廣告看起來很單純，一位芭雷舞者正穿上舞鞋，廣告台詞寫著 'Fatima's next job could be in cyber (she just doesn't know it yet). Fatima的下一份工作可能是在網路上 (只是她還不知道罷了) '。這是政府鼓勵人民 'reskilling 再培訓'，特別是在疫情大爆發之後，學習新技能以獲得新工作。然而，為何會在網路上引起軒然大波呢？

It looks innocent enough. A ballet dancer putting on her shoes and the lines 'Fatima's next job could be in cyber (she just doesn't know it yet).' This is a part of a government effort to encourage 'reskilling' - people learning new skills to get new jobs, especially in the wake of the pandemic. So why did the internet explode in anger?

問題是，它可能意外地暗示了這個女孩現在正在做的事 ( 芭雷 )，一個具創意、藝術性的職業是沒有前途可言的，而與商業相關的職業 (如網路安全) 才是正解 。廣告是在疫情期間導致劇院和電影院關閉、藝術行業陷入生死交關之際推出。近日英國國內疫情演變得如此嚴峻，以致於音樂劇大師Andrew Lloyd Webber 揚言要在海外，而不在他的祖國英國本地推出新音樂劇。

The problem is, it suggests, possibly accidentally, that what the girl is doing now (ballet), a creative, artistic career, has no future, and that a more business-focused career (cyber-security) is the answer. This comes at a time when the lockdown of theatres and cinemas due to the pandemic has put the art industry on life support. Things have recently gotten so bad in the UK that Andrew Lloyd Webber is threatening to open his new musical abroad instead of in his native UK.

當然，這種自恃甚高看待藝術的態度並非新鮮事。 實際上，它來自非常古老的傳統。在莎士比亞時代，演員和女演員被視為社會最低階層的行業之一，幾乎與娼妓沒有區別。最近，我寫了一篇有關Ken Robinson 爵士逝世的文章，他是TED上最多瀏覽數的講者（請參閱此處：），他畢生致力於爭取教育界對創意學科，猶如對理科、數學等STEM學科之同等重視。而傳統這種高高在上看待藝術行業的邏輯很簡單：科學和商業可以帶來巨富。而藝術家都是一窮二白，幾乎付不起賬單，不是嗎？

This condescending attitude towards the arts is, of course, nothing new. In fact, it has a very old tradition. In Shakespeare''s times, actors and actresses were considered one of the lowest rungs of society, barely any different from prostitutes. Recently, I wrote an article about the death of Sir Ken Robinson, the most viewed speaker on TED (read it here who spent his whole life campaigning for creative subjects to be given equal status to STEM subjects like Science and Maths. The logic is simple - science and business bring in the big bucks. Artists are all poor and can barely pay their bills, right?

然而，有些數字似乎不支持這樣的論點，在2018年，創意產業 ( 我們避免使用 'arts 藝術' 這個多數人眼中的貶義字 ) 為英國賺進1110億英鎊。那不是筆小數目。倫敦西區劇院是首都最受遊客青睞的景點之一。試著買張 Harry Potter 的票吧！我看你買不買得到 !？相較之下，英國的金融產業，包括銀行、保險、股票市場，經常被視為英國最重要的金雞母，為英國帶來1320億英鎊的收益，肯定是比創意產業賺錢，但差距不大。而創意產業的收益仍在繼續增長，會不會有一天，英國可能從中獲得比銀行業更大的收益呢 ? 隨著英鎊下跌和英國脫毆在即，我想這點幾乎是可以肯定的。

Yet the numbers just don't support this idea - in 2018 the creative industries (lets not use the dirty word 'arts') earned the UK 111 billion pounds. That's not small money. London's theatrical West End is one of the capital's biggest draws for tourists. Try getting tickets for the Harry Potter play - I dare you! For comparison, the UK's finance industry - that's banks, insurance, stock market - often touted as the UK's most important money-earner, brought in 132 billion pounds - a bit more to be sure, but not a LOT more. And the creative industries continue to grow - could there be a time when the UK makes more from this than banking? With the pounds falling and Brexit going ahead - I would say it's almost guaranteed.

一個不言而喻的事實，創意佔據我們一半大腦，決定我們半數行為。另一半是解決問題的能力。 我們理當將學習創意與解決問題的科目置於相同立足點。當然，不僅只有“藝術”相關科目受益於創意 - 科學家、商人、和銀行家也必須具有相當的創意，才能適時找出解決方案、提出新觀點。

The simple truth is, creativity is half of our brain - half of everything we do. The other half is problem-solving. So of course creativity should be given equal footing to problem-solving subjects. And of course, it is not only 'arts' subjects that benefit from creativity - scientists, businessmen and bankers need to be creative too in order to find solutions and have new ideas.

難怪這則廣告會招致這麼大的負評。若是出於經濟因素或對當前工作不滿，民眾只要有意願當然可以接受再培訓。但是，我們不應該暗示他們現在的工作微不足道或毫無價值可言，尤其是這些經常遭人輕蔑的創意產業，實際上也可以創造很好的收益。不過，民眾對此幽默反擊。看看這張民眾用來自製廣告的英國首相 Boris Jonson 照片（上圖）：Boris 的下個工作可能是在冷藏室-被打入冷宮（只是他還不知道… ）。

So no wonder this advert caused such a stink. Of course people can retrain if they wish to, for economic reasons or because they hate their current job. But we should not suggest the job they are doing now is worthless, particularly the often-maligned creative industry that is actually doing very well at earning money. But people have responded with humor. Check out the picture of UK prime minister Boris Jonson (above) that people have used to make their own ad: Boris's next job could be in refrigeration (he just doesn't know it yet).