Filed under: Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Netflix, Relationships
I love documentaries.
I mean … properly love them.
I’ve not just watched thousands of them.
I’ve not just bought thousands of them.
I’ve even flown to other countries to meet the people who have appeared in them.
From murders to video games to losing artificial limbs … you name it, I’ve seen it.
There’s so many reasons I love them, one of them being that they act as a brilliant reminder that – as my parents always told me – everyone has a story. Something that reveals who the people are and how they got to where they are. A journey of enlightenment for either the person on the screen or those watching it. And sometimes both. Now I appreciate documentaries don’t always tell the whole truth – just the perspective of the director – but even then, they tell a hell of a lot more than a lot of the stuff my industry uses for ‘insight’.
Anyway recently I watched the documentary on Netflix on the TV show, American Gladiators.
Quite frankly, I never imagined it would take me on such an emotional rollercoaster. Triggering feelings that I never expected resided in me.
I won’t ruin it for anyone, but I would urge you to watch it.
Not just because it’s a fascinating story. Not just because it acts as a reminder that behind every story are a multitude of other stories that are more personal and interesting than the ‘main event’. But also because it may explain why I value creativity more than advertising.
Because put simply, creativity finds and expresses the interesting, whereas advertising often just manufactures it.