I'd argue, though, that the word "creative" being used in this sense is directly related to how they go about solving their problem (producing effective adverti

I'd argue, though, that the word "creative" being used in this sense is directly related to how they go about solving their problem (producing effective advertising given the constraints) and not related to the fact that they are generating visuals or copy. And these thinking techniques can very easily be applied to programming. If you haven't watched the John Cleese lecture I linked to, then I would highly recommend it.