Jean-Remy von Matt on the refusal to think differently

Jean-Remy von Matt could easily have spent an entire morning talking about the major successes of his career. About «Geiz ist geil.» About «Wer hat’s erfunden?» About «Mein Haus, mein Auto, mein Boot.» About «Supergeil.» In other words, campaigns that have long since found their way into pop culture and outlive most of the advertising budgets that once funded them. Instead, the co-founder of Jung von Matt spoke at Screenforce Day 2026 at the Zurich Kongresshaus about obstacles. About the forces that stifle creativity. About people who stand in the way of new ideas. And about organizations that demand innovation but shy away from risk.

The strength of his presentation lay not only in the stories. It also lay in the bold, strikingly staged guiding principles that appeared again and again on the screen behind him. Almost every slide seemed like a condensed chapter of his career. Together, they formed a manifesto against mediocrity, bureaucratic thinking, and the growing tendency to confuse security with progress.

Technology gives you a head start. Creativity makes a difference.

Right at the start, von Matt told us about Daniel, a boy from his kindergarten days. Daniel was neither smarter nor more popular than the other children. His advantage was that his parents were the first to own a TV. Everyone wanted to go to his house—until von Matt’s mother organized a “Kids’ Olympics.” Suddenly, the technological advantage had become irrelevant. Daniel had the TV. Jean-Remy had the more creative mother.

Later, the following sentence appeared on the screen: «Technology creates a head start. Creativity makes a difference.» This encapsulates what is arguably the most important message of his talk. While the industry is currently focused almost exclusively on artificial intelligence, automation, and new tools, von Matt reminds us of an uncomfortable truth: Technological leads rarely last. The competition catches up. New providers enter the market. Software gets copied. What remains is the idea. Those who define themselves solely by technology run the risk of getting caught up in a race that no one can win in the long run.

You can't pass on the ideal line

Von Matt loves images that are immediately understandable. His most powerful metaphor came from motorsports. Every racetrack has a «line.» That’s the path where you drive the fastest and safest. The downside: Everyone drives there. The accompanying slide summed it up: “You can’t pass on the ideal line. Only the battle line moves you forward.”

This statement doesn’t just explain successful brand management. It also explains many of its most famous campaigns. The cheeky Sixt ads. The Edeka grandpa who stages his own funeral. The cult campaigns for Astra. They all emerged far from the ideal path. Anyone who merely copies best practices, studies benchmarks, and optimizes data is going in circles. If you want to grab attention, you have to veer off the beaten path. This is precisely where von Matt sees the limits of artificial intelligence. AI seeks statistical probabilities. It prefers to stay on the ideal path. Creativity arises when people consciously deviate from it.

Creativity Is Disobedience

Another slide distilled his view of creativity into three words: «Creativity is disobedience.» Hardly any other sentence describes the lecture more precisely. Von Matt illustrated this with a story from his school days. For a school project on the Swiss Confederates’ victories, he used his classmate’s nosebleed as paint for the title page. The idea didn’t earn him an award—it earned him a slap in the face. But the insight stuck with him.

Creativity is always a breach of the rules, he said. Always a violation of the norm. Always a disruption of the expected order. That is precisely why it provokes resistance. Organizations often want creative people only in theory. As long as creativity works at the push of a button and doesn’t bother anyone, it’s welcome. As soon as it challenges existing rules, it becomes inconvenient. Von Matt put it plainly: «We have enough creative minds, but too few who follow them.»

This idea is one of the most powerful in the entire presentation. Because, in fact, most companies don’t lack ideas. What they lack are people who are willing to stick with these ideas. People who trust creative minds, even if they don’t know exactly where the journey is headed. People who don’t immediately view mistakes as proof that an idea has failed.

The Dictatorship of Doubts

Why do so many good ideas fail? Von Matt cites concerns as the first obstacle. Not because concerns are wrong, but because they come across as convincing. Concerns stem from thinking. Those who voice concerns appear reasonable. Those who are enthusiastic appear emotional. Those who doubt can provide arguments. Those who are convinced often cannot. That’s why, in boardrooms, it’s often not the best ideas that win out, but the best objections.

Von Matt looked back on nearly five decades of advertising history and recalled countless projects that failed not because of poor concepts, but because of small doubts that kept growing. The tricky part is that these doubts almost always present themselves as reason. And reason enjoys an excellent reputation within organizations. Hardly anyone wants to be seen as reckless. So ideas are discussed, examined, verified, and optimized—often until all that remains of the original idea is a harmless version.

The Disaster of Principles

Matt took an even harsher stance on the topic of principles. One of his slides read: «The principle: the refusal to think differently.» At first, the statement seemed provocative. Then people began to reflect on it.

After all, principles enjoy an excellent reputation. Those who have principles are considered steadfast, strong-willed, and reliable. Hardly anyone wants to be seen as unprincipled. Von Matt dismantled this notion in a matter of minutes. A principle, he said, is often nothing more than a refusal to reassess a situation. He put it even more bluntly when speaking: Principles are often merely crutches for the thoughtless.

The laughter in the hall was loud. So was the truth of the matter. Many misguided developments begin when principles become more important than results—when rules are placed above reality—when the question is no longer what works, but only whether something fits the existing worldview. Principles provide security. That is precisely what makes them dangerous. Those who invoke a principle no longer need to think for themselves but can fall back on a decision made earlier. This saves energy, prevents dissent, and creates the illusion of consistency.

Innovation rarely happens this way. Not in agencies. Not in companies. Not in newsrooms. Not in politics. Wherever people act on principle, even though reality has long since pointed in a different direction, a slow decline often begins. Not out of malice. Not out of incompetence. But out of stubbornness. The insidious thing about this is that principles rarely fail spectacularly. They fail insidiously. Meeting after meeting. Budget round after budget round. Year after year. Until eventually everyone sees that something is no longer working—except for those who cling to their principles.

Creativity is a perishable commodity

Another slide summed up the vulnerability of creative processes: «Creativity is a precious asset, but also a perishable commodity.» Hardly any other sentence better captures the current state of the communications industry. Never before has there been more data available. Never before have there been more technologies, more platforms, and more opportunities for optimization. At the same time, it seems to be getting harder and harder to create work that stands the test of time.

Von Matt therefore asked where the big campaigns had gone. The iconic visuals. The slogans that stand the test of time. The jingles you can never get out of your head. He didn’t state his answer directly. It resonated throughout the entire talk. Creativity is constantly threatened by the same adversaries: doubts, principles, and a lack of courage.

Courage is the willingness to lose control

The final key thought from his speech the previous day at the Zurich Kongresshaus also appeared in giant letters on the screen: «Courage is the willingness to lose control.» Von Matt describes courage not as a heroic act, but as a state of being. Those who act courageously do not know exactly what will happen next. Otherwise, there would be no need for courage. This definition is particularly striking at a time when companies are trying to make everything measurable, plannable, and controllable.

Matt quoted Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti on this: «If you have everything under control, you’re going too slow.» This statement applies to more than just motorsports. It describes modern organizations. Those who seek to eliminate every uncertainty often also eliminate the very moments from which innovation arises. Those who seek to safeguard every decision miss out on opportunities that cannot be calculated.

A Lecture Against Presidential Obstruction

The biggest mistake, therefore, would be to view this presentation as a nostalgic look back by a veteran of the advertising world. Jean-Remy von Matt did not speak about the past of advertising. He spoke about the present state of organizations. About executives who praise creativity as long as it has no consequences. About decision-making bodies that call for innovation but ultimately choose the familiar. About people who demand change but are unwilling to pay the price for it.

His lecture was a plea for disobedience and a direct attack on those guardians of the status quo who slow down any change—or steer it into harmless channels—by invoking reason, processes, or principles. The most uncomfortable realization, therefore, was not that creativity is rare, but that it often fails precisely because of the very people who claim to want to foster it.