What is creative to whom and why? Perceptions in advertising agencies

The authors apply recent advances in creativity theory to discover perceptual differences in the factors of strategy, originality, and artistry among creatives and noncreatives. It was found that current advertising position influences subjective perceptions of what constitutes creative advertising. Creatives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are artistic, but account executives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are strategic. The study also indicates that creatives have a distinctive preference for a strong originality component to strategy. To be original within the confines of a tight strategy is perceived as the most creative by advertising creatives. Account executives are so focused on strategy, they will often accept artistic advertisements as a substitute for truly original work. The authors consider future research implications of the study and its limitations

How rhetoric theory informs the creative advertising development process

This paper explores rhetoric theory as a comprehensive theory of the advertising development process. It compares the five canons of rhetoric with the stages in the advertising development process to explore the possibility of finding parallels between them. Close examination and comparison suggest there are parallels. It goes further to examine whether the generative mechanisms of each canon have explanations for strategies employed in its equivalent stage in the advertising development process. To explore fully, principles extracted from rhetoric theory and a model developed from it subsequently found support in advertising practice and findings from advertising research. The theory states that the principles of rhetoric must undergird strategies in the advertising development process before persuasiveness can be guaranteed. This is the “big picture” perspective which the theory proffers for both research and practice

A Novel Impedance Biosensor for Measurement of Trans-Epithelial Resistance in Cells Cultured on Nanofiber Scaffolds

Nanofibrous scaffolds provide high surface area for cell attachment, and resemble the structure of the collagen fibers which naturally occur in the basement membrane and extracellular matrix. A label free and non-destructive method of assessing the interaction of cell tissue and scaffolds aids in the ability to discern the effective quality and magnitude of any scaffold modifications. Impedance cell spectroscopy is a biosensing method that employs a functional approach to assessing the cell monolayer. The electrical impedance barrier function of a cell monolayer represents the level of restriction to diffusion of charged species between all adjacent cells across an entire contiguous cellular monolayer. The impedance signals from many individual paracellular pathways contribute to the bulk measurement of the whole monolayer barrier function. However, the scaffold substrate must be entirely porous in order to be used with electrochemical cell impedance spectroscopy (ECIS) and cells must be closely situated to the electrodes. For purposes of evaluating cell-scaffold constructs for tissue engineering, non-invasive evaluation of cell properties while seeded on scaffolds is critical. A Transwell-type assay makes a measurement across a semi-permeable membrane, using electrodes placed on opposing sides of the membrane immersed in fluid. It was found that by suspending a nanofiber scaffold across a Transwell aperture, it is possible to integrate a fully functional nanofiber tissue scaffold with the ECIS Transwell apparatus. Salivary epithelial cells were grown on the nanofiber scaffolds and tight junction formation was evaluated using ECIS measurements in parallel with immunostaining and confocal imaging. The trans-epithelial resistance increased coordinate with cell coverage, culminating with a cell monolayer, at which point the tight junction proteins assemble and strengthen, reaching the peak signal. These studies demonstrate that ECIS can be used to evaluate tight junction formation in cells grown on nanofiber scaffolds and on effects of scaffold conditions on cells, thus providing useful biological feedback to inform superior scaffold designs

ROCK Inhibitor Increases Proacinar Cells in Adult Salivary Gland Organoids

Salisphere-derived adult epithelial cells have been used to improve saliva production of irradiated mouse salivary glands. Importantly, optimization of the cellular composition of salispheres could improve their regenerative capabilities. The Rho Kinase (ROCK) inhibitor, Y27632, has been used to increase the proliferation and reduce apoptosis of progenitor cells grown in vitro. In this study, we investigated whether Y27632 could be used to improve expansion of adult submandibular salivary epithelial progenitor cells or to affect their differentiation potential in different media contexts. Application of Y27632 in medium used previously to grow salispheres promoted expansion of Kit+ and Mist1+ cells, while in simple serum-containing medium Y27632 increased the number of cells that expressed the K5 basal progenitor marker. Salispheres derived from Mist1CreERT2; R26TdTomato mice grown in salisphere media with Y27632 included Mist1-derived cells. When these salispheres were incorporated into 3D organoids, inclusion of Y27632 in the salisphere stage increased the contribution of Mist1-derived cells expressing the proacinar/acinar marker, Aquaporin 5 (AQP5), in response to FGF2-dependent mesenchymal signals. Optimization of the cellular composition of salispheres and organoids can be used to improve the application of adult salivary progenitor cells in regenerative medicine strategies

Even bad clients deserve quality advertising: using the templates creative ideation technique to overcome the limitations of client quality

This paper examines how ideation techniques like the Templates method (Goldenberg, Mazursky and Solomon 1999) can overcome the limitations of poor client quality and low intrinsic motivation so to produce highly creative outcomes. We present a 2 X 4 experiment manipulating client quality and ideation techniques respectively, involving 207 working creatives in major agencies in South Africa and Nigeria. Each creative was asked to develop two ads in response to a hypothetical brief. Creatives’ self-reports were analysed using ANOVA and showed not all ideation techniques work in all client situations. The Unification template overcomes motivational limitations in situations of a poor quality client. Alternatively, the Metaphor template works well on average, little known client. The Extreme consequences template does not work well in either situation

The role of consumer insight in creative advertising development: essential aid or cognitive bias?

Advertising professionals praise the role of consumer insight in solving advertising problems creatively. Marketing clients and account planners claim to use insight to inject the necessary strategy into a campaign, building a creative platform upon which a brand connects with consumers. Although insight is widely seen as an invaluable aid, another perspective is that insight can create mental set fixation, a cognitive bias that reinforces only limited perspectives on a problem, thus inhibiting creativity. This study examines whether strong, weak or no primed insight conditions help or hinder professional creatives to develop highly creative advertising ideas, testing across two media, print and television. Self-assessments of creatives show that they see insight as compensating for low domain knowledge. However, assessments by objective judges, who are also creatives, show insight works by compensating for low intrinsic motivation. Although we show consumer insight can improve the quality of creative ideas, it should be carefully managed to produce consistently high-quality creative work

How does consumer insight support the leap to a creative idea inside the creative process: shifting the advertising appeal from functional to emotional

Account planners identify and articulate a key strategic resource, consumer insight, from which creative ideation is said to "leap." We argue that insight gives creatives a license to develop emotional advertising that connects with consumers. An experiment is performed using 60 working creatives who developed creative advertising ideas under three treatment conditions; a strong insight, a weak one and a no primed insight control. Although the knowledge domains creatives use in executions appear similar across the three conditions, providing insight leads to more emotional appeals rather than functional ones, especially for strong insight

The impact of deep-sea fisheries and implementation of the UNGA Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72. Report of an international scientific workshop

The scientific workshop to review fisheries management, held in Lisbon in May 2011, brought together 22 scientists and fisheries experts from around the world to consider the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions on high seas bottom fisheries: what progress has been made and what the outstanding issues are. This report summarises the workshop conclusions, identifying examples of good practice and making recommendations in areas where it was agreed that the current management measures fall short of their target