As a creative director trying to make my way back into an agency after being laid off a few months ago, it appears to me that the business (in Dallas, at least) is extremely partitioned. It seems nobody wants a cross-trained creative, they want a specialist for each particular client. And I think that “partitioning” could definitely contribute to a drop in original thinking among creatives.

Hi, Joanna, This is a favorite topic of mine. Schools not only don’t encourage creativity, they absolutely squelch it. I experienced it first-hand growing up in the NYC school system decades ago, and my kids have had any notions of drawing outside the line beaten down time and again throughout their school years in NJ. It’s all about conforming to the liberal norm and lifting the school’s and school district’s average test scores. Now more than ever, school SUCKS. And I don’t mind telling my kids I agree with their assessment 😉 Bennett

Firstly, I’m writing based on my own experiences and not on behalf of my employer.
The “lack of creativity” everyone has been talking about is often bec of silos, but I have found that is more often because of deliverables and reality.
The reality is that emerging media doesn’t have the same ROI models we have established for traditional digital media.
Additionally, too many agencies and marketers are looking for another way to yell their messages AT customers without considering the nature of the interactive environments. Users are there for a reason, and chances are it’s not to see advertisements.
Overall as an industry, we need to do a better job of explaining the emerging media dynamic to clients. Mainstream media loves sensationalism, be it Second Life or the iPhone. The expectations generated are unrealistic. We need to look at Emerging Media as a channel of it’s own, a channel in which we have the opportunity to converse with users in unique and new ways. We need to look at everything as a test and learn with reasonable deliverable expectations. This will only come through strategic emerging media activation.

yes I would agree that schools do a very poor job fostering creativity. It is IMO a reflection of society’s opinion of creativity and creatives in general. Having been a creative my whole life one gets the feeling we are second class citizens, unless we are of the few that have either money or celebrity. Creatives are boat rockers, and people seem to prefer their collective boat unrocked. So it is no wonder schools discourage any creative thought, behaviour or expression.
On the other point, having worked in advertising my whole career, I can point to one consistent theme responsible for a lack of creativity. And that falls squarely on ‘clients’ shoulders. No matter which side of the atlantic I have been on, or what agency I have worked at, one reoccuring theme is clients generally have no vision, no balls, no creativity. They want what they have seen before, unwilling to take risks or break new ground. I guess clients are coming out of the same education system as the rest of us, thus equally discouraged from creative thought. But to place the blame on agency seems unfair from my perspective. I’m sure clients will tell you they are unhappy with creativity, but if they were to honestly look at their input or contribution I fear they would find stifling lack of budget, thought, chutzpah.
But maybe I’m just unfortunate 🙂
Ken Robinson video was great BTW
adam