When I was 60 a volcano in Iceland erupted and sent an ash cloud over much of Western Europe. I was channel-surfing the TV that night, looking for more information about the event, when I was stopped by a program on PBS.

I don’t know the name of the show or the expert it featured, but I can describe the subject matter. It was about how to motivate a mind to work, and the difference between brain lobes.

Groups of people were given a problem to solve. The challenge was described as famous but I’d never heard of it. Each person was given a candle, a book of matches, and a box of thumbtacks. The object was to get the candle to stick to a wall, lit.

Some people were told they’d receive money for solving it. Some were told the sooner they solved the more money they’d get. Some were just told to solve it.

The narrator indicated that all subjects tried the same methods. First they’d use a match and try to soften one edge of the candle so it would stick on the wall. Fail.

Then they’d try to create a candle support by pushing some tacks into the wall, but they couldn’t build a ledge sufficient to do the job.

Finally, they’d get to the solution. That involved emptying the thumbtack box, using the tacks to attach the lid of the box to the wall so that the body of the box formed a cardboard “sconce,” softening the bottom of the candle with a match to affix it to the sconce, and then lighting the candle. Voila!

That was all very interesting, but not as much as what came next. The average solution time for the individuals in the financially-compensated group was eleven minutes. The folks who were asked to just solve it only needed seven minutes.

The narrator went on to explain. He said when a problem requires left lobe analytical solution, the traditional motivators (carrot-and-stick) work. But for a problem requiring right lobe creativity, financial incentive distracts the thinker and slows the process.

There was more, but I’m sure you get it. Left lobe money and right lobe creativity. Simply put, “creative marketing” is an oxymoron.
Q.E.D.

To be continued…