Is it “fleshing out” or “flushing out”?
September 30, 2013 · Posted by Joe Lazo in copywriting
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I’ve never heard of “flushing out” ideas, but I can see that working if you allow for “flushing” as the forcing out of ideas when you might be hesitant to share them. Think of a meeting where people have ideas but aren’t willing to speak up, we could “flush out” their ideas and get them out into the open.
Ah, yes. The reticent, withdrawn ad agency person who is afraid to throw an idea on the table. We see that all the time in this business, right? Perhaps a water boarding treatment would aid in flushing out the ideas from such individuals?
Seriously, though, some may argue that “flushing out ideas” is analogous to coming up with concepts in the same way that hunters flush out birds from the brush, often by scaring them out with barking dogs. I beg to differ.
For someone to “flush out” a concept (i.e. come up with a concept), does not that suggest that, like a hidden bird, the concept fully exists in one’s head somewhere? I don’t think that’s the nature of an advertising concept. It’s not fully formed and ready to go, just hidden somewhere inside someone’s head. So, the notion that one could somehow coax or startle a fully formed idea out of the inner reaches of one’s cerebellum just seems ridiculous.
However, I did come across one explanation of how “flushing out” an idea could make sense. On an online forum, someone commented that he thought it alluded to a carpenter ensuring that all the surfaces of an object are flush, with nothing sticking up or creating an unsightly gap. In that sense of the word, I can see how saying “Let’s flush out this idea” would make sense. It would mean to finalize a concept so there are no “rough edges.”
But, really, how many people who use the “flush out” terminology in the advertising world are actually likening it to making surfaces flush?
Probably none.
The carpentry analogy is a stretch… I don’t buy it.
But I do think people can have fully formed ideas they are not sharing openly.
I’m sure I’m even guilty of it from time to time. :)