Bob Ross famously said "we don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents." The artist's philosophy focused on embracing the beauty that can be found in imperfections, celebrating those moments when chaos becomes choreography and shines a light on success hiding in the shadows of failure.
Bob was referring to his paintings, yet happy accidents can be found throughout the wider creative landscape, where the action of the team involved must be saluted for allowing chaos to do its dance, allowing room for magic to strut its stuff.
A celebrated example in advertising is the origin story of the Dulux dog. The shaggy haired Old English Sheepdog now synonymous with the global paint brand was never part of the script, the shooting board or the story. The director of the commercial had brought his dog to the shoot, where it kept breaking free and running on to play with the kids on set. The team watching on deemed the footage to be so adorable they kept it in and sixty three years later the Dulux dog is still going strong as one of the world's most recognisable brand icons on the planet.
A happy accident led to one of music's most enduring and iconic characters. When discussing the artwork for the follow up to the smash hit Ziggy Stardust the photographer asked what the album was to be called. David Bowie replied “A Lad Insane” - inspired by his brother who was suffering from schizophrenia. The photographer misinterpreted this verbal introduction as ‘Aladdin Sane’ and envisaged a genie and thoughts of rubbing a lamp. When presented with the concept, instead of correcting him, Bowie embraced the idea and weaving magic from the threads of misunderstanding killed off his most successful character, became Aladdin Sane and conquered the musical world.
Haus Of Lucy
Movie history was made thanks to a happy accident of food poisoning. Whilst filming an elaborate, choreographed sword fight for Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford was suffering from acute stomach issues. As the actor in front of Indy demonstrated his elaborate sword skills, Harrison needed to get back to the sanctuary of his bathroom tout de suite. Instead of fighting back with his own sword, as scripted, he speeded up the sequence, pulled out a gun and shot his aggressor. Spielberg liked it so much he kept it in.
One of my favourite happy accidents occurred during the creation of Team America: World Police. Whilst creating the figurines to be featured in the movie, the Matt Damon puppet came out of the kiln a bit melted, someone said it looked like 'Maaaaaattt Daaaamoooooooon'. The creative team laughed, scrapped the script and instead repeated these two words ad infinitum creating a global hit and an everlasting meme.
Maaat Daaaaaaaamooon
Today, especially in advertising we can sometimes be too quick to slam the brakes on anything that veers off-road. Tight deadlines and even tighter budgets see us eyeballing every line of every script, every syllable of every word and every pixel of every screen. But what if we dared to let chaos off its leash and gave some space to let the wild in? Sometimes the best ideas are the ones we stumble upon, for amidst the mess lies the magic. Accidents don't do the heavy lifting, but if you catch them in the act, they might just sprinkle something original, precisely because you never saw it coming.