The Hornets' Nest Responds
This week saw One Minute Briefs and it's followers accused of objectifying women in some of their entries to the daily briefs. Some of the entries had caused offence. And that's absolutely fine. You have every right to be offended. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
However, I'd like to quote Ricky Gervais here:
"I think offence is the collateral damage of freedom of speech. But just because you are offended doesn't mean you're right."
The debate was started by the following tweet:
Although it generated conversation, it was divisive in it's tone and held up examples of people's work in an unfair way. I find this way of doing things passive aggressive and tantamount to bullying.
The very title of that article is worrying.
The term 'kicking a hornet's nest' by definition is to aggravate and cause conflict.
And, that it did.
It is to be expected that people will defend their community whilst having it 'kicked'.
And, as the founder of One Minute Briefs, I am going to also defend the community.
First of all, One Minute Briefs is a platform for generating ideas. Our simple process is One Rule. One Minute. Create an ad. We aren't governed by the ASA. We don't have the restrictions the creative industry brings with it and there's a reason for that. Here, you are encouraged to put down your first ideas. As human beings, this often leads us to puns or innuendos. I see this often when doing 'live' One Minute Briefs at events. It's not a choice. It's creative instinct. Some can be risque, lewd, rude, nude or crude. And, to me, that is fine. I encourage people to not hold back, within reason.
And yes, there have been times when I have asked people to take their submissions down as they have gone too far with them. It is something I keep an eye on and if it crosses the boundaries of what I find acceptable it will not be shared. However, the very nature of what we do has to push the boundaries. Or it would not exist. It is always going to offend people from time to time. But we cannot restrict people's creativity.
Sometimes we run more light-hearted briefs like the one to advertise 'lingerie' on Wednesday. Some of which were called into question for objectifying women.
Again, these ads were for LINGERIE and as David Felton mentioned:
"It's almost as if people made shocking provocative ads for the shocking provocative lingerie brand."
Sometimes we set such briefs as 'advertise sausages' and you're always going to get the knob gags. Sometimes it's to advertise 'Melons'. Now what comes into your head straight away? Exactly.
Risque posters are always going to happen. As long as it doesn't go too far I encourage people to share these ideas. A lot of them won't ever make it as real ads. But the people who have been doing One Minute Briefs consistently for the last few years are now consistently creating stunning ads every single day. Gone are the puns or innuendo and a complete simplicity of thought is there for all to see. People are clever enough to make up their own minds on what is acceptable and as they see the winning work each day, they learn what a good idea is and why it wins.
Aside from this, I'm an advocate of equal rights and I point you to the amazing work that has been shared via OMB with campaigns for Creative Equals, against the gender pay cap and our campaign for #InternationalWomensDay. It's important to remember the amazing things that this community has done and achieved. Especially in relation to sexism. Which is why I was appalled by the decision to label OMB as a patriarchy. This was a ridiculous comment considering we've done more for the causes of sexual discrimination than most people ever will.
And as you can see from the female responses below, this is far from a patriarchy.
Overall, I find it a shame that this amazing Twitter community was harmed by the words and actions of others with their own perceived superiority. People's views were dismissed out of hand and they have been made to feel small due to the way this issue was created. I find that unacceptable.
I have received numerous messages of support following the past few days as it has, intentionally or not, had a negative effect on everyone as a whole (including myself). Why should I continue to put so much time and effort into maintaining and building something great only for it to be knocked down by others? But then I think how much the OMBLES have done for me and all the amazing stories that have come from it. So this is, in fact, actually a minor blip on that journey.
What we have to remember is that these are ONE MINUTE BRIEFS. We want you to share your first thought. If you start having doubts about what to put down on the page, that's where you go wrong. The page will be left empty. And that's not to say your first idea will be right. It might take a few more...but it's important that you continue to share without the worry that it will offend. Everything offends someone in one way or another. Where do we draw the line? OMB is about creating ideas without fear and the more fear we instil, the less effective this way of generating ideas is.
And that is why I will not be enforcing any rules or putting any more vetting of ads into place. It is entirely up to the individuals as to what they share. And I fully support that.
If the debate and article changes the way people think then well done. You have your right to an opinion. And so do I.
This week saw One Minute Briefs and it's followers accused of objectifying women in some of their entries to the daily briefs. Some of the entries had caused offence. And that's absolutely fine. You have every right to be offended. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
However, I'd like to quote Ricky Gervais here:
"I think offence is the collateral damage of freedom of speech. But just because you are offended doesn't mean you're right."
The debate was started by the following tweet:
Firstly, this was a very open ended question that invited people to like and retweet in order to draw attention toward their agenda and One Minute Briefs as a whole. A simple direct message to the people who created the very few ads in question would have done. But this was done in such a way that, in my opinion, was wrong, self-righteous and potentially very damaging to an amazing community.
Throughout the day, the debate continued. However, it was a very one-sided affair as any comments of support from the OMB community were laughed at and dismissed out of hand as more people were tagged in to cause more conflict in a mob-handed effort.
Although it generated conversation, it was divisive in it's tone and held up examples of people's work in an unfair way. I find this way of doing things passive aggressive and tantamount to bullying.
This all led to an article posted out over Linkedin to give the issue more attention. An article littered with false information. It was suggested that the 'harmful' Protein World (again an opinion) was applauded by the community. To suggest that 14.5k people applaud an advert is incorrect. As an individual I am of the opinion that there was nothing wrong with that ad at all. However, not everyone will agree. And that's ok.
I am unsure where the talk of white male privilege came from also. OMB is very diverse and some of the examples of sexist adverts were created by women.
The article is available to read below:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/girl-kicked-hornets-nest-lesson-personal-activism-sara-keeganThe very title of that article is worrying.
The term 'kicking a hornet's nest' by definition is to aggravate and cause conflict.
And, that it did.
It is to be expected that people will defend their community whilst having it 'kicked'.
And, as the founder of One Minute Briefs, I am going to also defend the community.
First of all, One Minute Briefs is a platform for generating ideas. Our simple process is One Rule. One Minute. Create an ad. We aren't governed by the ASA. We don't have the restrictions the creative industry brings with it and there's a reason for that. Here, you are encouraged to put down your first ideas. As human beings, this often leads us to puns or innuendos. I see this often when doing 'live' One Minute Briefs at events. It's not a choice. It's creative instinct. Some can be risque, lewd, rude, nude or crude. And, to me, that is fine. I encourage people to not hold back, within reason.
And yes, there have been times when I have asked people to take their submissions down as they have gone too far with them. It is something I keep an eye on and if it crosses the boundaries of what I find acceptable it will not be shared. However, the very nature of what we do has to push the boundaries. Or it would not exist. It is always going to offend people from time to time. But we cannot restrict people's creativity.
Sometimes we run more light-hearted briefs like the one to advertise 'lingerie' on Wednesday. Some of which were called into question for objectifying women.
Again, these ads were for LINGERIE and as David Felton mentioned:
"It's almost as if people made shocking provocative ads for the shocking provocative lingerie brand."
Sometimes we set such briefs as 'advertise sausages' and you're always going to get the knob gags. Sometimes it's to advertise 'Melons'. Now what comes into your head straight away? Exactly.
Risque posters are always going to happen. As long as it doesn't go too far I encourage people to share these ideas. A lot of them won't ever make it as real ads. But the people who have been doing One Minute Briefs consistently for the last few years are now consistently creating stunning ads every single day. Gone are the puns or innuendo and a complete simplicity of thought is there for all to see. People are clever enough to make up their own minds on what is acceptable and as they see the winning work each day, they learn what a good idea is and why it wins.
Aside from this, I'm an advocate of equal rights and I point you to the amazing work that has been shared via OMB with campaigns for Creative Equals, against the gender pay cap and our campaign for #InternationalWomensDay. It's important to remember the amazing things that this community has done and achieved. Especially in relation to sexism. Which is why I was appalled by the decision to label OMB as a patriarchy. This was a ridiculous comment considering we've done more for the causes of sexual discrimination than most people ever will.
And as you can see from the female responses below, this is far from a patriarchy.
Overall, I find it a shame that this amazing Twitter community was harmed by the words and actions of others with their own perceived superiority. People's views were dismissed out of hand and they have been made to feel small due to the way this issue was created. I find that unacceptable.
I have received numerous messages of support following the past few days as it has, intentionally or not, had a negative effect on everyone as a whole (including myself). Why should I continue to put so much time and effort into maintaining and building something great only for it to be knocked down by others? But then I think how much the OMBLES have done for me and all the amazing stories that have come from it. So this is, in fact, actually a minor blip on that journey.
What we have to remember is that these are ONE MINUTE BRIEFS. We want you to share your first thought. If you start having doubts about what to put down on the page, that's where you go wrong. The page will be left empty. And that's not to say your first idea will be right. It might take a few more...but it's important that you continue to share without the worry that it will offend. Everything offends someone in one way or another. Where do we draw the line? OMB is about creating ideas without fear and the more fear we instil, the less effective this way of generating ideas is.
And that is why I will not be enforcing any rules or putting any more vetting of ads into place. It is entirely up to the individuals as to what they share. And I fully support that.
If the debate and article changes the way people think then well done. You have your right to an opinion. And so do I.