Cultural Shoplifting & Creative Block | Blog | Corke Wallis

Stuck?

Go Cultural Shoplifting®.

“Artists copy, genius steals.” I think Andy Warhol said that. So I stole it and trot it out to clients to justify me having just ripped off a great idea from someone else and then passed it off as my own (let those who haven’t sinned...). The reality is that creativity is rarely about producing something entirely original - rather, it's about innovatively remixing what's already there. We all steal and appropriate all the time; Generative AI is just doing it on steroids.

Recently, I found myself banging my head against a wall trying to come up with something genuinely interesting for a holiday company. It was one of those moments where new ideas slipped between my fingers, and I was contorting my brain into different shapes, trying to squeeze something useful out of it. Every thought seemed stale or predictable. Creativity had officially left the building, and I was stuck.

So I went shoplifting.

My first stop was Spotify, seeking random inspiration. Innovation rarely happens in silence, and music has always been a catalyst for me - something about melodies and rhythm unlocks creative doors in my brain. "Drunk Girls" by LCD Soundsystem this time. I don't really listen to lyrics when I'm working, they're just there as part of the overall song. But James Murphy is different - sarcastic, insightful, and impossible to ignore.

This lyric in particular jumped out at me:

“Love is an astronaut, it comes back but it’s never the same.”

It's a great metaphor, and I suddenly realised that this was precisely what the holiday company project needed. It gave a frankly stale (from an advertising perspective) industry a fresh perspective. A holiday isn’t merely a break; it's a “mind-expanding adventure that changes you subtly, forever”. You might return to the same place physically, but “mentally and emotionally, you're never quite the same again”. It’s messaging that writes itself and is easy to implement.

That insight alone was worth the cultural theft.

Am I saying anything new? Not at all. I am just underlining something everyone else says, something fundamentally true and repeatedly effective. Originality should be aimed for, but sometimes it isn't possible. What truly matters is relevance, resonance, and connection. And the shortest route to achieving those is often through cultural reference points that are universally recognisable and emotionally evocative.

When you hit a creative wall - and we all do at some point or another - the solution is rarely to force yourself deeper into the problem. Instead, step back and borrow brilliance from elsewhere. Go for a walk to clear your head. Put on music that stimulates your imagination. Build something physical, like Lego, to tap into different neural pathways. Or dive into a director’s commentary for a behind-the-scenes look at someone else’s creative process.

- Don’t scroll

- Don’t read ‘How to’ books*

- Don’t question your ability

Proactively and deliberately engage with culture. Cultural Shoplifting® isn't passive - it’s an active process of seeking and selecting ideas, narratives, visuals, and sounds from other disciplines, mediums, and industries. Mix them together, tweak them, reshape them… make them yours.

Just don’t be boring, keep it interesting and novel if you’re going to seek inspo from elsewhere. Slapping some unusual music over tired visuals isn’t a new social post or advert. If you aren’t confident enough to do it, reach out to agencies who do this as their bread and butter - branding and marketing agencies. Corke Wallis is always ready to help.

So next time you're stuck, remember that the answers are already out there, waiting to be borrowed, adapted, and reinvented.

Go on a Cultural Shoplifting® spree.