My YouTube ad of the week: James Hilton, AKQA

James Hilton, chief creative officer, AKQA

Why I like it

Lego is cool. Star Wars is cool. Poo is funny. QED; this is cool and funny. I wanted to leave it there, but I must at least give the illusion that I’m educated.
 
That illusion will often take the form of searching for a deeper meaning within the work, or will somehow manage to spin it back to something I’ve done (Creative Director 101). But you know what? It’s not high-brow or ‘a statement piece’, but it made me laugh – and I took the time to show someone, and in my book that makes it good. Maybe it’s because I like Lego, Star Wars and poo jokes, but that’s fine because in that case they got their target spot on. It reminds me of something Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) wrote regarding his ‘equation for humor’. It goes something like this:
 
Recognisable + Cute + Evil = Funny.  
 
He gave the example of Catbert, the evil HR Director in the Dilbert stories. Catbert is a cat = cute. Everyone knows that cats don’t care about anyone but themselves = recognizable. Give the cat management powers to enable sadistic treatment of employees = evil. This Lego thing has got all of that; Star Wars and Lego = recognizable; little stormtrooper = cute; scaring the little stormtrooper = evil. Well there you go; a validated equation and model for being brilliantly funny – my planners will be happy.

This article was first published on Campaign YouTube