How do you know inspiration when you see it?

I recently visited Berlin and took the ‘hopper bus’ around the city.

I have realised that although one looks moronic and touristy, sitting there with your headphones and a crumpled map (something my younger self would be appalled at the very notion of) it really is the best way to see a city in a couple of days.

I’d shot a commercial for Citroen there, back in the day, and I’ve visited a few times for meetings with clients but you never really see a city properly that way.

So there we are, being horribly touristy, when we pass this building – Zeughaus or ‘old arsenal’ on Unter den Linden boulevard, which is now a historical museum.

As we passed, the statues of soldiers lined up on the roof they struck me as rather wonderful, both eery and strikingly poignant.

I can only describe the simultaneous feeling of delight as akin to having uncovered a clue in a Da Vinci code-style novel.

Did the creators of Project 84 visit Berlin and see the same building?

Who knows, but the similarity was striking.

I don’t suppose the creatives even knew this was inspiration of any kind until they needed an idea.

And then one of them remembered taking a hopper bus in Berlin one time…

As has been said before by many more celebrated creatives than I, if you are a working creative person you need to go out and feed your mind with inspiration. Films, books, galleries, youtube, comedy shows – even video games.

But ‘inspiration’ is tricky, because the things that you would think are inspiring – at least the obvious ones – are often new techniques or technology that can be pounced upon and plundered instantly. Consequently, despite their usefulness, they are used up quickly and often multiple times by multiple people.

The thing to remember is that everything is inspiration. It might be in a garden centre or a Masai tribesman’s mud hut or a street performer.

And it’s the places you would least likely find it that are arguably the most surprising.

Here’s a couple of unlikely examples:

I recall having a similar epiphany, a bit like discovering how a magic trick was done, years ago when Levis were winning everything at the awards for their TV ads.

In the 90s BBH were the cool kids and everything they touched turned to gold. This was one of the more successful ones, titled ‘Creek’.

I may not be the first to point this out, but this is a Benny Hill sketch isn’t it? beautifully shot, directed and conceived but Benny Hill all the same.

Okay, we’ll let you off stealing a sketch from a 70’s Tv show.

But then, flushed with their successful formula, they went and made ‘Drugstore’.

Created by Nick Worthington and John Gorse, and shot by Michel Gondry, where the cheeky pharmacist sells some condoms to a young buck, which backfires later that evening with hilarious consequences.

It’s beautifully crafted, edited and shot and hardly recognisable as a TV sketch. The set design is impeccable and the direction by Gondry, down to the slight frame flicker is exquisite.

But a Benny Hill sketch it is.

And so what, right?

Inspiration? stealing? …it’s a blurred line.

You may remember a campaign for British gas in the 90s where the line was ‘Don’t you just love being in control?’ featuring a cast of celebs from Bob Hoskins to Burt Reynolds. The mnemonic at the end where the stars snap their thumbs and a flame pops up, won the agency the business.

But where did that come from?

I have it on good authority it was this.

I’ll leave you with this story about John Webster, the undisputed greatest creative of the ‘TV era’, courtesy of Patrick Collister, who currently can be found helping people to think creatively here

Bear in mind this commercial is nearly 40 years old – so I am not sure if it’s an early example of diversity or a terrible racist stereotype. Things like this age weirdly, so you can be the judge.