Eight ways to kill an idea
Posted on | November 11, 2009 | 166 Comments
Sent today by a colleague (original work by Scott Campbell):
Brilliant.
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166 Responses to “Eight ways to kill an idea”
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- Everything should be service December 3, 2009 Sami
- How healthy is your community? November 30, 2009 Sami
- What to do with campaigns that are too successful? November 29, 2009 Sami
November 16th, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
This is awesome. So true.
November 16th, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Love it!!
November 16th, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
[...] via Flirting with crowds [...]
November 16th, 2009 @ 6:13 pm
Who did this? It deserves attribution as it is really creative!
November 16th, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
[...] innovation via [...]
November 16th, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
These are fantastic! I would love to have these as a series of desktop wallpapers.
November 16th, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
brilliant!
November 17th, 2009 @ 2:14 am
Love it! Well done mate! Love the Amy Winehouse one.
November 17th, 2009 @ 2:44 am
Interesting, and satirically true.
November 17th, 2009 @ 3:08 am
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea – Link. [...]
November 17th, 2009 @ 4:33 am
First thing today that made me laugh. Ludicrousness in art.
November 18th, 2009 @ 2:38 am
The original artist is Scott Campbell.
http://scott-c.blogspot.com/
November 18th, 2009 @ 5:09 am
love it!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4647183&l=13fa175399&id=645995233 here is mine.
November 18th, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
This is quite good …. well taught out.
November 18th, 2009 @ 3:32 pm
Your Big ideas are dead. Long live simple, smart and social thinking.
November 18th, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
[...] in Uncategorized via [...]
November 18th, 2009 @ 5:34 pm
hahaha, how true.. true.
November 18th, 2009 @ 5:40 pm
great! I really love it.
November 18th, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
This is really good! You should add a share button so more people can see it
November 18th, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
unreadable.
November 18th, 2009 @ 6:13 pm
awesome!!!
November 18th, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
[...] FLIRTing with the crowds Stumble [...]
November 18th, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
recommendation
November 18th, 2009 @ 8:50 pm
This is a really dumb-ass idea. How far do you think you can get by parodying people important to your career? No wonder you’re stuck in a dead-end job like yours. Now get back to work and do something worthwhile. Make something of yourself instead of drawing stupid cartoons. Sheesh!
November 18th, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
I disagree with the Winehouse analogy I think the drugs made her way more entertaining and she is an entertainer, therefore drugs made her better at what she does and didn’t kill her
November 18th, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
sweet…….
PWNT!
November 19th, 2009 @ 12:32 am
While I understand “Client thinks he’s creative” – I’ve had several clients (usually goaded on by their spouses) who have ruined things for me by giving me their creative input. I don’t think all people do that. I think a clients quite often have great ideas about their product or service and simply do not know how to execute it.
November 19th, 2009 @ 1:49 am
Love it! Great visual explanation.
November 19th, 2009 @ 2:48 am
Everyone thinks this is awesome, as if to agree wholeheartedly with the message these illustrations convey. But…I believe we have all shut down an idea a time or two in our lives. So let these simple drawings be a message to us all to be a little more aware of what we hear and how we reply.
November 19th, 2009 @ 6:26 am
Very well thought out…can’t wait for more!
November 19th, 2009 @ 6:36 am
definitely photoshopped
November 19th, 2009 @ 8:39 am
So hard to read…not even worth it.
November 19th, 2009 @ 10:52 am
This is so damn true!! Great post man..
November 19th, 2009 @ 12:36 pm
Very good. And very true. Awesome!
November 19th, 2009 @ 2:38 pm
here is 9.
IDEA… small letters you can’t read
November 19th, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
?????????? :3
November 20th, 2009 @ 1:55 am
the art in this is awesome. i only have one criticism about it.
Every idea is a good idea, even if it’s a bad idea. That’s how you learn from your mistakes and grow from them.
November 20th, 2009 @ 3:24 am
Fantastic. Hugs from Brazil!
November 20th, 2009 @ 4:14 am
I totally get this. Is your company part of Omnicom? No wonder you’re so creative!
November 20th, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
couldn’t be more agree with this.
if it’s not creative director, it’s gotta be budget.
November 20th, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
Nice
PS – to Mr Fnortner, J. M. Brown, Pooper and Rick – stfu, you humorless dinks( unless you, Mr Fnortner, are being ironical, then please proceed, nothing to see here.)
November 20th, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
The 6th one is clearly amy winehouse
November 20th, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
Love the blog!Samhttp://www.zarpie.com/
November 21st, 2009 @ 3:29 am
You should have a pic of your mom on the left and your dad on the right. Haha
November 21st, 2009 @ 4:27 am
[...] Thanks Flirting with the Crowds [...]
November 21st, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
WOW I WISH I COULD FUCKING READ IT
THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU FAGS AND CURSIVE
GO DIE
November 22nd, 2009 @ 12:00 am
I love Scott Campbell. He’s a righteous dude.
November 22nd, 2009 @ 5:39 am
[...] Shared Eight ways to kill an idea : FLIRTing with the Crowds. [...]
November 22nd, 2009 @ 8:30 am
this is really funny
November 22nd, 2009 @ 8:37 am
I love the illustrations – the font /is/ a bit hard to decipher though. Wish you had a higher res version of this
And the client one is my favorite – rofl
Best wishes
Nathan
November 22nd, 2009 @ 8:58 am
Eight ways to kill an idea : FLIRTing with the Crowds…
…
November 22nd, 2009 @ 10:20 am
Thanks to everybody for all the comments. This post alone has so far gathered 150.000 hits in one week. You could call that a hit!
November 22nd, 2009 @ 11:38 am
Nicely done.
Sadly there are some many more ways to kill an idea…though, that said, not all ideas should see the light of day.
Agree with the person who said attribution would be appropriate…it’s someone’s idea and brilliant execution after all.
November 22nd, 2009 @ 11:55 am
I have no idea why you’re thanking people for all the comments. This is Scott Campbell’s work, and the fact that a number of people have commented requesting attribution would seem to suggest that a single line at the top of a post full of images you’ve lifted from someone else isn’t quite sufficient.
I agree, it’s an excellent set of images, but using them to garner publicity for your own business isn’t the way to get them seen.
November 22nd, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
Thank you for this.
I might suggest a new one. EARTH and MAN. My problem is who is on the right, who is on the left?….
November 22nd, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Too funny … not all people are created with the same measure of creativeness. Hard to believe but really!
November 22nd, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
[...] 22, 2009 via [...]
November 22nd, 2009 @ 4:43 pm
Sami, what you’ve done is helped raise visibility for Scott Campbell’s work. And that’s a good thing.
As for killing an idea, the key word missing is “Good” as in “Good Idea”. Some ideas get killed by creative directors and clients — not because they involve risk, but because they’re off strategy or just plain don’t make sense. On the other hand, the Legal Dept. is #1 offender in killing GOOD ideas. They’ll dismember until nobody recognizes it or cares.
November 22nd, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
the question is… is it a good idea?
November 22nd, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
So true ;(
November 22nd, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
Wow they are great – I’m going to check out some more of Scott Campbell’s work!
November 22nd, 2009 @ 7:58 pm
I’d love to get this as a poster!
November 22nd, 2009 @ 8:03 pm
Is that all?
November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
Hahaha, really funny and sadly very true. Sure, some ideas unfortunately need to be killed because they don’t fit the strategy. It’s just a shame that more ideas are killed for the reasons in the image
November 22nd, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
[...] 22, 2009 at 8:48 pm (Uncategorized) via [...]
November 22nd, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
Pafetic! Wif KapItAL LEtuz
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:08 am
Cute! This is why I’m self-employed. I can do whatever I want.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:19 am
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:24 am
Beautiful. Wonder what “social media isn’t branded enough” would look like.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:26 am
that is SO TRUE!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:34 am
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. AND THE ART DIRECTION DESERVES A GOLD.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:53 am
The answer is as plain as the nose on your face, yet you still missed it.
The reality is that, despite the fact that you thought it was a great idea, the idea stunk!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:56 am
haha.. very nice!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:09 am
Yep. Sounds about right. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:14 am
……..Nah!!….he he he,#7
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:32 am
Funny, yet sadly true.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:32 am
unreadable.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:37 am
[...] Something worth checking out right now. [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:39 am
Awesome and so true. Especially the email one.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:53 am
One is missing…
The worst enemy of a good idea is a different good idea.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 2:15 am
Very Cool!
Put this on a T-shirt; but wait that’s not a really creative idea
Good job!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 2:50 am
Great illustration and wonderful humor – thanks!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:09 am
Original Page (with four more, select artwork to view up close): http://scott-c.blogspot.com/2008/12/portugal.html
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:22 am
Wow, way kewl dude, I like it.
RT
http://www.ultimate-privacy.br.tc
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:42 am
I am Little Red Riding Hood
November 23rd, 2009 @ 5:21 am
[...] blogaajaurani voitokkain. Daily Diegossakin julkaistu 8 tapaa tappaa idea on tavoittanut englanninkielisenä versiona viimeisen viikon aikana yli 160.000 ihmistä henkilökohtaisessa blogissani. Sikäli kyseessä on [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:27 am
Haha, maybe a little pessimistic…
but brilliantly awesome.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:42 am
Love these story lines! Very creative mindset you have there Sami!!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:44 am
ooophs Scott for being the original channel and an open brain gateway!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:55 am
distilledtees distilledtees they have some cool interesting pics there the site is distilledtees.com
November 23rd, 2009 @ 7:12 am
The real answer is to tell Derek Neighbors about it.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 8:39 am
So true …. I think so
November 23rd, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Great but would be much better if the background (the brown wash) wasnt repeated in every image. Also the letters are slightly hard to read but that could be from the small image size on this page. Other than that, brilliant.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:36 am
lol! Good one!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 10:00 am
haha, I’m glad none of those ways was used to kill this idea.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 10:16 am
did your colleague sent this via email?
November 23rd, 2009 @ 10:36 am
Fantastic. Well put!!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 11:28 am
[...] Drunk Photos You Don’t Want To Be Caught In Obamanomics 101 Deadly Wild Animals Attack 8 Ways To Kill An Idea 7 Weird Ways To Not Get Sick (…Including Kissing And Coffee) 16 Ships Create As Much [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 11:57 am
Exceptional
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea : FLIRTing with the Crowds Seems a tad on the bitter side, but nicely done. [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
Wow, way kewl dude, I like it…
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
Great post. I made this one of my three links on my daily design blog:
http://designthoughtfortheday.blogspot.com/
Ted
November 23rd, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
[...] Funny cause it’s true?? By ckincaid Leave a Comment Categories: Uncategorized Funny cause it’s true?? [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
Next do 8 ways to kill a bad idea or 8 ways to improve on an okay idea.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
That’s awesome! Thanks
November 23rd, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
High-Rez version here:
http://didier.zip.net/images/ideia.JPG
(author, consider adding a link from your posted image? There’s been a lot of chatter at least on Digg about how the text is hard to read because the image is too small.)
Great find though! Thanks!!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 7:15 pm
Great! In Germany we call this “Galgenhumor”. Stay tuned everybody
November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:37 pm
[...] occasional blogger: during the last six days close to 250.000 people have visited my blog to see my 8 ways to kill an idea post. As you’re one of them, I’d like to take the opportunity to say thanks – [...]
November 23rd, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
With only modest changes this graf could also be used to answer the question “what does a Producer do?”
November 24th, 2009 @ 12:02 am
Nice artwork, and oh so true.
November 24th, 2009 @ 12:06 am
[this is good.]
November 24th, 2009 @ 2:02 am
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea : [...]
November 24th, 2009 @ 2:46 am
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea : FLIRTing with the Crowds (tags: design business blog lolz) [...]
November 24th, 2009 @ 3:26 am
Genius! Love the art style and the metaphors are spot on.
If only there was some way to illustrate the over-thinking of an idea into utter destruction.
K
November 24th, 2009 @ 6:31 am
Love it! Submit this to the Art Director’s award show. When ever that comes around. http://www.artdirectors.org/
November 24th, 2009 @ 6:37 am
[...] out this site: http://www.samiviitamaki.com/?p=336 [...]
November 24th, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
[...] 24, 2009 via [...]
November 25th, 2009 @ 3:32 am
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea (by @SamiV) (tags: blog business advertising fun funny innovation design humor creativity management inspiration illustration ideas) [...]
November 25th, 2009 @ 6:00 am
that is a funny strip there
November 25th, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
so true and so funny !
amazing
November 26th, 2009 @ 3:26 am
shame you cunt spell correctly
November 26th, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
Brilliant. I wonder if any of those illustrations area available for purchase.
November 26th, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
[...] a Comment via [...]
November 27th, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
To chaz, thanks for noting the irony. The difficulty with irony and parody is that so often they are taken as reality. That is why they both work and don’t. They are not lowbrow comedy. Congrats for being “this tall” and able to ride the ride.
November 29th, 2009 @ 10:20 am
[...] 8 ways to kill an idea http://www.samiviitamaki.co.. [...]
November 29th, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
[...] – UFRJ é a melhor universidade de Arte & Design do Brasil http://www.samiviitamaki.com/?p=336 (via [...]
November 30th, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
And the truth shall set you free. It is amazing at how I’m laughing so hard at this, but it is so true.
Don’t forget “Jealousy” and the “Glass Ceiling”!
Great strip though, lmao.
November 30th, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
Great visual commentary.
Also, good reality check for anyone in a leadership position.
December 1st, 2009 @ 3:57 am
Is it unprofessional of me to say: LOOOL!
That’s so funny and real. I’ve especially gone through a lot of Jason Xs! That’s the fastest way to kill an idea, where you have everything backing you up, but your client has no idea what creativity and marketing/advertising means and wants you to do things his/her way.
December 1st, 2009 @ 10:37 am
[...] 8 ways to kill an idea http://www.samiviitamaki.co.. [...]
December 1st, 2009 @ 11:20 am
I like “client thinks he’s creative”
December 1st, 2009 @ 10:30 pm
I love it, what a strong message that supports how dedication, commitment and perseverance are a must to become successful.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 11:50 am
This is really quite brilliant and very true as well .. The creative team at my company will totally agree with it !
Have linked to your post via my blog as well
December 2nd, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
I recommend reading “The Art of the Idea” by John Hunt, a brilliant collection of useful observations on how ideas come to be developed…or squashed, written by a professional idea man.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-rosenthal/#blogger_bio
December 2nd, 2009 @ 7:46 pm
Brilliantly executed illustrations with some very funny concepts. Well done.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 4:51 am
soooooooooo truue.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 6:35 am
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea : FLIRTing with the Crowds [...]
December 3rd, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
Awww, look at the poor creative person. A lot of these are bullshit. The fact is, you have to take a lot of these things into consideration when doing creative for business. I’m a creative director and deal with a lot of these every day. Guess what? It makes me better.
If your ideas are GOOD ones, they’ll probably hold up. If they don’t stick, think of something else. It’s what you get paid to do.
December 3rd, 2009 @ 10:26 pm
FANTASTIC! Should be compulsory reading for all companies!
December 4th, 2009 @ 12:25 am
[...] Via Flirting with the Clouds [...]
December 8th, 2009 @ 10:12 am
Jeff: “Guess what? It makes me better.”
By “better” do you mean “cynical”? Don’t elevate the opinions of countless moronical suits to some kind of healthy testing ground for ideas. The reaction of those around the creative process is often a thinly-hidden, impotent rage which they justify to themselves with the reasoning that if it’s a good idea then it can’t be destroyed. And that is what is known as complete bullshit.
December 8th, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
This was great, but would have benefited greatly from either a higher resolution andor more legible text.
December 10th, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
[...] Eight ways to kill an idea [...]
December 10th, 2009 @ 7:39 pm
From a former copywriter/designer…Bravo! Too true!
December 11th, 2009 @ 2:29 am
Well done..and so true.
December 11th, 2009 @ 2:45 am
Idea ……. . Ridiculously hard to read text.
December 11th, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
That’s a campaign… I think I saw it at AdsOfTheWorld. It’s for portugal, I think….
December 13th, 2009 @ 12:01 am
As soon as any ‘executive’ from marketing gets a hold of it, it will be something ‘they like to see.’
December 15th, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
Glad to see the artist maintained the creative energy to finish the piece.
December 17th, 2009 @ 3:34 am
[...] A lovely idea: combining a list with graphics. Daca s-ar putea desena cu mana s-ar face multe astfel de grafice. De asemnea se pot face numeroase grafice in PowerPoint care ar putea insoti fiecare discurs sau articol. Acest lucru nu trebuie sa placa la toata lumea dar este o idee la care se poate ajunge. [...]
December 17th, 2009 @ 8:34 am
Not only is this so true, but terribly original and unique. I loved it!
December 18th, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
[...] resource?samiviitamaki ?? & ?? ? [...]
December 18th, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
The cuteness is daunting.
December 26th, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
Daunting opposition. I have an idea… wait. No, I have another idea… awww crap! I’ve got a new idea…
December 29th, 2009 @ 8:10 pm
Idea ……. . Ridiculously hard to read text.
December 29th, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
these are great! some similar posts of marketing mishaps at listsoplenty dot com.
December 30th, 2009 @ 9:41 am
ideas with unreadable handwrite!!
December 30th, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
Best list ever! You’re the Mac Daddy of Creativity. Love it!
December 31st, 2009 @ 4:32 am
If you want to make money and be creative you go into advertising. If you don’t want to make money then you can let your idea’s live in all their original glory. If you do, you work within the guidelines provided by the people paying for your party.
January 20th, 2010 @ 7:34 am
Well, I don’t know about the creativity vs. money argument — I just wanted to tell you how refreshing it is to see someone so beautiful AND talented! wish they had more men like you in America.
January 20th, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
the second one, concerning “ideas sent by e-mail”, should come up in e-mail as a warning before sending any e-mail with an attachment to a client. Brilliant.
January 21st, 2010 @ 10:06 am
[...] FLIRTing with the Crowds) Categories: Humour, NZ Politics Tags: Tax Working Group Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) [...]
January 21st, 2010 @ 2:17 pm
[...] to public school and FLIRTing with the Clouds Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Kill Your Good IdeasWho Understands The Watchmen? [...]
January 27th, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
Link with HEAVY RAIN ?
January 31st, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
That’s awesome, can I use this on another site?
February 6th, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
RSS ne rabotaet (( Mozhet eto iz-za kodirovki?