21. STICKING PLASTER SENTENCE
* We start this part with a rather weird idea – the Sticking Plaster Sentence.
* In Paris in 1925 a group of surrealist artists invented a game in which each person secretly thought of a word in the sequence adjective, noun, verb, adjective, noun.
* The first sentence they came up with was “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.” The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine. Quite.
* Pretty strange, I think you will agree, but then they were surrealists.
* In an ideas session, each component of the new sentence can then be used to interrogate the brief.
* So, for example,‘exquisite’ and ‘new’ could lead to new descriptions of your product, ‘corpse’ could force the group to examine bodily benefits, and ‘drink’ might lead to a new look at customer consumption habits.
* Suspension of disbelief is required in this technique.
* Generate the adjectives, nouns, and verb in the correct sequence. The attendees can be asked to do it, or you can select them from reference sources in the same way as the Random Word example (16).
EXERCISE: Decide on a way of choosing the words – self-generated by the attendees or from reference material. Choose the number of sentences you want. Decide whether to generate them all at once and review them all together, or whether you want to scrutinize each one as it is revealed. Use the sentences to examine new perspectives on the brief.