The admonition to "think BIG" is something of a mantra when it comes to brainstorming. The theory is that constantly reminding people that "no idea is too big" will spur them on to ever more insightful flights of fancy and ultimately to the very pinnacle of creativity. Sometimes it works. Other times...well, let's just say the flights of fancy are grounded, a spirit of literalism takes over, and the "think BIG" mantra results in an idea for a crass publicity stunt involving the world's largest something or other.
World's Largest Snowglobe
In response to a request for publicity ideas to support a winter season introduction of a new clear beverage, we proposed creation of the world's largest snowglobe -- or whatever you want to call those liquid-filled clear plastic things that create their own little indoor snowstorm when you flip them over. The scene inside the globe was to depict hip youths engaged in radical winter sporting activities and chugging the aforementioned clear beverage. The whole idea actually got as far as the preliminary budgeting phase but when the first numbers started coming back from the engineers and physicists, the big globe spun out.
World's Largest Chip Bowl
Picture, if you will, an outdoor football stadium filled to overflowing with bags of tortilla chips. In the parking lot, a swimming-pool-sized bowl of salsa and a container of bean dip as big as a hockey rink. A major sampling opportunity and a great aerial shot from the network blimp covering a nearby bowl game on New Year's Day. The assignment that inspired this madness was to try and capture television coverage of "'a FUN new line of healthy chips and dips," being introduced in the midst of the college football bowl season. We still think it could work -- well, some of us do anyway.