What do you get when you combine chickens, Diana Ross, and luxury vehicles?
No, not a “Why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road?” joke gone wrong.
Rather, you achieve creative genius.
Creative genius brought on by a world turned upside down, that is.
Allow me to explain. In 2013 Mercedes-Benz produced a commercial featuring—you guessed it, chickens and Diana Ross—to innovatively advertise the stability offered by its MAGIC BODY CONTROL®. This technology uses cameras and hydraulics to predict road dips, allowing for a much smoother, safer ride than that of a normal vehicle. In essence, MAGIC BODY CONTROL® provides heightened stability and offers the “Intelligent Drive” capabilities that epitomize the Mercedes brand.
This is great and all, but chickens? What was Mercedes-Benz thinking?
Actually, Mercedes’ use of chickens isn’t random at all; rather it creatively applies the laws of science and basic mechanics of chicken anatomy and pairs it with a popular song from the queen of The Supremes to inventively illustrate the fundamental dynamics behind its MAGIC BODY CONTROL® technology.
Like most birds, chickens cannot move their eyes the way other species can. Unlike birds, humans have something called a vestibulo-ocular reflex in which the activation of the vestibular system of the inner ear ultimately allows for eye movement. Notably, chickens’ inability to move their eyes prevents them from effectively scanning their surroundings, leaving them more susceptible for predator attacks.
Poor chickens, right?
Indeed, chickens would face quite a conundrum if it weren’t for the marvels of evolution and basic survival adaptation. In order to compensate for chickens’ lack of vestibulo-ocular reflex, nature has equipped them with a reflex that allows for the same type of necessary movement by triggering muscles in the neck. With this adaptation, chickens are able to keep their entire heads completely still while their bodies move. Not only is this a cool party trick, but it allows chickens the stability to see clearly and thus maintain full awareness of their surroundings. In a sense, chickens maintain a MAGIC BODY CONTROL® of their own, thus allowing Mercedes-Benz to draw a perfect parallel for highlighting the stabilizing features of its “Intelligent Drive” technologies.
Pretty cool, huh?[1] But then where does Diana Ross come in?
The legendary singer enters the mix with the lyrical aptitude offered in her famous song, “Upside Down.” In this hit track, Ross croons:
Upside down
Boy, you turn me
Inside out
And round and round.
With these lyrics Ross provides the German car manufacturer the perfect thematic connection that solidifies meaning and leaves viewers with a catchy ear bug guaranteeing that even if they don’t understand the technical specifics behind MAGIC BODY CONTROL®, they will certainly recall notions of stability and performance whenever the luxury brand comes to mind: This is an advanced, technologically-savvy vehicle that will not be turned “upside down.”
Ingenious. An “upside down” approach to advertising and audience education, if you will.
What becomes possible when we suspend traditional norms and elect to turn our thinking upside down and view the world from utterly new, unique perspectives?
What becomes possible? Quite literally anything.
The relationship between possibility and perspective has recently dominated my thoughts recently and piqued my curiosity. It is perhaps no surprise then that this powerful connection came as a source of inspiration while taking a casual early-evening stroll around a local natural oasis, Medicine Lake.
If you recall “Beyond a “Shadow” Of A Doubt,” Cam and I visited Medicine Lake in late February for a snowshoeing extravaganza. As is evidenced in my post, Medicine Lake looks quite different now than it did in the dead of winter when we traversed mounds of snow and walked atop its waters by virtue of powerful ancient technology.
Thinking back to this experience, I could not help but kindle a deep appreciation for just how spectacular Mother Nature is. Mere months ago snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, and ice-fishermen in warming houses dotted the landscape now populated by kayakers, water skiers, and fishermen donning suntan lotion rather than twenty pounds of protective clothing.
It’s funny how a slight change in perspective—even one spurred by the passing of time—can entirely shift one’s outlook and turn the whole world upside down.
Nature has a funny way of rendering the strange familiar and the familiar strange, and, in doing so, our environment ultimately allows for endless opportunity. As I continued my walk, I reveled in nature’s adaptive beauty and felt my spirits soar at the possibility of what can transpire when we choose to view our surroundings differently and consider multiple capabilities for the things we encounter on a daily basis.
This philosophical approach is a popular lens to behavioral psychology that dominates popular media. For instance, an April article from the Harvard Business Review titled, “To Change the Way You Think, Change the Way You See,” urges readers to embrace the cliché of “thinking outside the box” in order to unlock the untapped potential of our everyday surroundings. In the article, Adam Brandenburger writes,
“…along with thinking differently in order to come up with revolutionary new ideas or products, there is also seeing differently. Great creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs look at the world in ways that are different from how many of us look at things. This is why they see opportunities that other people miss.”
Brandenburger goes on to cite the successful if not unconventional inventions of Velcro and Softsoap as evidence of the potential that is born when we de-familiarize the world around us:
“Two brilliant entrepreneurs who looked at things differently. Whether through a microscope or a zoom lens, and whether literally or metaphorically, they took the key step of looking at the familiar in an unfamiliar way. The great French mathematician Blaise Pascal said: ‘Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.’ It seems he had in mind something similar: Look at what is right in front of us, but look in a way that escapes most people.”
In other words, choose to view our world not in terms of what merely is, but rather in terms of what could be. Retrain our brains in this way, and everything around us suddenly becomes inspiration for creative genius and ammunition for future potential.
I like to think of this ideological lens as something I call the “Dandelion Effect.” Dandelions, also known as Taraxacum officinale, are traditionally viewed as stubborn weeds that—despite the most diligent of horticultural approaches—never seem to vacate lawns and gardens. Dandelions have plagued well-intentioned gardeners for decades, as, like any weed, they compete with flowers, crops, and other valued plants for water, sunlight, and nutrients and ultimately starve out their competition.
This is certainly annoying[2], but before you write dandelions off entirely, let’s turn our understanding upside down and approach this popular grievance from a different perspective. Many individuals are unaware dandelions are celebrated in traditional herbal medicine practices for their ability to treat a diverse variety of physical ailments including cancer, acne, liver disease, and digestive disorders. In this vein, dandelions are highly nutritious (loaded with crucial vitamins, minerals, and fiber) and contain powerful antioxidants that may combat a series of ailments ranging from high blood pressure to inflammation. On top of all this, dandelions’ cheery yellow hues dot landscapes worldwide and thus bring color and possibility to otherwise colorless surroundings.
The “Dandelion Effect:” Not too bad for a weed, huh?
Rewiring our perspective is a crucial piece to future success, but it certainly does not happen over night. We must be intentional with our practices and constantly work towards seeing the world from increasingly new, challenging angles and perspectives. Jack Johnson aptly promotes the power of this transformative mindset in his song “Upside Down,” featured in the animated film, Curious George. Inspired by nature and the popular children’s book series, Johnson sings:
Who’s to say
What’s impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread it’s wings
There’s no stopping curiosity.
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I’ll find the things they say just can’t be found
I’ll share this love I find with everyone
We’ll sing and dance to Mother Nature’s songs
I don’t want this feeling to go away.
What happens when we let our mind spread its wings? We unlock new uses for the everyday, harness untapped potential, and “find the things that can’t be found.” In other words, we create opportunities where they did not previously exist.
Notably, at the end of his song Johnson repeats:
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
Is this how it’s supposed to be?
What a pertinent question: Is this how it’s supposed to be? Should we resign ourselves to the same old ways of seeing and thinking? Or, should we tap into the imaginative creativity of our youth[3] and reimagine the opportunities that await us if only we choose to embrace them?
Change the way you think. Change the way you see. Choose to turn your world upside down and embrace whatever happens next.
After all, there’s no stopping curiosity.
[1] To be fair, I wouldn’t have known this if it weren’t for my in-house walking-encyclopedia vet student extraordinaire. Notably, one of Cam’s vet professors used this same commercial in a lesson unpacking the specifics of chicken anatomy. Science, meet real life, meet advertising, meet interdisciplinary brilliance. MIND. BLOWN.
[2] Or adaptively impressive, depending how you choose to see it.
[3] Or, for that matter, one particularly curious little fictional monkey.
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