It might even win awards, but if it has been commissioned and paid for by a client to help promote their brand and fails to do so, their money and our work is arguably wasted. We have some of the best creative talent in the world, but we also have jobs to do, and unless we are giving up the day jobs to be fine artists, our creative work has an economic purpose.

Clients sometimes complain in private after pitches that some of the work looks great, but was probably thought up before a brand came up the agency could sell it to. Sometimes agencies might, in private, even own up to having had a great idea they were waiting to find a home for.

That Sony’s Bravia film won the Platinum award in the Creative Circle Honours 2006 was not a surprise. It is a wonderful, inspired piece of film. The sort of environmental art major corporations should be encouraged to support. It knocked me out when I first saw it. I loved it. Prompted, I guess almost everyone recalls the advert with the coloured balls, and most people like it. But surely fewer recall it to be Sony, and even for those that do, how many think differently about Sony as a result? How many will become more loyal and buy more Sony products?

I guess that some of you are thinking “outrageous!”, does this guy not understand anything about advertising! Has he no creative sensibility! Sony and Fallon staff will be pulling out their research figures to show that this is the best marketing investment that they have ever made. I would expect that the advertising and marketing community will recall the film fondly for years, but I wonder if the association of “Sony” and “Balls!” will really drive positive consumer sentiment and consumption behaviour. Believe me, I am a Sony fan: I am writing this one of my two Vaios. But I am not convinced that we always apply our creativity to the best commercial effect. 

Honda’s Impossible Dream was another great film. But lawnmowers, saloon cars and diesel engines really don’t power my dreams.  Unless there is a credible link between the artefacts that manifest the brand and the attributes the communication conveys, it would seem that the communication will not be completely effective – so the creative is at least in part wasted.