A Great Lesson for Creative People

This chat from Derek Sivers gives a couple of great insights into cultural sensitivities and norms, and the dangers of assumption. Best of it does it all in 2 mins.



We were recently looking at a campaign for a brand across EMEA and wanted to use the wolf whistle in a bit of footage as a consumer call to action, but we learnt that in some sociaeties in EMEA the wolf whistle means nothing and instead a Hiss is used to signify male appreciation of a beautiful woman.

The other day I was in a meeting with Paul from Goodstuff and he used an example of cultural relevance about mobile phone usage and what was considered polite has social relevance.

So in Britain it is considered impolite to speak loudly using a mobile phone in public, but in Israel due to local factors on the ground it is considered very rude to talk quietly on a mobile phone in public lest you should be doing something clandestine so people tend to talk loudly to let others know they are just talking to their friends etc.