Brainstorming

In ad school, I learned how to brainstorm. How to really knock out ideas -- good, bad, worse -- it didn't matter. I learned to how to piggyback and joke and say outrageous things until you stumbled on something brilliant. And the most important thing I ever learned is that the first idea that pops into your head is not good enough, and more often than not, it's probably a rip-off that you just haven't realized yet.

I understand that was academia, and it was specifically ad-focused academia. But I guess I thought everyone knew, at the very least, not to jump at the first idea that comes to you.

I was so excited today when I was invited to a meeting to help brainstorm ideas for a TV commercial. I've never written a real one, so I was pretty stoked at the opportunity to work on it. My normal nonprofit marketing/communication duties do not involve a lot of ad writing, so to me this blank canvass was a thrill. It was right up my alley - I do, after all, still aspire to being an agency copywriter. I knew I could bring a lot to the table and was honored by the invitation.

Little did I know this meeting was masquerading under false pretenses. Not a brainstorming session at all, this meeting was actually just an opportunity for my boss and the commercial's producer to discuss exactly how to execute the first idea that came out of anyone's mouth.

Before I realized this, I did manage to suggest a second idea. But it was swiftly knocked down in favor of the first. No other suggestions were even offered throughout the course of the meeting. I then understood I was effectively my boss's chauffeur.

And I think the thing that upsets me most about this is that I didn't speak up. I felt so disappointed by what was happening that I just withdrew into myself and waited for it to be over.

So I'm asking - how would you have handled this differently? Is there a tactful way to say, "Maybe we should try to think of some other ideas," without implying that the first idea sucks? How do you inspire people to reach for a higher fruit when you are the lowest low man on the totem pole?