Just all of our collective garbage, going up in flames. The climate, the racism, the politics, the pandemic. I don’t have to tell you this stuff.

But I do want to talk about something else that’s accompanying all of this crazy: A massive, worldwide increase in creativity.

I’m what you’d call a professional creative. It’s literally in my job title. So I feel like I can say this with a fair amount of credibility: We are using the word “creative” wrong. Because of my job title, I have a fair number of opportunities to discuss the idea of creativity with people, both within and without my line of work. “Ohmygod, I’m so not creative,” people tell me with alarming regularity. Let’s come to an agreement right now: Creativity is a human trait. All children have it. All adults have it. This is not arguable. This is fact.

You may or may not be in the habit of using creativity, but you’re more than capable of it. It’s not the same as having artistic talent or being good at making things, it’s simply refusing to let habits govern your thinking, your actions and, most of all, your problem-solving. And what did this pandemic grant our entire world, all at once? Problems. Or, rather, our awareness of them. It’s optometrically significant that year 2020 would improve our collective vision, bringing focus to some of the things we’ve been keeping shoved to the back of a metaphorical closet.

But with problems comes invention, ingenuity, solutions. In a word, creativity. Had any epiphanies, realizations or revelations lately? So have a lot of other people. It’s funny what we notice when we slow down. What we learn when we start paying attention. And what we can change when we start trying. 

You’ve witnessed creativity lately—Maybe you’ve found new uses for Zoom or a new and desperately needed arrangement for your home life. Maybe you’ve switched up your locale because, hey, suddenly we’re not so attached to a certain point on the map. Maybe you’ve gotten creative with finding work or socially distanced social activities. We’ve witnessed leadership at every level get creative in a whole variety of ways, for better or for worse. The digital world is daily reinventing itself and its possibility–. Writers are more poignant than they’ve ever been. Nonprofits are inventing new ways to fundraise. People are inventing new ways to be together and to not go crazy. We’re inventing new dinner menus. New solutions to climate change. New everything on a tiny and internal and globally massive scale. This is being jolted from our habits. This is being faced with new problems. This is. It’s exploded and it’s gotten all over everybody.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and 2020 is the motherfucker of a year that put creativity where it’s needed and where it belongs: in use everywhere.

This year has felt like a dumpster fire. Maybe even the whole landfill.

Creativity and What It Isn't

Regular

This Thursday, after weeks of speculation around the topic, President Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok, the social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The rationale around the decision stems from perceived security issues with the app — the White House has gone so far to say that users should have the TikTok on their phones, “…only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” The executive order also states that the apps must find American owners by September 15th to continue operations within the U.S. In response, TikTok announced Saturday that it plans to sue the Trump administration for its right to operate. Meanwhile, users and advertisers are scrambling to work with a platform that has been incredibly popular during the COVID-19 quarantine, citing a whopping 315 million downloads in Q1 alone, but may not be around for much longer. 

While these orders are a lot to unpack, let’s start here —at the initial claim around TikTok’s security issues. Outside of a Reddit post where a user reverse-engineered TikTok and revealed his findings, there hasn’t been much, really, to point to. His work alerted users to the app’s considerable data collection, but these practices aren’t unheard of in the social-media landscape and can be found in competitors’ existing data practices. 

Turning to the matter of potential Chinese government interference, experts have argued that there’s no foreseeable gain for the CCP to use ByteDance’s data, as TikTok’s user base is largely made of Gen Z contributors. And while the dance moves are 🔥, they don’t offer much more security information other than a trending appreciation for rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Likewise, experts have stated that the tremendous financial impact of a global Chinese-owned app would not be one that the Party is likely to squander, and TikTok itself has said they have, “never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked.”

So, what, exactly, is the issue? Should marketers back off of the platform? Should we resurrect Byte or pivot to Reels? In our opinion, advertisers should continue on as planned. The likelihood of TikTok truly vanishing is slim, especially given that Microsoft has already expressed interest in buying the platform. Worst case scenario, even if you’re only running creative for the next 45-days, engagement is expected to be high as users seek to cram in more time on the platform in what may be its last halcyon days. It’s also reasonable to assume that the editing/video features of the platform will likely find a new home in one or several U.S. social media counterparts, meaning all your time spent perfecting your transitions will not have been in vain. 

What marketers should be more attuned to is the next steps taken by the White House. Politics aside, it’s rare to see such a blatant act of censorship come down from an administration. Blocking apps has long been a tactic of more authoritarian governments, from China’s own block of Facebook and Google, and blocks of Twitter in Turkey, Egypt and North Korea. What comes next, in terms of either policy or government orders, is more indicative of what the U.S. government will tolerate (or not) in terms of competition, and less around alleged security threats. So, for now, keep your content coming. Just be prepared to shift accordingly, given this administration’s mercurial whims. 

Privacy Concerns Fuel Executive Order, But the Real Threat Isn’t TikTok

What's really at play concerning the TikTok executive order.