Lemon
I just finished reading Orlando Wood’s book, Lemon.
Wood’s work traces the steady decline in advertising creative effectiveness, its causes, and ideas for a needed rebalancing of analytics/aesthetics in the industry.
The book is richly illustrated with charts and graphs, and interspersed with inspiring quotes like this one on the inside cover from Bill Bernbach:
All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.
Interestingly for me as a life-long student of art history, Wood draws parallels with other times/places where this society-level Right Brain to Left Brain dynamic has played out.
The examples elevate the discussion to much more than a parochial argument among industry insiders.
A number of new concepts liven up the discussion such as Fluent Devices, Fluency vs Fixity, and Entertain For Gain.
Lemon was published in conjunction with a special initiative focused on creativity and effectiveness (EffWorks) within the UK’s Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
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