How To Apply That Advertising Pop To Your Dreams

Last updated on April 1st, 2012 at 02:39 pm

Where is your inspiration coming from today?

Most of us would not say advertising.

I get to play with design on a daily basis – stuff that gets printed and fun projects online. Rarely do I get to put together a real impact, shock-you-out-of-your-seat campaign. So I find inspirational design related things I can watch to keep my motor running.

An opportunity to watch others create impact ads came with my viewing of “Art & Copy“, a documentary that explores the world of advertising with incredible interviews of some of the biggest names in the business, and behind the scenes on some of the most memorable ad campaigns.

Filmed in 2009 by Doug Pray, “Art & Copy” covers what some people consider to be a blight on our daily routine. The constant barrage of images and messages starts first thing in the morning – whether you read the paper, catch the morning news on TV, or read it online.

You are surrounded by advertising.

One of the statistics that made my mouth fall open was that in 1970, the average urban dweller had 1,000 advertising impressions per day. Now that number is estimated to be closer to 5,000.

We may not love the industry, but we can all learn from it.

You’ve got a dream right?

How about an idea for a dream?

Let’s say you regularly meet with people in your life, talk, catch up. Are you advertising your dream? If I asked your best friend right now what your dream was, would they be able to tell me?

I love this quote from George Lois comment that advertising should be like poison gas – it should shock, make you get chills, or make you pass out.  I have to admit that this is the feeling I typically had when I was sharing my dream with people for the first 6 months or so.

What about your dream makes you shiver with fear?

One of the signs hanging in the offices of Rich Silverstein at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners says “Brutal Simplicity”. I love the visualization of this statement.

Are you over-complicating the idea of your dream?

If someone asked you the step you are working on THIS week, would you have an answer? The K.I.S.S. strategy can always help, especially if you have a BIG dream that you need to take little steps on. Keep each step brutally simple.

My absolute favorite inspirations in the film came from an inspirational wall at Wieden+Kennedy. Made with over 100,000 push-pins, the creator of this lovely reminder of failure worked day and night for 4 days to give us this reminder. He picked the hard way… leave void for the words instead of just writing them with the pins.

You want to succeed big? You’ve got to Fail Harder.

This statement says a ton about the road to any success, whether it be advertising challenges or the road to your dream. There are times when that last failure will create an opening to your next step you didn’t see before.

Here’s my request – what was your last failure? Have you moved on from it? Still wallowing?

Comment, share the pain. Believe me, we are all there eventually.

~ Heather

Heather’s dream is to have multiple streams of income, starting with launching an e-commerce website that showcases her one-of-a-kind designer jewelry, which are crafted by her. Her newly launched sites are couture jewelry available through For Your Adornment, and Twitter background designs on Twitter And Beyond Dot Com. She also teaches Social Media tactics for business, besides being CEO of her own web design company. Heather’s post day is Thursday.

Catch the trailer to “Art & Copy” and watch it on Netflix instant play!