photo by brad & sabrina
Michelle Tripp had a great post recently about how truly outstanding advertising turns a product or service into an “emotional experience.” She used a clip from AMC’s Mad Men to perfectly illustrate the point. After watching it, I wanted to run out and buy a Kodak projector and dig out my family’s old slides from the garage. (The embed’s been disabled so I can’t link to it, but go to YouTube and search “Mad Men: The Carousel.”)
As Michelle put it:
“As advertisers we add a magical ingredient that no tangible product could ever have on its own. We tell a story that makes a connection. We help the consumer see value beyond the price tag. It’s no longer something they can own, it’s something they can live. We take a product that exists in the outer world and make it a part of their inner world. As humans we’re driven to define ourselves through association, and we begin to LOVE the products we choose, because they fulfill our need for identity.”
For some that sense of fulfillment comes with a TV show or an ad campaign. For me it’s usually a song. Like this one. (Ignore the video. It just distracts from the song.)
Go ahead and listen. I’ll wait ’til you get back.
That’s Bob Schneider’s “Changing Your Mind.” Man I love that song. I’m wearing it out on my iPod and it still moves me. Sorry, but I’m a sucker for a great song about the death of love and how the awful moment can catch us in the headlights.
If only how we communicated on behalf of our organizations had that kind of impact. Can you truly say that you move your stakeholders to tears? That your message dwells in their hearts and weighs on their thoughts?
Telling stories isn’t enough. Your stories have to make an emotional connection that pledges people to the cause. I’m not talking about the easy tears jerked out of soft souls by using cute kids or American flags waving in the summer breeze or nostalgia about the way life used to be. I mean crafting a narrative that convinces people of the absolute worthiness of your effort and creates a yearning to be a part of your righteous crusade.
Does your communication do that? Really? I doubt it. If it did, you’d have people lined up around the block and more funding than you knew how to spend.
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Dan, I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it about the song being so moving. Other than the title in the chorus, I can’t hear what he’s saying.
Sorry Dave, they switched versions on me. Here’s what I originally linked to. Again, ignore the video. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking.
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