andrew tindall

How 10 human ideas found their way to Times Square

An accidental partnership with Parker Pens and creatives around the world.

A few weeks ago, I spotted a brilliant ad idea shared by Kushagra Oberoi for @parkerpen and it went viral, mainly because it highlighted the tension between the human thinking you can do with a great pen. Vs getting AI to do the thinking for you.

It caught the attention of creatives worldwide who wanted to get involved, so I worked with @system1group and @oneminutebriefs to challenge the creative community to share their ideas with one very simple but powerful brief: In the age of AI, #SellMeThisPen

Hundreds of ideas were shared. It then caught the attention of the Parker Pens team. We all worked together to select the ten winning ideas, and they've funded the work to put them in Times Square, New York.

Here's the ten ads that got selected with ThINK being the winner in System1 creative testing.

A great lesson in something that a lot of effective advertising has in common: finding a shared tension and getting to a simple idea that dramatises it. And of course, no matter how good technology gets, there will always be a place for human creativity.

Photo credits: Nasdaq