I drive a '99 Toyota Corolla.
It was given to me by my grandmother on my 16th birthday.
This car is in such great shape that it may be around after gasoline has run out.
But that's not the most amazing thing about it.
My friends fondly, or perhaps not so fondly for those in the back seat, refer to it as "the field mouse".
Because my car fits pretty much anywhere.
It goes places cars simply aren't meant to go.
Barricades that bar other cars to entry are just wide enough for my car to fit through.
Parking spots too small for most cars accomodate my car perfectly.
(though that is also thanks to the great turning radius)
Needless to say my car is breaking - or bending at the very least - the rules of what cars should do.
I also have a propensity to do this.
To finagle my way into places I should quite be.
For instance I got a floor seat at the Maya Angelou lecture at my university.
This lecture was held in the athletic center on campus.
It was free and open to all students.
But we were instructed to sit on the bleachers.
well that didn't sit quite right with me.
I wanted a good comfortable seat with a back.
So five minutes in to the lecture there I was with my own floor seat.
I didn't pay for this seat, and I didn't steal one from the paying customers.
What I did do was know where they kept the folding chairs for the athletic teams.
I grabbed one of these and set it up in one of the back rows of floor seats.
When some people hear these stories they say it's unfair.
Or, "If everyone did that there would be no room to move around on the floor."
Tht's true, but not everyone is doing it.
The same goes for advertising.
The last thing you want to do is do exactly what you're told.
Or fit in where you are supposed to fit in.
Because advertising, and getting in to advertising, is about sticking out.
Tthe things that you do that are vastly different from everyone else are the things that will get you noticed.
And that's exactly what you should strive for.
As Dave Trott tweeted at me, after an embarassing gaffe on my part, "It's more important to be interesting than to be right."