Dark Side of the Rainbow

This, at first, may seem to have nothing to do with advertising but … To those of you who haven’t heard of it, there is supposed to be a deep synchronicity between Pink Floyd’s (I can’t bring myself to use the word ‘seminal’ as it sounds like the punch line to a George Michael Urinal joke) Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz. I won’t go into the details – you can find the science on: - Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_side_of_the_rainbow and the clips on youtube:



Suffice it to say, you watch Wiz whilst listening to DSOM and it seems to just work. That’s where we get back to advertising: sometimes, things just work. We’ve all seen a piece of crappy library music placed against a radio or tv ad that suddenly raises both the ad and the music to a new level. Or a prop or throw-a-way line in a commercial that becomes the hook everyone remembers. True, as often as synchronicity can work in our favour, it can work against – but it does work. Remember the monkeys on the typewriter thing? That they could write the complete works of Shakespeare? Yes, they could if given enough time but they would be producing the complete Words rather than Works. The true genius lies is recognising the synchronicities as we work and letting them live. Fighting for them, in fact, in the face of executive and client annihilation. ‘Why on earth are you using a monkey to sell right price tiles?’ Don’t know, it just works. ‘It Just Works’, once the core rationale for advertising is rapidly losing coin in this nut & bolts, wire and plastic packing, time and motion modern marketing melee. It’s up to us Creatives to hold on to the integrity of synchronicity, blind inspiration and happy accident. Don’t obey your thirst, obey your gut. It’s what got you into advertising in the first place. Now, fly my pretties …