Create ideas using: Use Another Category's cliché
How do I borrow from another category without confusing my audience?
Make the borrowed element recognizable enough to trigger the association, but make the application to your category clear. If you're using medical drama visuals for financial services, the connection better be obvious--money health, diagnosis, treatment. Random borrowing just creates category confusion.
What if the borrowed cliché brings negative associations?
Then choose differently. Every genre has clichés, but some carry baggage. Used car salesman energy, lawyer sleaze, corporate blandness--these clichés exist because they're based in negative stereotypes. Borrow from categories people respect or find entertaining, not ones they actively distrust.
Example: How it could look
Dollar Shave Club uses action movie clichés--explosions, dramatic music, tough-guy attitude--for razor marketing. The contrast between hypermasculine action tropes and mundane shaving is the joke. They're not confused about their category; they're making fun of how seriously other razor brands take themselves.
Or like this:
Why is Use Another Category's cliché a great technique?
Borrowing category clichés creates fresh perspectives and humor by applying familiar frameworks to unexpected contexts.
Makes messaging instantly recognizable
Creates humor through unexpected juxtaposition
Differentiates from category conventions
Makes complex ideas accessible through familiar frames
Every category has visual and narrative clichés. When you borrow from other categories, you import their energy and expectations into your space. That contrast creates interest and makes your message memorable through the clash of contexts.
! When not to use the Use Another Category's cliché Technique
When the borrowed cliché has no meaningful connection to your message. Random genre-mixing is just confusing, not clever.
Technique first described by www.deckofbrilliance.com