The “Inception” of Ideas

By Ted Page, Captains of Industry

(Spoiler alert – you may not want to read this if you haven’t seen the movie yet)

Last weekend I saw Inception, and it’s certainly a mind blower ­– but I couldn’t help but thinking that there is a much easier way to plant a powerful idea in someone’s head than drugging them and pulling them into the fourth level of dream state. Just do a really nice marketing campaign. Sure, you can call me a kill-joy, and I know the 4th level of dreaming and all the gunfire and mayhem made for a great popcorn gorging Hollywood wow-fest, but the fact is that the reason billions are spent on marketing each year is that, quite simply, it works. We get powerful ideas planted in our heads every day. And if you think you’re immune to this, you’re dreaming. Do you have an iPhone or a Droid? What kind of car do you drive? Are you wearing Nikes or Pumas? Somewhere, some time, inception took place in your brain so you made a choice about which brand to buy, and today’s version of Don Draper put it there. Without you even knowing it.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the power of dreams. I just think there’s a faster, easier way to tap into them and make them real. In fact, it’s what I do every day.