Series 7 Episode 2. Aired 11th April 2013 on BBC Radio 4.
Writer and documentary maker Jon Ronson returns for the second episode of his latest series of fascinating stories shedding light on the human condition.
In this programme, he looks at brainstorming and asks whether it really works.
He travels to Latvia to investigate the story of how media PR agency Inspired came up with a bizarre idea after a mobile phone company asked them for a concept to advertise their new tariff. Their brief was that it had to have a superhero theme. The agency decided then to fake a meteorite landing in a field outside Riga by digging a giant hole in the middle of the night and setting fire to it.
Jon finds out what happened when the stunt backfired.
He also speaks to the author Susan Cain who says forty years of research into brainstorming in groups has shown it doesn't work.
And Jon considers other brainstormed ideas that have gone wrong - such as the decision by the American restaurant chain Hooters, known for its young waitresses dressed in revealing outfits,
to go into the airline business.
Finally Jon asks whether we should listen more to quiet, thoughtful introverts who say little in brainstorming meetings, rather than the extroverts who shout loudest?
Producer: Lucy Greenwell
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
www.bbc.co.uk/p...
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