The Poseidon Effect
I was staring at my TV set to relax for a while. I had to clear my head no matter what the cost. Staring at some meaningless TV program seemed like a reasonable price to pay.
Anyway, I was so into clearing my head, that I found myself staring at an endless sequence of commercials as well. One of the commercials was for a luxury cruise on what seemed to be a fancy ship. I have to admit a cruise is far from being my dream vacation, but at that moment, with my brain hopelessly tried to call it a day, I thought for a moment this could actually be nice…
Half a second later, without any warning, everything changed. The smooth sea in my TV became rough and dark. The fancy ship was replaced with a wreck, half-floating on the stormy water. The shiny happy people on board were now soaking wet. They looked desperate. Some even cried for help. What happened to the cruise fantasy?
It took me ten more seconds to figure it out. The dream cruise commercial was placed back to back with a promo for the remake of Poseidon. Nice touch!
No matter how much the cruise commercial cost and how effective it was in focus groups, it was as good as the wreckage of the Poseidon. Just because it was broadcasted in a poor context. To say the least.
The lesson: everything is context-sensitive. Having a great idea is meaningless without checking it in context. Sometimes you will have to change your idea. Sometimes you will have to change the context. And sometimes your idea will fit perfectly in the context. In any case, you’d better figure it out as soon as possible.
