I‘m super-interested in your „art of the steal“ thinking. In my first „real job“ (as „a creative“) at one of the big ad agencies in LA, I learned the phrase „borrowed interest“. I was young, and to be honest it took me a little while to realize that it just meant taking someone else‘s idea or jumping on whatever cultural bandwagon was popular and applying it to whatever product we were advertising. This was around 20 years ago and it embarrassed me then, even as the pressure to do it was strong. We would sometimes lobby to bring in the creator of the original idea (as much as we could figure out who it was) but it was always seen as faster and legally easier to just make our own version - unless the creator had enough heat that we could try to surf that as the same time as ripping off their idea.
All this shit was decades before AI. I‘m pretty sure it‘s worse now, but I don‘t work in advertising any longer (for a million different reasons).
thank you and…you are exactly right as it’s not too far off now. i think the difference, which is both easier and harder to catch, is how brands can just steal a meme or an entire format and it’s just “the world,” not to mention how entire AI models can be built on entire bodies of creative works. oy!! but…it does get at taste and respect and a larger cultural shift that you sort of played out: people will find this shit embarrassing and bad, which will change culture but also bring divisions of those who use and those who don’t. certainly interesting! we’ll all stay tuned obvs!!!!
I‘m super-interested in your „art of the steal“ thinking. In my first „real job“ (as „a creative“) at one of the big ad agencies in LA, I learned the phrase „borrowed interest“. I was young, and to be honest it took me a little while to realize that it just meant taking someone else‘s idea or jumping on whatever cultural bandwagon was popular and applying it to whatever product we were advertising. This was around 20 years ago and it embarrassed me then, even as the pressure to do it was strong. We would sometimes lobby to bring in the creator of the original idea (as much as we could figure out who it was) but it was always seen as faster and legally easier to just make our own version - unless the creator had enough heat that we could try to surf that as the same time as ripping off their idea.
All this shit was decades before AI. I‘m pretty sure it‘s worse now, but I don‘t work in advertising any longer (for a million different reasons).
Anyway, great post as usual.
thank you and…you are exactly right as it’s not too far off now. i think the difference, which is both easier and harder to catch, is how brands can just steal a meme or an entire format and it’s just “the world,” not to mention how entire AI models can be built on entire bodies of creative works. oy!! but…it does get at taste and respect and a larger cultural shift that you sort of played out: people will find this shit embarrassing and bad, which will change culture but also bring divisions of those who use and those who don’t. certainly interesting! we’ll all stay tuned obvs!!!!