I have a pretty cool job.
A few years ago, I was sitting in an office at Velcro International. They needed a creative ad that would persuade their customers to stop calling their product Velcro.
Yes, you read that right.
I learned the product they sell is actually called Hook and Loop, not Velcro. If people kept calling their product Velcro, they could potentially lose their trademark. So they needed to reach millions of people with this habit-breaking message.
After dropping this bombshell, the executives talked for another 15 minutes about legal ramifications, but I was ZONED out. I know that’s a bad thing most of the time, but for my ADHD brain, it was amazing. My wandering went something like this.
Wait, how funny would it be to write an ad that begs people not to call Velcro “Velcro?”
This is a multi-billion-dollar company. We can’t have its lawyers in a stuffy office doing this ad.
This seems like a pretty ridiculous problem. What if we acted like it was a serious problem?
Oh my gosh, remember “We Are the World?” Everyone was so serious, you know, because it was about starvation in Africa. But what if we did an ad with that vibe, but about something that is clearly a first-world problem?
These lawyers could be making fun of themselves. They could be aware that this is, in fact, a ridiculous thing to ask people!
Ooooh, we could use real lawyers!
Oh boy, here come the lyrics….
It was like a brainstorm session inside my own head.
I am very lucky to have co-workers who have seen this happen to me. They explained to the nice lawyers that I had something cooking, so it didn’t seem rude.
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Before I got back to my office, the song was already written in my head. Here’s the final product. (Parental alert: There are some bleeped-out potty words so watch before showing your kids!)
It went viral and got tens of millions of views worldwide.
Still, I know you are probably thinking, “C’mon, Penn. Are you telling me that SPACING OUT sparked the flame of this very good thing?”
Yes, I am. Allow me to explain.
My favorite ADHD doctors are the ones who use creative metaphors to teach me more about my brain. It helps me truly “see” my ADHD. It’s also a fantastic way to explain ADHD to kids.
The Velvet Rope Metaphor
One of my favorite metaphors comes from Dr. Marcy Caldwell of ADDept.org. She was helping me understand how my brain works compared to the neurotypical brain. According to Dr. Caldwell, the neurotypical brain is like a VIP Club with a velvet rope and a bouncer. The bouncer does a great job making sure only elites gain access to the club, while carefully keeping out “less important” partygoers who don’t have a pass. The inside of the club is orderly, a little quieter, and much less cluttered.
The ADHD brain? Well, that is more like Coachella, and everyone gets in! There are countless different sights and noises. Laser lights and fog machines. You can feel the wind and the weather. Sometimes it rains. There are conversations all over the place. You can see, hear, and feel it all; your attention is pulled in countless directions.
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Our ADHD brains can eventually learn to put up a velvet rope and a bouncer, but it’s not our default mode; it takes real work.
VIP Club vs Outdoor Festival
When it comes to trying to make breakfast, complete a job, or get through school, the VIP club sounds much better, right? That’s the battle we ADHDers fight every day; we try to get our brains out of the open air and into a room with more order.
But…. and it is a pretty big but… (it’s okay if you just laughed reading “pretty big but”) that Outdoor Festival is the perfect breeding ground for one of the most important qualities a human being can ever have: CREATIVITY.
When your brain feels, sees, and smells everything, it is more likely than the neurotypical brain to notice something no one has ever noticed before. It is more likely to go down a rabbit hole and discover a new path. It’s more likely to see something in a way no one has ever seen it.
Biographers speculated that Thomas Edison, one of the greatest creators of all time, had ADHD. Possibilities came to his Open-Air Brain and he was able to harness them by giving us light (yes, literally invented the lightbulb), sound (invented the phonograph), and sight (yep, the camera too!) He struggled just like we do.
According to thomasedison.com; At age seven – after spending 12 weeks in a noisy one-room schoolhouse with 38 other students of all ages – Tom’s overworked and short-tempered teacher finally lost his patience with the child’s persistent questioning and seemingly self-centered behavior.
Sound familiar? Yeah, schools are mostly VIP Clubs, not Outdoor Festivals or Open-Air Concerts. You may not be Thomas Edison yet, but that same creativity lives within you.
My Open-Air Brain
My Open-Air Brain finds creativity through music. I studied music theory at a very early age, to the point that it became a second language for me.
I stopped learning after two years because my Open-Air Brain was much less interested in being Rachmaninoff and more interested in the brand-new notes, chords, and lyrics popping up in my head. I wasn’t writing Shakespeare; just lines documenting the countless things going on in my world, and in my family. Now just about everything I experience plays like a song in my head.
In the case of the Velcro ad, that Open-Air Brain quickly gave me access to a catalog of every melodramatic music video I’ve ever heard, every lawyer stereotype I’ve ever had, and every funny meme about first-world problems I’ve ever shared. All those ideas were welcome to the party.
Of course, there are times that this is frustrating – it can be hard listening to someone if the story they are telling is turning into a song. I’ve had to do some really hard work to find a VIP bouncer when what a person is saying is important, and I care about that person and their feelings.
But when there’s nothing else going on, no work to do, and no conversations to have, my mind wanders back to that Open-Air Concert. It happens on walks, at night before bed, in the shower, and sometimes in the middle of the day when I have a minute to just sit and let it happen.
Your Open-Air Concert isn’t just a distraction; it could be the key to your success. Now, we don’t have an excuse to get lost in thought all the time; we need to be respectful of our parents, friends, and teachers, and do the best we can to hear what they have to say. But don’t ever discount those wonderfully bizarrely random thoughts coming into your head. Those thoughts are yours and yours alone, they are enormously creative, and believe it or not, they could change the world one day.
The Creative ADHD Brain: Next Steps
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