town?" He was puzzled. I told him I am calling from India. I said, "Joe, you said this will never work. But now you believed that I was making a local call and we could meet for dinner." He paused, and then said, "You've proved your point. Okay, we'll give you fifty people worth of business and let's see where it goes."