If we were to apply the concept of inflation to our vocabulary, ‘creativity’ would be like olive oil: its price would skyrocket. In recent years, terms like “transformation” and “content” have vacated their positions in the world of communication and marketing, allowing that word to bulldoze its way in.
The Royal Spanish Academy equates creativity creativity to ‘inventiveness’, ‘imagination’, ‘ingenuity’, ‘inspiration’ and -my favourite- ‘magín’ (if you liked Mortadelo and Filemón, you will know what I mean). It appeals to the product of a process capable of generating something that did not exist, something new or unknown. This novelty can be original, a product of the combination of basic elements, or a remix, a product of the reformulation and combination of what already existed and someone else conceptualised it in an original way before us. None of the above, by the way, has to be better than what exists, nor is it necessary.
Creative label
If you want to be taken seriously, apply the adjective ‘creative’ to everything you do. If you want to raise the value and cost of your proposal, give it that label. If you want to differentiate yourself from the automation mechanisms that permeate everything since generative artificial intelligence came into our lives, remind everyone that your work is differentiated by your creativity.
We have succeeded in transforming this term from the hallmark of originality to a commodity, something that exists in any content generation process, whatever the outcome. By using it so much as a wild card, we are wearing it out.
‘We have turned creativity from the hallmark of originality into a commodity’.
Creative ability seems, so far, an inherent human trait and impossible for Artificial Intelligence. Till now. If the services provided by communication professionals are standardised, what are we left with? Indeed, we would be left with the originality of creative thinking.
Creative controversies
In the race to place the adjective in the forefront or to qualify it, we see different movements. In the world of marketing, creative was, or is, a professional profile that has the ability to devise, to develop the narrative and the approach that best fits a client’s brief. For some time now, those of us who are also involved in public relations, among other fields, have been calling for recognition of our work as creatives. Without denying that it is, because it is, we also try to demand that it be valued qualitatively and quantitatively like that of others.
Conflicts have arisen among those who call themselves creatives, because by maintaining the masculinisation of the term, the thousands of professionals who exist have raised their voices to warn about this reality and correct it. Thus, we find the initiative More Creative Women and the recent proposal that the C of C (Club de Creativos) be renamed Club de Creatividad (Creativity Club). Another thing is who is expected to be part of this community which, sectorally, is well defined, because many of them would be very sceptical if we were to raise our hands from the communication agencies. Finally, and much earlier, a certain sectoral organisation changed its name to ‘creative transformation’, in a curious twist whereby creativity ceased to be a professional synthesis: the profession turned out to be transforming from creativity. What a thing.
Creative epilogue
And so, in trying to defend that what we do is relevant, we have ended up giving the impression that we recognise just the opposite. Because if all work in the world of marketing and communication is creative, our product cannot stand out. If we are all creative, no one is.
‘In trying to defend that what we do is relevant, we have ended up giving the impression that we recognise just the opposite’.
Do we trust our creative capacity? Is everything we do really innovative, and does it really have to be? Shouldn’t we be more demanding of ourselves to use this word as it deserves and where it makes sense?
Hopefully the hype of creativity will be put where it belongs and we will earn respect with good ideas instead of labels.
