Reverse Living

In a recent post, I shared a TV ad produced by Leo Burnett Italia called "Underwater World" that won the 2007 Clio Grand Prize. While poking around on the net, I discovered another ad also produced by Leo Burnett Italia. It runs forty seconds: check it out.

This is a powerful ad. And I hope its message is heeded by those at whom it is directed.

But it reminded me of what a wonderful mind-opening technique looking at things in a reverse manner can be.

Here is one of my favorite examples of "reverse." I'll quote a section from my book, A Whack on the Side of the Head, called "Reverse Living":

Life is tough. It takes up all your time, all your weekends, and what do you get at the end of it? Death, a great reward. The life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, and get it out of the way. Then you live for twenty years in an old age home, and then get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch and then you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college and party until you’re ready for high school. Then you go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.

What can you look at backwards? How might you see it in a fresh way?

Comments

[Mario Vellandi]

Roger,
The following video also employs reverse or slow motion. powerful message on safe driving.

A reconstruction made by the Australian TAC road safety shows you the difference 5 km/h can make:
http://tinyurl.com/ypgdqh

[mindblob]

Roger,

Slow motion adds more impact as well. Simple and challenging our minds indeed.
And wow! : "...you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye". Love that image. : )

Isn't "looking backwards" what one could call "experience"?

[Peter]

"...you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye"
That's more romantic... The version I knew ended up in an orgasm. ;)

Kierkegaard said: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" This is ok I guess if you manage to learn from your past and live your life wiser.

A beating heart must contract and relax. I guess that if I can see the "contract" part of my life as a reverse relaxation, maybe it would feel just as good. :)

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger,

It's like listening to a country music song on rewind: you get your wife back, the car, the great job, etc.

I see Luc's point on connecting the dots, in retrospect. Yet, let's not forget that the beauty of learning is also trying new things and if we already see an outcome (not *the* outcome, mind you), we will not do that.

There's a song by Italian pop start Ornella Vanoni that tells her story from break up to not even being born to seeing her mother in love -- how beautiful her mother in love is, she sings. It's in the album, Noi le Donne Noi (in case anyone is interested).

[Roger von Oech]

Mario: that's an amazing ad — thanks for the link!

Luc: You're right about slo-mo. Check out Mario's link.

Peter: Do you have "a gleam in your eye today?" I've always liked that Kierkegaard quote.

Valeria: Good points about "outcome." And country songs backwards.

[Valeria Maltoni]

And let's not forget we're talking about Italia here. Pure creativity and grace, a dash of elegance, and some street smarts on top.

[Roger von Oech]

Valeria: Didn't you have a photo of your mother in her early twenties on your site recently? (Perhaps with a gleam in her eye?) Yea, Italia -- home of lovers, artist, and the world champions!

[David Armano]

Powerful Ad Roger. Better yet a good story, beautifully told.

And I LOVE your reverse take on life. Wow. What a cool way to look at it. Question is, as a baby near the "end of life" do we lose our memories and knowledge or get to keep them?

:)

[patti digh]

One of my favorite examples of reverse is this: A friend runs the national youth leadership program in Israel for high school students. They are required in this 2-year program to do community projects. One group wanted to work with retarded citizens. So they started asking how the community could help retarded citizens, then these 16-17 year olds decided to reverse the question to ask how the retarded citizens could help the community. The results were remarkable (I'll try to post the video) - the retarded citizens got a whole new sense of usefulness to their community as they delivered food to shut-ins and much more. You can watch their pride and involvement grow - It was a remarkable, inspiring story of flipping the question, of reversing our assumption that it is the retarded citizens who need help.

[Roger von Oech]

Patti: What a great story and example. Thanks for stopping by and sharing it.