Addendum

Jumping off the last post, which I will partially reposted for your viewing convenience while Mike art directs some shit at 2 am on our last late night at Ogilvy.

"Really great creative tells you something in an interesting way that you knew all along, but have never been able to verbalize. Or it gives you the gift of a completely new idea that you never would have thought of."

Of course, Mike jumps down my throat before he's finished reading. But his disagreement is "Well, I would disagree. I would say great creative tells you something new." And then I coldly stared at him as he finished reading the paragraph, to which he answered "Oh...I don't disagree as much now."
But does he have a point? Should great ads always tell you something new? What if there's nothing new to say about the product or the category? "Dig deeper?" Well, I respect that answer because really there is a new idea in everything. Ideas are infinite so it would make sense that eventually a new idea would stumble out of the time-space continuum that is infinity. But again, how much can you really say about chewing gum? Does an ad that says something new in a bland way better than an ad that brilliantly tells you something very obvious and boring? Obviously the goal is to do both, but when something's got to give what do you favor?