Is Advertising Creativity Primarily an Individual or a Social Process?

Abstract

Much has been written academically and professionally about the creative process in advertising. Most of the literature has focused on the individual and intrapersonal cognitive processes or on techniques to improve the creativity of the output. This article takes a broader perspective by adapting a social-systems model of creativity, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1988), and applying it in an interpretative analysis of 10 years of "Moment of Creation" case history articles that appeared in AGENCY magazine from 1991 to 2001. The articles sought to illuminate the sources and methods of creative inspiration in advertising and were based on interviews with key individuals, who were responsible for the creation of some of the most successful advertising ideas of the past decade. This analysis demonstrated that the social-systems model provides a more dynamic and comprehensive understanding of the creative process by illuminating the roles of the field that selects advertising ideas, the cultural domain that preserves ideas, and the collaborative process of teams that creates ideas.