171: It's your responsibility to stay curious
Welcome to 2025, and the power of ideas; Also some AI reflections from 2024
When I was five or six, I could not imagine myself living in such a distant future as the year 2025. And yet here I am, here we are.
Let’s kick start this moment with the power of ideas.
Imagine visiting one of America’s larger, historic, content-diverse, well-funded, critically-appreciated art museums. The kind of place with serious rooms filled with exquisitely curated Art. And great people watching.
Now ask yourself: Over the past 20+ years, what singular exhibition repeatedly draws the largest, sell-out crowds to this 125-year old museum?
Would you guess roughly 50 minutes of advertising?
This past weekend my family attended the penultimate of 66 screenings of the British Arrow Awards, a celebration of video advertising. It’s so popular, they fill two theaters day after day after day. And ever year I see the new collection, I am reminded that 1) As Mark Fenske lectured, “Ads is Art” and 2) People of all shapes and sizes love ideas. Especially encapsulated in a < five minute video format.
They call it the 2024 Awards, but the ads all ran in British media in 2023, so we have to kind of imagine back in time a little for context. This crop was less comic, more concerned, more serious, and definitely emphasized graphic design more than previous years. Apple and its agency TBWA/MAL commissioned my two favorites, the first by animator Anna Mantzaris:
The second from production co Biscuit Filmworks LA:
Both ads point at technique, feature technology, but actually capture attention and deliver behavior-changing value because of an idea. And both ideas are rooted in an individual telling us a story, but not the one we might first expect.
Good thing to remember amidst the chaos—the most powerful thing might just be the idea, and not the methodology.
Recollecting 2024…
Are you exhausted? Me, too. Feels good, doesn’t it?
I published 176 posts last year, almost double the output of Year One. Thanks to all of you who continue to follow along the journey and welcome to the 132 new subscribers who’ve joined us in 2024, which also saw the launch of the Curiosity+Courage podcast. Let’s recall:
In the first post I said,
I’m convinced successful Idea People—whether in advertising, design, film, music, education, coding, policy, economics, business—are defined by at least two characteristics: 1) they are deliberately a lot more curious than most people, and 2) they have developed a courage to leverage creativity to affect change.
That’s who I continue to write this for.
If you’ve got suggestions, reactions or opinions to share, I am very grateful to receive them.
🤖 …and the state of AI
Now take a moment and consider what has transpired in the previous 12 months in the realm of AI and its impact on marketing and creativity. We went from the promise of text-to-video worth noticing to delivery of same (i.e. Google’s Veo2, and OpenAI’s Sora. Marques Brownlee’s comparison is worth a look).
We went from concepts of agents to agents. Kelsey Piper wrote about this back in March for Vox. I suggested my HeyGen-powered AI-friend Wayne might attend Zoom meetings for me. Britney Nguyen chronicled their evolution for Quartz in November. And then my friend Greg documented what I can only describe as the insane world of AI bots apparently coming to all of us via Meta.
And this was posted nine months ago. I’m still floored.
Not a month went by in 2024 without some remarkable improvement in AI music, images, video, as well as strategy and concepts. And we continued to think about how AI might be helping us think.
If I could impart a singular message to you based on 2024, it would be:
Stay Actively Curious
What’s happening with AI isn’t something I think you should wait out. I don’t think waiting for me, or waiting for anyone else to tell you what to make of AI, or how to leverage it, is wise. This is not the arrival of the Internet, or the slow roll of mobile and social. Just watch that video pinned above from Project Astra. That’s real. And it’s old technology. How might it have evolved over the past nine months and what idea might it spark in you to help create change?
I hate to say it but there’s a kind of responsibility you and I have regarding AI.
We didn’t ask for this. It’s been dropped into our laps. But how we collectively decide to embrace and effect change with AI matters a lot.
As the educator Marc Watkins put it late in 2024, there’s the absurdity and necessity of professional development in the age of AI.
“There is a fundamental challenge we cannot overcome regarding engaging AI in education—the capacity to keep up with and process what’s happening. We’re not going to see AI adoption or AI refusal in any meaningful sense until we first address the material conditions of our labor in this generative AI era.” - Mark Watkins
If I were you, I’d advocate for time and connection to make sense of this world we get to experience. Please let me know if I can help.
🖨️ I’m not attending CES, but Greg is
I’ve never been to the Consumer Electronics Show (January 7-10, 2025). And I might never have to, because my friend Greg always attends and always documents the cool stuff. You should follow along his journey, too.