Innovation.
It has kept the World evolving, developing, learning.
It has created new normals for each and every one of us to build off.
It has revealed what humanity is capable of doing and inspired us to believe in what we can still achieve.
Innovation is a wonderful thing.
OK, so a lot of it is – arguably – more evolution than anything else, but it is important which is why companies make a big deal out of it.
Now of course, what some companies think is important innovation is – often in the public’s eyes – nothing much at all.
Sometimes that’s because the public don’t understand the significance of micro-innovation.
Sometimes that’s because it’s innovation for innovations sake – designed for PR hype rather than to provide the audience with something genuinely valuable and useful for their lives.
And sometimes it’s because the company are talking a load of shit because offering a product in 3 new colours is not innovation or evolution whatsoever.
But regardless what the reason is, I think we can all agree that if you’re going to say how innovative you are, you should – at best – create a product where your innovation is obvious for all to see/experience or – at worst – explain what you’ve done.
Which is why this ad for Parker Pens bothers me so much because, on first glance, it appears to do none of them, it just tells you that they have … which is also slightly undermined by showing a pen [and a photographer] that both look like they come from 125 years ago.
OK, so some people may argue that will pique my interest to find out more. And yes, it’s true I noticed the ad and am commenting on it … but I – like 99% of the population – have better things to do [or at least, have more things to amuse them] than search for a website to discover the innovations Parker has brought to the World but maybe, if they’d framed their communication in such a way that it said they were behind many of the things the World now takes for granted, it would make me want look at them – and their products – differently and then I’d want to know more.
OK, maybe that wouldn’t work either … but the odds would definitely be vastly improved.
But alas they didn’t do that because this smacks of an ad that was created simply to make the board of directors feel happy with themselves rather than make the average person on the street give a fuck.