Steal My Ideas, Please

2-step process for generating ideas, recommended by a Japanese ad agency.
A marketing guru’s take on trusting your gut instincts.
10 steps for boosting creativity. 
Idea Spotting: Another set of 10 tips. 
 
 

Stamped these ideas of mine as “Rejected” for this blog. Might make possible skit material for Saturday Night Live, however. 
Book: Bram Stoker’s Barney.
Root beer beer.
T-skirts.
Wheel of Fortune cookies. Big cookies, with colored triangles and letters. Maybe that’s on one side. There’s a puzzle on the other.
Funnybones. A comic strip about skeletons.
Movie: Night of the Loving Dead.
Groucho […]

Maybe I’m daft. I just think the gentle humor of the old Rocky and His Friends cartoons would work in short, funny novels for kids. Or maybe make them two parts, with a Fractured Fairy Tale or Mr. Peabody story in-between. Not talking comic books or graphic novels, though illustrations are always nice. Looking for a […]

Making trades, starting with a big red paperclip, and getting a house.
Top 10 Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made It Big Time.
The card game Set. An elegant mental challenge based on a simple idea.
 
 

There’s the Useful Edition: 5 more ways to tie a tie. How to tell better jokes. How to listen. What to get for Mother’s Day. 5 foods that lower cholesterol. 5 foods that raise it. Painting without spattering. And so. Then there’s the Trivia Edition: Your basically useless but interesting facts. Could also have the Brain Food Edition, which, […]

It’s a book. Or a website. Or both. Too chicken to propose? Or ask for a raise? Or ride a roller coaster? This collection has a speech for you. Thinking of getting a divorce? Quitting a job? Jumping off a bridge? There are talks to talk you out of things, too. In other cases, you face […]

Remember the XFL? Wrestling czar Vince McMahon tried to make a go of spring football without the pro wrestling gimmicks. It flopped. Should have had (a) mad fumble-recovery like scrambles at midfield each half instead of kickoffs, and (b) mascot fights at halftime. Beaks, feet, fur, even heads go flying. 

Here’s how my son, Alex, became the Invisible Man one Halloween. Suspended a hat in midair on top of two black coathanger wires. The wires were attached to a setup he wore on his head. A skinny piece of wood ran across that to simulate shoulders. That in turn held up a sweater with big enough holes to […]

Here’s an exercise in creativity teachers can try with students. Ask:
How many ways are there to get Godzilla to the other side of the Great Wall of China?
Let’s show how breaking down the possibilities can generate all sorts of ideas.
1. The direct approach. Godzilla gets over the wall under his own power by … climbing, jumping, pole-vaulting, pogo-sticking, […]

World’s easiest job, right? Probably not, but doesn’t everybody think so? “I drive a car, so why couldn’t I tell Ford or Chevy how to improve cars, and get paid for it?” Well, let’s give a bunch of regular people just that chance. Each week, they visit another major corporation (can you say sponsors, boys […]

Hello! Why is a cutout fine for many companies, but others insist on adding unnecessary plastic to the recycling of paper? Ban it.

If they can put talking or singing chips in birthday cards, you know it’s gotta happen with food. Probably a no-brainer figuring out how to add this feature to parts we don’t eat, like lollipop or popsicle sticks or cups or lids or bags or wrappers. But why? Contests (”You’re a winner!”). Advertising. Product identity. […]

Ever use that algebra and calculus you learned in high school? Most people don’t, I’ll bet. But every day we make decisions or encounter information involving odds and numerical evidence. Play poker? Buy a lottery ticket? Decide to fly or drive? Read a story about how married people live longer? Or how a drug cuts the risk of a rare […]

We have days for honoring military heroes, but why not a holiday to honor other people who risked their lives to protect and save their fellow man? Police. Fire fighters. Transplant donors. Rescuers from accidents and disasters. Extend gratitude to doctors, teachers, parents, too. If as a society we’re not going to pay these people as well […]

Need an idea for a novel or other book?
Have a product in need of a good name or gimmick?
Have a project you’ve started that’s hit an impasse?
Have a nonprofit in need of an original fund-raising event or reward idea? 
Feel free to email me and pick my brains.
Can’t promise miracles or magic. But like chicken soup, couldn’t […]