Admit it: you were quite happy to receive this work-interrupting afternoon e-mail, because the task that you are working on right now is, how should I put it, well, it’s kind of stupid.
But there’s good news for you that hopefully will forever change the way you think about your work: According to a new Diesel advertising campaign, stupid is the new black – so from now on, instead of being frustrated, you should instead rejoice: the more stupid your work, the cooler you are.
The internet says that Banksy said (I can’t find the original “Adbusters” magazine source): “The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.”
The following excerpt from the 2010 Diesel Be Stupid campaign is one of the most beautiful proofs that the first part of Banksy’s claim may indeed contain an element of truth:
If the youtube video does not succeed in convincing you to re-evaluate the meaningfulness of your work, at the very least, it may offer you exciting new insights about the obscure lyrics of the song “Somethin’ Stupid”, which has puzzled listeners at least since 1966. Is it subtle irony, perhaps to loosely disguise a teen sort of rejection? Is it profound social critique, revealing the absurdity of social interactions via phrases? The Diesel advertising campaign ads to this list an interesting new interpretation: Perhaps the singers are cleverly understating their knowledge of true 21st century coolness. Here the 2001 rendition by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman:
Have a stupid week,
Eric