Creativity is great, but plagiarism is quicker

Imagine the scene. You're a creative type at Fusker & Trot advertising agency. Your day is a merry whirlwind of brand development brainstorming happenings, where you pontificate on the personality of support bandaging and the relevance of spirit levels to the post-nuclear family.

In between, you ingest impressive amounts of pharmaceuticals. (Actually, I don't know if this is bit is true of advertising types any more, I just copied and pasted it from obviousstereotypapedia.org).

"Great news, Jonty," cries your colleague through an amphetamine-fuelled fug. "We got the Berocca account." (I must stop with the drug references now. They're a bit lame).

The commission alone has got to be worth a new set of granite worktops for your Hoxton apartment. But. They need you to come up with a new TV ad for this effervescent yellow gooey health tablet thingy. It's so unfair. (Oh, I got the trendy apartment thing in. Must. Stop. Generalising).

You remember when it was all so different. You were running and ripping, ducking and weaving. Your ideas were the currency. They were the firm's lifeblood. But too many expense-account lunches have dulled your senses. You sit in front of a blank Mac screen, willing the inspiration to come. But it doesn't.

That night, idly flipping through the channels, you come across some list show. "The Twenty Most Popular Internet Virals." Oh God no, make it stop. Talking heads with tyre-fitter haircuts postulating on How We're All Directors Now. But one of the clips perks your interest, one that's been doing the rounds for several years and is renowned as one of the better ones:



That's one to file away.

Several weeks later, the new ad - your new ad - airs for the first time:



Well done, Jonty. I'd go for the Swedish fitments with that worktop, if I were you.