Reading: Intro and 01

I really like this book, and I’m not just saying that because I’m getting graded.  It really makes you think about the ads that you see all over the place and the amount of work that went into them.  Just the introduction of this book taught me things that I didn’t know, or at least didn’t realize.

            One of the main points that this book stresses is that your ad will not be good if the original idea is terrible.  There are ways to cover a terrible idea for an ad with frill and distractions, but that is the last thing you want to do.  You want a simple (because people don’t have much time), significant (so people remember it) ad that doesn’t lose the product in all the jazz.  That’s only the final product or the tip of the iceberg as the book puts it.  It goes on to point out that there are many, many facets that the ad has to go through before it becomes a great ad. 

            It goes on to explain how a team works and how the brain works and what that means for an ad.  There are two different ways to come at an advertisement; hard sell and soft sell.  These apply to the different sides of the brain; logical and creative.  Usually in a good team there is and analytical, logical thinker and a creative thinker that come together to create a great idea.

            The first chapter bumped up the level of interesting for me.  Getting to see the logic and thinking behind the ads that I’ve seen all over the place was really excellent.  In this chapter they went over basic tools that are used in advertising, a good part of which I was already aware of.   Some of it was brand new to me though, especially the concept of literal vs. lateral.  He touches on it throughout the chapter and before reading the book it had never struck me that it was a strategy.  Of course now it seems like the most important thing you can work with.  If all the ads out there were literal, no mater how much you spice them up eventually they would become boring and predictable.  Making them lateral tweaks them just enough that the ads kind of comes at you from the side and takes you off guard, makes you think and therefore think about the product which is exactly what you want in advertising.  He also points out another important part of this advertising though, that being you always have to start in truth especially when tweaking your ad.  Anything not based in truth will be hard to believe, hard to follow, or flat out lying to the customer which something you don’t want to do.