Derren Brown and How Advertising Works

My dad sent me this. Wow, I am utterly impressed. Derren Brown apparently knows how to "suggest" things to people, and get them to believe stuff that's not true. He's using several techniques, but what it looks like is that he breaks unconscious patterns, presents commands, uses hidden words as suggestions and distracts.

This video I'm presenting has to do with a couple of advertisers that Derren "hires" to come up with something for him in a short amount of time.



What I think is really cool here is that one of my teachers a long time ago told me that art is stealing. What he meant was that everything we create comes from our memories, and our memories are a collection of things we've seen, heard, read, whatever.

Now, I believe (contrary to what most people try to convince me of) that there is in fact original creations, original ideas, and never-before-seen inventions or works. Sure, maybe they are built using memories of things that have been seen, but I believe individuals can take an idea farther than it has ever been taken.

Now, this video shows that we are highly suggestible, and as visual artists, even more so. I am most definitely always on the lookout for interesting things. Like variations in repetitive things, graffiti, logos, websites, flowers...anything.

It all goes in, then flops around in there for a while, then comes out sooner or later.

I'm going to be watching some more of his videos here.