Two speeds of media: Simple or wonderful (and occasionally both)

Psychology is the science of behaviour and mind, and many years ago when practicing as a psychologist I had the scientist practitioner model drummed into my head: don’t do anything as a clinician unless there is scientific evidence to support it.

So when I made the switch to adland, I was amazed by how decisions were made. In a nutshell, the whole thing was completely made up. There was no science behind the creative, or even strong data to back up the insights. The most common justification I heard for creative recommendations was ‘trust me’.

Being inquisitive, but largely just really nervous about saying the wrong thing, I set out to try and understand a little more about how creativity and advertising actually worked.