'Real Mad Men' author warns against letting the Web kill your advertising story
Communication's not enough. Advertising is about creative persuasion.
That was the essential message, copiously illustrated by colourful examples from advertising's salad days, from Andrew Cracknell, legendary creative director and author of 'The Real Mad Men: The Remarkable True Story of Madison Avenue's Golden Age,' at the Yahoo! PROVOKE Summit held during Internet Week Europe November 7-11.
Appropriate to the 'Mad Men' theme, attendees were served straight-up chilled gin martinis garnished with olives. If there is one way to persuade your correspondent that a conference session is going to be good, this was a grand way to start.
"You're probably used to people opening presentations by saying, 'I will take you on a journey 30 years into the future,'" said Cracknell. "But me, I'm going to take on a journey 59 years into the past. Which, you could argue, is a better use of your time because no one really knows what's going to happen, whereas some of us did live through actually what did happen".
True to his word, Cracknell's erudite and funny presentation was peppered with examples of some of the most creative and revolutionary advertising of the 1960s, such as the Volkswagen 'Funeral' below:
This ad, which was made 50 years ago next week, Cracknell noted, "could be reshot and run tomorrow. It's one of my all-time favorite ads because of its wit, its delightful storytelling and its remorseless hard sell — the value of buying a VW".
Other classic advertising gems Cracknell showed included this classic TV spot for VW's Karman Ghia, Alka Seltzer's famed "Mama Mia" commercial and Union Carbide's "Super Insulation" advert, among others. He didn't just show these for fun — though they were decidedly that — he showed them to make a point, which is that advertising is creative storytelling at the service of selling.
Cracknell offered both advice and warnings to the 150 or so digital advertising enthusiasts assembled.
"Whatever you're doing and however you're doing it, you're ultimately still trying to sell stuff," he said, "Don't kid yourself that because the methods are utterly different that the game has changed. It hasn't".
"There is a view that with the advent of the Internet the world has changed and the role of Internet advertisers is no longer raw-boned selling, but has somehow evolved into a softer, more collaborative social activity," he continued. "It leads people to believe that the grubby act of selling is somehow beneath them; that the creative community tweeting or seeking Facebook 'Likes' is all that the client needs to do on the Web — to 'build relationships', to 'relate', to offer 'sponsored fun…'".
That's a dangerous notion, he added, because "[The client] doesn't want flash mobs for their own sake. He wants lorries grumbling through the night with his products… The internet can get in the way of your message. If you've got a great story, just tell it".
Cracknell closed with six maxims:
1. Respect the consumer
2. Keep it simple and simple-minded
3. Show and tell whenever you can
4. Storytelling trumps and outlasts style and gimmick
5. Never, ever forget you're doing it for them, not you and your mates
6. And never, ever forget that you're place is to persuade, not just to communicate
-- Michael Mattis
