Ideasicle Expert Profile: Ernie Schenck, Houdini, And The Box

Ah, the great Ernie Schenck. I still can’t believe he’s in the Ideasicle Expert ranks. The first time I’d heard of Ernie he was a competitor at Pagano, Schenck & Kay (he was the Schenck part), while I was a lowly account puke at Leonard/Monahan. But I got to see Ernie in action several times years later when I was at Arnold when he freelanced on a few pitches. Not that he needed auditions for Ideasicle X. The man is an award-winning advertising legend. But I do remember being impressed with his lateral thinking and ability to tell great, human stories.

Well, he wrote a book that is a must-read for anyone in advertising. You could say it’s a story about a box. Ernie, take it away.

My whole life, I was told that creativity meant thinking outside the box. I’m pretty sure it was that way for all of us. The message was clear. If you wanted to free yourself to think creatively, there could be no walls, no barriers or constrictions of any kind.

Okay.

But when I thought about it, it didn’t make any sense. Almost everything in our lives is a box. Our jobs. Our relationships. How young or old we are. A million other things. They’re all boxes. So it stood to reason that if you couldn’t figure out a way to be creative within those walls, well, you weren’t going to get very far.

It was just such an illuminating idea to me that I decided to write a book about it. The Houdini Solution was inspired by the legendary escape artist’s ability to find a way to get out of a box filled with water while wrapped in locks and chains.

While I was working on Houdini, there seemed to be no end to the stories of how the human imagination, when confronted with obstacles, is capable of some pretty incredible ideas.

The Blair Witch Project is one of the most profitable movies in history. It had a budget of something like $50,000 which forced the filmmakers to come up with a marketing campaign unlike anything Hollywood had ever seen. Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace, its biggest rival that summer, had a budget of $115 million. Yeah, it was successful but nowhere near as profitable.

I love the one about Jack White of the White Stripes. Jack didn’t just work around obstacles. He invented them. The guy put so many restrictions on himself in the studio, it was crazy. No computers. No technology invented after 1968. No bass guitars.

It’s a kind of forced creative captivity. It’s not for everybody but what it does do is force you to focus more on concept and less on the latest, shiny digital toys. It’s a problem that’s only gotten worse as the human imagination falls increasingly vulnerable to technology.

Since I wrote the book, I’ve done a 30 minute pre-recorded workshop and plan on including a periodic feature on creativity and obstacles in my upcoming newsletter, Strange Alchemy.

Nothing is unthinkable.

Ernie lives our “Nothing is unthinkable” line. As you can imagine, given his philosophies stated above, with every Ideasicle X project he brings optimism, hope, and an ability to look at every problem differently. And he’s a great team player, always encouraging others and building on their ideas. Recruit Ernie for your next Ideasicle X project and see for yourself.

You can try to put him in a box, but, like Houdini, he’ll likely escape.

Nothing is unthinkable!
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