Advertising that people like and that wins awards is very satisfying, but advertising that sells the product is much better. Too frequently these are quite different things. Widespread skepticism exists concerning creativity in advertising, such as: "I know the ad looks great, but will it actually sell?" and "Are the award winning commercials great advertising?" Often, great advertising concerns issues other than gold medals. Considering the ultimate objective of advertising -sales- creativity should not stand alone in advertising. Creativity must be harmonized with every elements of advertising to achieve the final goal.

Creative people in advertising agencies, i.e., copywriters and art directors usually believe that creativity is necessary for effectiveness, that creativity can push the advertising message into the viewer's mind. In fact, many account-side pople feel the same way. However, there is also a negative opinion about creativity in advertising. Some critics define creativity as bothersome, costly, and time-consuming. Sometimes it is believed that creative advertising may be an award winner, but may have little to do with advertising effectiveness.

Despite these criticisms, conventional wisdom holds that there is a positive relationship between creative/award winning advertising and sales effectiveness. Creativity is still considered the most important element of the advertising business because it is almost impossible to get the consumer's attention with trite or commonplace advertisements. Creativity is the one area that can put a company far ahead of the fierce competition. From this perspective, it is valuable to stress creativity in the advertising business.

The purpose of this paper is to try to discover the actual relationship between creativity in advertising and sales effectiveness. Afterward, desirable creativity in advertising could be redefined.

With this purpose in mind, this paper will look at: 1) the conventional elements of creativity, 2) the statistical relationship between the award winning commercials and sales, 3) levels of creativity vs. sales effectiveness, and 4) cases of advertising based on creative strategies.

Finally, this paper will provide specific and meaningful suggestions for effective and desirable creativity in the advertising business.