For a while now I have been toying with the idea of starting coverage of advertisements which use the word “innovation” in them, and running a critique. As you might anticipate, this was going to fall under the category of “This is not innovation.”

Why do this?

It’s linked to the innovation backlash that BusinessWeek has covered. Maybe it’s because I’m sensitive to it, but I feel that the word ‘innovation’ has crept into ad agencies default vocab. I can picture a couple of uber-creatives in black polo necks staring at some copy about 2am in preparation for an early morning pitch. The conversation goes like this :

Uber #1 : “It doesn’t really….errr…do it for me.”
Uber #2 : “Yeees. It doesn’t grab me either.”
Uber #1 : “Haaaang on!”
Uber #2 : “What???”
Uber #1 : “We haven’t used the word ‘innovation’ in there anywhere”
Uber #2 : “Damn. You’re soooo good.”

But I digress. “This is not innovation” is on hold because over at Endless Innovation Dominic has looked at three “innovation” ads in a recent copy of Fortune. He looks at how the ads project the innovation story. Take a look…