WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO "THE BIG IDEA?"

We all have heroes. In my pantheon of creative heroes reside the Beatles, and one George Lois. It was Lois' premise that all great advertising requires "a big idea." And that kernel, that magical advertising alchemy called "a big idea", doesn't get spawned by just anybody. It comes from true genius ad folks: like George Lois, like Jeff Goodby, like John Crawford, Hal Riney, etc. etc. The Big Idea is at the core of memorable executions, branding, and product differentiation - making your stuff strategically stand out in a positive light over the other guy’s stuff. Boring is never on the menu. Boring doesn't get your message heard, noticed or retained. The Big idea is the bow that wraps up your marketing in to one nice shiny package. The Big Idea has legs - it can be applied to anything and everything. The Big idea makes consumers look forward to your communications, rather than dread them. As you can obviously surmise, I am part of the congregation in the Church of the Big Idea.

So where are today's Big Ideas? There are several, buts here's a couple that stand out for me...

1) Southwest Airlines "Wanna Get Away?": Brilliant, in every execution, but the latest with the two dudes playing a Wii - one throws the controller at the plasma, is a work of ad art.

2) Budweiser's "Real Men of Genius": It's why I love radio - the leg's this campaign has had, finding different, even more idiotic men to salute, makes me say "I wish I had done that ad."

I invite you to offer up what you think is a "Big Idea" in today's ad world...any thoughts?