But isn’t that sort of missing the point?

Someone has taken a used olive oil tin, combined it with ingenuity, a measure of imagination and some effort, and made a banjo. A banjo! That’s remarkable to me and worthy of my attention.

Now a smart brand manager would seize this opportunity and run with it.

Sure, the banjo may not jive with the hermetically sealed brand character of Lio Olive Oil, whose print ads run the slogan, “The New Cooking Life Style.” But the only folks who care about that are the folks who made that meaning in the first place.

Here’s their customer extending the value that Lio Olive Oil plays in his life. Surely they can find a way to be inspired by spontaneous creative act.

How about asking the buy to play the banjo in their olive grove? How about writing a song for the banjo about olive oil love?

The juxtaposition of the olive oil and the banjo offers such great opportunities for unexpected meaning making, just like unexpected tastes can often combine to form the most sublime new dishes.

This is “The New Advertising Life Style,” where companies and their customers share the ability to make meaning.

Want to play along? Learn how customers and companies can make ads together.

And if you’re interested, here’s an article about further off-label uses for brand products.