New creatives are starving for attention.

‘If only enough people would just pay attention I could get this thing off the ground.
And usually the suggested solutions are all about making it as comfortable as possible for people to check out the video, click on the link or visit the place.

“How can we make people comfortable”?

But what if we went the other way? What if we don’t want to simply make it comfortable?
What if we made the edges sharper, the color palette more strict, the theme more specific, took a firmer stand and pushed it to the extremes, inevitably creating discomfort for many, but making it perfect for a few.

I remember listening to this podcast with Alice Cooper’s manager. Their strategy back in the day was simple but brilliant. They figured out all they had to do is focus on getting parents to hate Alice Cooper as much as possible. Then the teens would come running.

This is not unlike Lil Nas X’s strategy on his recent “Montero” devilish video, where he’s unapologetically queer and gives the devil a lap dance in a video full of psychedelic biblical inspired imagery.

Usually, when we release creative work, we tend to say “this is going to be helpful, and it’s well crafted, I’m proud.” What’s  more difficult but also incredibly useful is to say all that and add “and that’s going to make people uncomfortable.”

George Kroustallis // Minorstep