Fat bellies and gleaming tails: why we should hire Amplified Originals

The great strategist and BBHer Jim Carroll was once tasked with bottling what makes great leaders. Reflecting on the best suits, creatives, strategists and clients he had worked with he hit a wall: there was no one archetype.

 He saw endless varieties like the Visionary (foresight), Motivator (belonging), Puppet Master (orchestration), Problem Solver (practicality), and Philosopher King (insight).

 He couldn’t condense it down—a strategist's ultimate shame, punishable by mirror pep-talks. Or emigration.

 Luckily Jim realised there was one striking trait: their leadership was an amplified extension of their unique personalities. Leadership is the Amplified Self. The advice is clear - don’t mimic others or strive for a generic ideal. Be yourself but dialled up to 11.

It also applies to brands.

When I arrived at the agency, I noticed their Amplified Selves had halo-ed onto the brands they shaped. Audi carried Nigel Bogle’s steel, wit, and progress obsession. Levi’s pulsed with John Hegarty’s rebellious streak. Häagen-Dazs twinkled with Nick Kendall’s mischief. Rosie Arnold’s glint fuelled Axe’s adventures. The Amplified Self created Amplified Brands.

AI Makes Originals More Valuable

But this is 2025 so I am contractually obliged to make this about AI.

Here’s the link: in the AI age this individuality is more critical than ever.

We need Amplified Originals.

The pioneering physicist David Deutsch was recently asked if “having a billion Deutsch-level intelligences would be a massive advantage for humanity?”.

Deutsch said ‘No’. Comparative advantage thrives on difference. 'People are valuable because they are different... Everybody is unfathomably different. That fact is not being harnessed enough and can be harnessed more."

Someone recently asked: ChatGPT or ChatGPT with David Ogilvy in charge? Obvious.

But I raise you: ChatGPT with John Hegarty, Mary Wells Lawrence, Bill Bernbach, Phyllis Robinson, Lee Clow, Caroline Jones - and their spiritual heirs in charge. I'll take that lineup for any brief.

The hard truth: when intelligence is no longer rare, unique consciousnesses are.

Model Collapse: The Zig Trap

The big reason for this AI is exquisitely sophisticated autocomplete - a master of averages, trying to give you the most likely answer, not the widest range of answers.

The AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy has called this “model collapse”. “One easy way to see it is to go to ChatGPT and ask it, "Tell me a joke." It only has like three jokes… You're not getting the richness, diversity and entropy as you would get from humans”

Without careful prompting, guidance, and human judgment, this design choice to collapse diversity in AI models risks dragging brands into category clichés.

Cue a generic pile up of refreshing drinks, fast cars, thin phones, empowering cosmetics, quality supermarket food, all with similar looks, music, and lines. Lazy brands leaning on unguided AI will blend into the average, losing stand-out, memorability, and effectiveness.

Fat Bellies and Jeweled Tails

Meanwhile, brands guided by Amplified Originals will achieve more brand difference, fame, action, and effectiveness. That is because these individual’s imaginations are a force against ‘model collapse’. They bring entropy back into the process.

Slop's easier now - but greatness is too. Good is now standard. Ok is terrible. 5s are 1s and 7s are 5s and 10s are 20s. The penalty for mediocrity has never been steeper, while the reward for being extraordinary has soared. Zigs will balloon the bell curve's belly while Zags will gleam in the jeweled tail, with outsized effects.

Wanted: Originals

If AI amplifies, the implications are clear: after competence, hire for character, difference and the inner confidence to dial themselves up to 11.

It’s important to say these people aren’t necessarily whacky, eccentric and loud. That’s the lazy perception. But their thinking is always different.

So, hire Amplified Originals and let them use their difference to create the next generation of Amplified Brands.

Will Lion is the chief strategy officer for BBH London