From Todd LaRoche, EVP, Managing Director of Creative, Palio

Do you remember how, when you were a lot younger than today, you were allowed to roam from home on your bicycle in the afternoon, and your mother didn’t stress out over it?

Times have changed. Today, kids growing up can’t go anywhere very far without an adult escort. Is it that our environment is more dangerous today than it used to be… or is it that we know more about it and, therefore, are more anxious about what could happen? Either way, it seems that children today are being raised in a much more guarded environment; one that may not allow for the independent exploration of places and things as in the past. And yet, when I look around at the youngsters of today, I see more creative thinking and action than ever coming out of their heads and hands.

So, too, is our pharma marketing environment becoming ever more restrictive and watched over… surely for all the right reasons. Now, exploring new ground has increasingly large risks associated with it. So what do you think — is the more scrutinized environment a plus or a negative with regard to creative thinking? Does it tend to restrain creative thinking or, ironically, turbocharge it? In some respects, having to work out of a smaller box requires one to be even more creative.

As a Creative Director for the last 20 years or so, I can honestly say that, as the marketing environment I work in has become more restrictive, the work I see coming out of those I work with is not less creative but more creative. Maybe there’s an equation at work here: something about how the more one is restricted, the more creative one becomes to break free.

So to that I say, bring on the rules and regulations. We’re busting out with ever-more creative thinking and having fun doing it. What do you think about that?!