SAVORY ANECDOTES AND OCCASIONALLY USEFUL OBSERVATIONS OF AN
Artful Realist
My name is LARRY VINCENT. I'm a writer, speaker, photographer and lovable nerd based in Los Angeles. When I'm not writing here about things that inspire me, I look after The Brand Studio at United Talent Agency.
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In Defense of Super Bowl Advertising … when executed correctly
There isn’t a bigger forum for television advertising than the Super Bowl. It was once Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry rolled into one—a place for brands and their agencies to raise the stakes and entertain the largest television audience in the world. Some of the most memorable advertisements of all time debuted on a Super Bowl broadcast. So, why was 2013 so lackluster?
TweetThe Hunt for Real Creativity in Advertising
My Monday morning ritual is deeply ingrained. I arrive early to find a stack of advertising and media trades to digest before launching into my client work for the week. One of those trades is AdWeek. I’ve been reading it for years but only recently noticed a new behavior on my part. When I come across the review of the week’s featured campaign I have to fire up my browser and search for the spot online so that I can view it. In years past this would have never been the case. I would have seen the spot during my television viewing. Lately, I can’t recall which advertisements I’ve seen on television.
TweetExplaining why a chocolate cupcake tasted so divine makes us love the cupcake a little less, while explaining why a movie was so horrible makes us hate the movie a little less.
// Sarah G. Moore
Assistant Professor, University of Alberta School of Business
Author of “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid: How Word of Mouth Influences the Storyteller.” Journal of Consumer Research: April 2012
(Source: jcr-admin.org)
TweetSay Goodnight, Complexity
Most brands struggle with simplicity. They litter their campaigns with too much information out of fear that they will leave something out. The best brands understand that less is more. Even when it seems crazy, you can probably take one more thing out.
In his 1988 memoir, Gracie: A Love Story, George Burns described the elegant way that his wife, the famed comedian Gracie Allen, lived her life and mastered her art:
Gracie made some of her own rules, too. The last thing she would do before leaving the house, every time, was look at herself in the mirror and take one thing off. It could have been anything. A necklace, a bracelet, a scarf, it didn’t matter, she had to take one thing off. That way, she believed, she’d never be overdressed. I was probably the only husband in the country who could ask his wife if she was ready to go and have her say, “One minute—just let me take something off.”
What can you take off before your brand leaves the house?
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Copyright 2012 by Laurence Vincent
