A camel is a horse designed by a committee
People are fond of saying this. (Like, moderately fond).
I’ve heard it a lot throughout the course of my working life, often in relation to decision paralysis and frequently concerning the struggle of reconciling multiple stakeholder’s conflicting aesthetic considerations.
It’s a high-falutin way of saying “I’m not quite sure what this is and I’m not quite sure if I like it. At the very least, you’ve prioritised function over form.”
Yeah but here’s the thing: who wouldn’t want an all terrain assault ungulate that can run for a week without water and 2 months without fuel?
A camel can run at 65 kph.
In the winter a camel can go without drinking for about 6 months, potentially getting all the water it needs from eating vegetation.
In the 1850’s the US army formed (and admittedly disbanded quite rapidly) a Camel Corps for use in southern states. Incidentally, do you know how to tell the two types of camel apart? Glad you asked. A Dromedary camel has one hump, and a Bactrian camel has two humps.
A capitalised ‘D’ = one hump.
A capitalised ‘B’ = two humps.
It’s easy to think that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. It looks like a 14th century monk got asked to draw a dragon, despite never having left the monastery. It’s a wild fever dream of a creature; an ugly thing with strange appendages. You probably couldn’t invent a camel if you tried.
But a camel is also a highly efficient machine that is brilliantly fit for purpose.
Now, enjoying a weird relationship to the camel is this f*cking awful painting: In 1994 two artists - Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid - hired Marttila & Kiley, a polling firm, to survey the American public about the preferred stylistic and thematic choices in paintings. The two men wanted to create America’s most wanted painting. What they made wasn’t quite a camel - but aesthetically wasn’t far off.
44% percent of Americans prefer the colour blue.
64% like traditional art more than modern.
88% prefer pictures that show outdoor scenes
Etc Etc.
What’s my point?
(N.b. Here comes the all important pivot to What It Means for Professional Marketers) Brand and campaign creative are both the necessary bastard children of camels and art. Conduct the research, speak to people, collect views and opinions, make your little plans. Do the work, trust the process.
But don’t stop at the stats. Creative that’s just a reflection the data is (recent-ish, killer Spotify campaigns aside) isn’t really creative, it’s just colouring in.
You can’t sell a client a camel: no matter how practical they are, they look like someone crossbred a swan and donkey for desert warfare.
But you do need to figure out what the camel at the heart of your brand or campaign is. And then you need to make it into something someone wants to ride. (I have no idea if this metaphor has held up, happy Tuesday).