What if we worked on the assumption…

That what we produce does not lead to profound satisfaction in people’s lives?

That what we produce really does not satisfy people’s deepest, most enduring, most keenly-felt needs?

That what we make really is not that important to people?

Perhaps…

We’d start making more work that didn’t always take itself so seriously.

We’d stop with the nonsense of creating social / cultural movements.

The measure of our success would not be the degree to which we change people’s lives, but the degree to which what we make is interesting.

We’d stop worrying so much if people thought our work was ‘believable’, and focused on making stuff that was plausible.

Our starting point would more often be what people find interesting, rather than our contribution to Life.

There would be more space for a sense of irony and playfulness that feels in such short supply in adland’s output.

We’d start having a more authentic ‘conversation’ (if we really must call it that) with people.

And perhaps we might actually meet the consumer, sorry, people, on common ground.