Home » Opinion » Book review
Adverts that don't insult intelligence
By Ni Tao |
January 23, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE way I usually rebalance my system after a grueling day is to ensconce myself in a leather couch and turn on the TV for some respite from the chores and aggravation I hope to leave behind.
No luck. No matter how stubbornly I work the remote control, zapping from one channel to the next, crass, plain silly advertisements have invaded most channels. Their sheer stupidity is a test of patience and an insult to intelligence.
A recent example of this mindless, anything-goes brand of rogue advertising is a commercial about an energy-boosting tonic called "Gold Partner."
It features the packaged product in the shape of a playful cartoon figure singing -- or more precisely, speaking -- the product's name, and only its name, again and again. It gives no information.
I wonder whether some ad men are roaring drunk when they churn out works that can only pester people. One thing is certain: the struggle to be heard in a cacophony of mass media has led to a general coarsening of public discourse.
Too many ad agencies and salesmen alike are resorting to rogue tactics in their desperate hope of appealing to an increasingly distracted audience.
It doesn't have to be this way, as you can get your messages across without making a mockery of yourself and insulting your audience, say Paul B. Brown and Alison Davis in their book "Your Attention, Please."
In an age of information explosion, the shortening of most people's attention span poses tremendous challenges for communicators.
One problem is that messages are so overloaded with information that their target audience cannot absorb it all.
Although some presumptuous communicators are reluctant to simplify their information-packed messages to satisfy the largest audience possible, they'll realize the benefit of doing so only after their ego estranges them from the public, the authors say.
But being simple doesn't equate with dumbing-down messages. On the contrary, it calls for subtler understanding of what factors influence the audience's thinking patterns and why they receive or reject certain messages.
To hold people's attention for as long as possible, Brown and Davis suggest communicators put up front the audience's needs. They cite the success of such niche publications as Seventeen and Men's Health -- which serve a relatively small yet strong reader base -- as evidence that only messages crafted for individual customers may interest them long enough to make a difference in communication. This sounds like piffle, but it actually goes to the heart of many communication failures.
The way messages are conveyed also matters. A good communicator will present his thoughts in a neat and calculated way. Because hammering out a few cogent words to summarize a lengthy monograph's essence is never easy, the authors put forth what they think will help relevant views resonate better with an audience.
To effectively peddle a "high concept," it is essential for a communicator to frame his or her thoughts in a methodical way. First, instead of trying to hit many targets at once, an astute communicator may do well to start with "one trait" and focus entirely on it. The next step would be to persuade the target audience of the link between the benefit to them and the specific "high concept."
Storytelling skills and visuals both are indispensable in making messages more appealing. Personal anecdotes will sometimes stir vicarious feelings in the audience, while graphics and video clips may breathe life into otherwise stale stuff.
A message studded with nothing but verbose and meaningless texts, like the above-mentioned tonic commercial, is unlikely to attract a serious audience, and the more people are bombarded by this kind of ad rubbish, the sicker they will grow of it. In some cases, it can even cause a popular backlash.
I recall once being coached as a novice reporter by my copy editor on how to write concise news stories. The main aspects: a lead with no more than 28 words (ideally), a punchy headline written with powerful words and an inverted pyramid format in which the most important information is related first. What applies in journalism also works for good communication, the authors note.
Take USA Today. As the biggest US national newspaper, it assumes a style different from many august papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
It classifies stories by topic, color and layout. Rather than delving into a subject and coming up with lengthy articles, USA Today run pieces that are all short and compact, averaging 300 words.
The paper also uses subheads and sidebars to break up stories and underscore important points. And readers love these designs.
These are a few guidelines that communicators would do well to heed if they want to cut through information clutter and make themselves better heard and understood, the authors argue.
No luck. No matter how stubbornly I work the remote control, zapping from one channel to the next, crass, plain silly advertisements have invaded most channels. Their sheer stupidity is a test of patience and an insult to intelligence.
A recent example of this mindless, anything-goes brand of rogue advertising is a commercial about an energy-boosting tonic called "Gold Partner."
It features the packaged product in the shape of a playful cartoon figure singing -- or more precisely, speaking -- the product's name, and only its name, again and again. It gives no information.
I wonder whether some ad men are roaring drunk when they churn out works that can only pester people. One thing is certain: the struggle to be heard in a cacophony of mass media has led to a general coarsening of public discourse.
Too many ad agencies and salesmen alike are resorting to rogue tactics in their desperate hope of appealing to an increasingly distracted audience.
It doesn't have to be this way, as you can get your messages across without making a mockery of yourself and insulting your audience, say Paul B. Brown and Alison Davis in their book "Your Attention, Please."
In an age of information explosion, the shortening of most people's attention span poses tremendous challenges for communicators.
One problem is that messages are so overloaded with information that their target audience cannot absorb it all.
Although some presumptuous communicators are reluctant to simplify their information-packed messages to satisfy the largest audience possible, they'll realize the benefit of doing so only after their ego estranges them from the public, the authors say.
But being simple doesn't equate with dumbing-down messages. On the contrary, it calls for subtler understanding of what factors influence the audience's thinking patterns and why they receive or reject certain messages.
To hold people's attention for as long as possible, Brown and Davis suggest communicators put up front the audience's needs. They cite the success of such niche publications as Seventeen and Men's Health -- which serve a relatively small yet strong reader base -- as evidence that only messages crafted for individual customers may interest them long enough to make a difference in communication. This sounds like piffle, but it actually goes to the heart of many communication failures.
The way messages are conveyed also matters. A good communicator will present his thoughts in a neat and calculated way. Because hammering out a few cogent words to summarize a lengthy monograph's essence is never easy, the authors put forth what they think will help relevant views resonate better with an audience.
To effectively peddle a "high concept," it is essential for a communicator to frame his or her thoughts in a methodical way. First, instead of trying to hit many targets at once, an astute communicator may do well to start with "one trait" and focus entirely on it. The next step would be to persuade the target audience of the link between the benefit to them and the specific "high concept."
Storytelling skills and visuals both are indispensable in making messages more appealing. Personal anecdotes will sometimes stir vicarious feelings in the audience, while graphics and video clips may breathe life into otherwise stale stuff.
A message studded with nothing but verbose and meaningless texts, like the above-mentioned tonic commercial, is unlikely to attract a serious audience, and the more people are bombarded by this kind of ad rubbish, the sicker they will grow of it. In some cases, it can even cause a popular backlash.
I recall once being coached as a novice reporter by my copy editor on how to write concise news stories. The main aspects: a lead with no more than 28 words (ideally), a punchy headline written with powerful words and an inverted pyramid format in which the most important information is related first. What applies in journalism also works for good communication, the authors note.
Take USA Today. As the biggest US national newspaper, it assumes a style different from many august papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
It classifies stories by topic, color and layout. Rather than delving into a subject and coming up with lengthy articles, USA Today run pieces that are all short and compact, averaging 300 words.
The paper also uses subheads and sidebars to break up stories and underscore important points. And readers love these designs.
These are a few guidelines that communicators would do well to heed if they want to cut through information clutter and make themselves better heard and understood, the authors argue.
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