The philosophy of creativity
A highlight of Cannes for me has been the wisdom of philosopher Alain de Botton, a man so clever his brain has eaten his hair.
Here, in a series of quotes, is some of the clever stuff he said today about creativity, media and advertising.
“The world’s most powerful multinational corporation is the Catholic church. It has made lots of money by selling a good that people need, like a sense of belonging and self esteem. Advertising rarely does that. Too often it caters to the bottom end of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Advertising needs to commoditise things that we need in life. You can make money from that, rather than focus on vain and menial desires like sex. ”
WOW. Love it! Thanks for sharing…
Agreed. He’s great.
I must tell my psychiatrist that
Tripe stirred through a bowl of BS.
Interesting stuff, cheers Charles.
I think i want a skull for my desk now…
Excellent and insightful, thank you for sharing
Thankfully I still have a full head of hair.
Thanks for including de Botton’s comments. Insightful stuff.
I imagine it would help, if said skull belonged to a client.
Shouldn’t Maslow get a mention for his Heirachy of Needs triangle?
Whoops! Teach me to skim better.
Hi there, yep, love him too. Have read his book about Proust and a novel about love and always meant to get around to State of Anxiety and the book about travel (and why the anticipation and recounting is soooo … much better than the reality). Disgusting that a philosopher should be so distinguished and profound at such a young age. Hope you are well, Vanita X
“Advertising needs to commoditise things that we need in life. You can make money from that, rather than focus on vain and menial desires like sex.”
By putting sex at the bottom of the needs pyramid, Maslow has made an error which De Botton has repeated.
For modern humans, sex is about self-actualisation. This is why, when it comes to marketing, leveraging it works. You’re appealing to what people want to become/be/actualise.
The quasi-Victorian prudish placement of sex alongside breathing and shitting is a judgement call, and not based on any real-world observation of how humans use sex.
Asides from that flaw, interesting piece.
‘Advertising needs to commoditise things that we need in life.’ Not sure commoditise is best choice of word, commercialise, maybe.
@tom yes, but you’re word is ‘leverage’ whereas the advertising convention is ‘exploit’ often in context of ‘inadequecy’.
Love the ‘..a man so clever his brain has eaten his hair.’ sentence.
A great mind indeed.
@Tom, ‘sex’ may be down the bottom of the chart, but ‘sexual intimacy’ places higher up, next to family.
The “physiological” mention of sex in De Botton’s chart is likely referring to reproduction, which we need to survive. That’s why it goes next to other base needs like air, water, food, etc. The emotion aspect of sexual intimacy is quite a different need, which is why it’s placed in the love/belonging bracket. Whether you agree with how it’s broken down, it’s an interesting, very simple and clever breakdown of our core wants and needs in life.
The chart is the work of Abraham Maslow and has been for some time.
Mr de Botton is using this well known Hierachy of Needs breakdown to illustrate his points.
“The great thing about animals is that they don’t care about status..” I have 2 cats – try telling them they don’t care about status when then are fighting for prime position in front of the heater or on the bed, or who is first through the door, who gets the dinner bowl first. If he means they don’t care about your status, then he is dead right, but they are very, very aware of their own status within the feline hierarcy.