The Houdini Solution: Why Thinking Inside the Box Is the Key to Creativity

This is simply a great, revealing read. I probably own every "here's how to do superior advertising work" book ever published, and have even read one or two. But Schenck has finally given up art directors' and copywriters' greatest secret: we WANT to be boxed in. Limitations lead to intense focus and creative, laser-like communications. Who knew? (well, some of us did, but now even clients do.) Gee, thanks Ernie.

Contrary to ad-world myth, good advertising is not created by gods who inhabit an unachievable pantheon of genius. This book affirms that small staffs, limited dollars, and constraints of the sort that all creative people live with can be overcome, and may also drive better thinking. The Houdini Solution puts creative excellence in the hands of mortals. Bar the doors, the secret is out.

What a simple, elegant concept - thinking inside the box - the precept shattering perspective behind The Houdini Solution. Not only is it brilliant, it's damn true. The best ideas often do happen in the box, and, with all the realities beyond our control, if you can't succeed there, well, good luck. As a creative thinking coach, weekly I work in different industries helping people find fresh ideas. I have yet to encounter an area in business - hell, any area of human endeavor - that doesn't have to deal with a box, be it the boss' preconceptions, the industry's regulations, the budget, the deadline, whatever. Ernie Schenck points out, in story after story, illustration after illustration, some very big ideas that emerged not only in spite of the box, but frequently because of it. I won't steal the thunder here. Read the book. The only major flaw most readers might find between these pages is that it takes away almost all your excuses for not having great ideas.

As a fellow resident of the box (that is, a copywriter like Senor Schenck) I highly recommend this book. It's brimming with insights from the first word to the last. My favorite passage involves the now often told tale of the Israeli rescue at Entebbe in 1976. Ernie attributes the incredible success of that operation to a finely sculpted strategy, 'get the hostages out.' If only our world were inhabitated by thinkers with such clarity and focus. Maybe if more numbskulls read this book, it would be.

It's one thing to come up with a provocative insight. It's quite another to make a case for it so airtight Houdini himself would have a hard time wriggling out of it. But that's what Mr. Schenck does here. His core premise flies in the face of conventional wisdom: that rather than trying to "think outside the box", one is far more likely to arrive at genuinely creative, innovative solutions by making the most of what's "inside the box." In other words, all those things that are normally considered to be impediments to the process--short deadlines, minuscule budgets, recalcitrant clients and tight strategies--can actually be inspirational providing they are looked at in the right way, a point he drives home again and again with instructive examples and amusing anecdotes. All of which may come as a rude awakening to the many corporations and advertising agencies that subscribe to this "out of the box" notion. (And employ legions to consultants to steer them in the direction of this mythical destination.) But if it motivates a few of them to get out of this "box" trap, they'll have the inside track to more creative, innovative ideas.