Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Looking to make a change? Remember: transformation happens experientially, not intellectually. We often receive instruction and agree, “I see what you're saying,” but seldom do we actually do the thing we learned. We just agree with it in our minds. This is a problem. Daniel J. Boorstin said, “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” Boorstin's statem...

She judged us one-by-one as we entered the building. Chin held high, she looked down the ridgeline of her nose like she was sighting along the barrel of a gun. A quiet sniff let us know she did not approve. I hope to God she doesn't know how to fire that thing. “You're here for the Dana Gioia lecture?” Her tone suggested this woman was trying hard to be perceived as an aristocrat. Just like the ma...

Modern schools teach Journalism and Creative Writing. Study Journalism and you'll write ads that are informative. Study Creative Writing and you'll write ads that entertain. But neither is likely to persuade. Only one school of writing always 1.  introduces a new perspective, 2.  causes readers to feel differently, and 3.  does so in a tight economy of words. And that school is very...

Advertising isn't working like it did a few years ago. You've noticed this, right? Most advertisers are convinced that technology is to blame. TV advertisers will tell you that TiVo and her sister Digital Video Recorders are blocking their television ads. But according to a recent report released by Leichtman Research Group, only 12 percent of American households own a DVR. But TV ad results are d...

Are you a one-person company with a lunch-money ad budget? Good News: Time and money are interchangeable. You can always save one by spending more of the other. When money is tight, spend time. (If you don't have any money AND you don't have any time, then you're spending your time on the wrong things.) The key to low-budget advertising is to focus on small groups and individuals. Here are some wa...

Are you anxious to look foolish in front of others? Will you happily submit yourself to ridicule? Are you willing to do a thing badly until you've learned to do it well? Probably not, unless you're the one in five hundred who has what it takes to  succeed . “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy The lone pioneer plunges ahead and discovers a world...

My friend and fellow  Worthless Bastard  Brett Feinstein occasionally quotes his business partner, Jamie, as saying, “Be for what is.” I think I understand what Jamie is saying. There are basically two ways of seeing: 1.  the way things ought to be. 2.  the way things are. Do you find yourself moaning about the injustice of it all and wishing that things were different? Follow...

Silence is a language of context. White space is silence in print ads. Visual saturation  is its opposite. Shadow is another language of context. Silence is seen and shadows are heard in the dim-light quiet of the printed word: We had come home. We had discussed whether to go out for dinner or eat in. I said I would build a fire, we could eat in. I built the fire, I started dinner, I asked Jo...

You're deeply unhappy with the way things are, but you're not quite sure what to change or who to blame.  Depression  is the name we give to unfocused anger. Grief  is the name we give to Anger + Sorrow. Cruelty  is the name given to Anger + Joy. And  Envy  is Anger + Desire. The difference between desire and envy is that  desire isn't angry.  But if you des...

Glance at the headline above and you think, “Imaginary characters.” Add angels to that list and the category will blur to “Characters who do good” if you're a believer in angels, but will remain unchanged if you consider them to be imaginary. Change it to read “Peter Pan, Superman, Angels and Airplanes” and a new category will emerge, “Things that can fly.” Pattern recognition is an important func...

As we learned in  last week's memo , a person can't imagine a personal future without assembling it from stored memories of their past. This means your customer will better understand the new and different when you relate it to the old and familiar. To do this, you must employ Symbolic Thought. (And if you're really good you'll trigger  mirror neurons  in your subject, causing them...

We do not remember days. We remember moments. The secret to creating a different future is to remember a different past. Literally. What do you remember about your past? Do you remember the pain? The frustration? The injustice? Unless you want to live these things again, you need to erase them from your mind. No, I haven't become a perky, positive-thinking Pollyanna. I share only what was publishe...

Sorting my email, I came upon a survey sent to me by an acquaintance: I'm about to change the name of my company from The Success Clinic to something else, and I need your help to find the best name. Which of these do you like best? ____ Academy of Success and Leadership (ASL) ____ Champions Training Institute (CTI) ____ American Success Academy (ASA) ____ Academy of Champions Training (ACT) Inexp...

I still don't know his last name. Gille arrived from Michigan in a small jar with his photograph on the lid. His friend had sent an email to Chapel Dulcinea asking if we'd be willing to launch some of Gille's ashes into the breeze that always blows there. We replied we'd be happy to do it. It seems that Gille's parting wish was for his ashes to be scattered at beautiful and interesting places arou...

When Too Big wedges into a head too small, When Too Hard crowds into a life too soft, When Too Much has happened to make sense of it all, I am Sleep. Let me do my work. – Roy H. Williams Have you ever been confronted with an idea Too Big, a circumstance Too Hard, or a series of events Too Much? Thank God for the right hemisphere of your brain. You spend about a third of your life asleep because yo...

I've created ads for local businesses from coast to coast for nearly a quarter century and I've studied the population of every place for which I've written ads; more than 100 towns in all. And I've presented seminars in an additional 92. That's a lot of travel. And I've noticed that cities have personalities. Humor can be different, for one thing. The video clip that causes an explosion of laught...

Happiness rarely triggers commerce. Unhappiness often does. Purchases are triggered by dissatisfaction with  the way things are.  We purchase when we have a need, a desire, an itch to scratch. We want to change our condition, our surroundings, our state of mind. We buy because we are dissatisfied. And this dissatisfaction is often created by the advertising that offers to remedy it. In h...

Suffice it to say that last week's memo had precisely the effect I had anticipated. We'll speak no more about it. I will not dissect my own writing like a formaldehyde frog in the dim light of your monitor. But I will, for your benefit, gently press my scalpel into a paragraph written by England's brilliant Roy Clarke: “The thing about growing up is that you get fewer scabs on your knees, but more...

Standing at your bedside, I don’t know if you’re dead or only sleeping. Soon our friends will lay pennies on your eyes to pay Charon for your passage. A silly ritual, our friends will do it anyway. But you were dead long before you died. Something caused life to shrivel in you, bloodless and pale, until you began to smell of despair. Did fear of failure run so deep in you? I was troubled by your p...

Your prospective customer has questions about you. Where's the first place they're likely to look for answers? Sadly, your wonderful “Big enough to serve you, small enough to know you” public image probably isn't going to be enough to walk that customer out to their car and drive them to your store so they can ask your friendly and knowledgeable staff. They'll probably just walk to the nearest com...

“Savannah's squares may be public, but they feel private. Their massive, gnarled oaks – dripping with Spanish moss – create an insular mood, not to mention a deep shade… So lazy and calming are these ancient parcels that they act as a narcotic. The temptation is to lose yourself in reverie, to slip irretrievably into a gossamer world of indifference and fantasy.”  – Jolee Edmondson, writing o...

Irrational commitment is a powerful thing. It is the stuff of heroes. Legends live because of it. And like anything powerful, it can be turned toward darkness. But let us look toward the light. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) made a fascinating observation during the days of Cervantes (1547-1616):  Philosophy is based on reason and is, therefore, rational. Faith is based on revelation and is, there...

Sigh… We get asked that question a lot. No, we don't have anything to do with witches, warlocks, séances, Harry Potter or Halloween. We're simply a school of the communication arts. Our mission is to improve the creative thinking and communication skills of educators, ministers, authors, inventors, journalists, business owners, architects, artists and musicians. Not surprisingly, a lot of salespeo...

Advertising is what you buy from the sales department of the media. Public Relations (PR) is what you get from the news department for free. How many ads do you suppose a good news story is worth? Q: Which of the following statements is false? 1. Thomas Edison invented electric light. 2. Guglielmo Marconi invented radio. 3. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Regardless of which statemen...

Toward the end of last week's Monday Morning Memo I promised, “Next week I'll teach you how to increase the  magnetism  of a message by referring to unseen action.” Mischievously, I preceded that statement with a subtle example of the very thing. Do you remember the quote that preceded my promise? “Thoughts are the threads that bind us to deeds. Deeds are the ropes that bind us to habits...