Yesterday, Founder/Chief Creative Officer of Barton F. Graf 9000, Gerry Graf, had a One Club Creative Week panel of successful smart people who talked about bravery in the ad world. While it was pointed out that there really is no bravery in our industry when compared to war journalists, doctors and firemen, there is a seemingly scary level of risk that many people can’t get past when it comes to ideas. The question became…how do you respond when someone says “the client will hate it” or “we’re not staffed to do that” or “I don’t think that’s funny” or “that’s illegal” or “that will literally cause people to start shooting at us”?

The best answer to all of these questions is a simple two-letter sentence: So?

It is unexpected, it is disarming and it forces the issue back on the person creating the resistance.

Ideas that make a difference are rarely easy, they are sometimes uncomfortable and they often take a lot of extra work…but isn’t that what we all signed up for?