Sabotage.

Last Thursday, I attended a workshop during Cannes Lions by Ravid Kuperberg of Mindscapes, called "The Logic of the Magic of Creative Bravery."

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One of the most interesting creative approaches he shared was the concept of sabotage — actively removing or over-complicating something important, in order to help it stand out.

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​A great example: ​

A Welsh town wanted to stand out on the train line between two bigger towns, so they changed the name of the town to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. (Yes, that's the real name of the town. Naomi Watts lived there as a child.) By making the name nearly impossible, they become unignorable.

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​Another example:​

The Whopper Freakout campaign for Burger King, where they removed the Whopper from the menu, and filmed people's reactions — thus highlighting how much people love the Whopper.

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Try applying this technique to a project or challenge of your own. Take something important and break it, remove it, mess with it, obscure it, complicate it — and see if that doesn't help it stand out.

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To put this to the test, I messed with the subject header of this email and went with nonsensical vs a standard hook. Did it get your attention?