The target

"Two men were duck-shooting - one a seasoned sportsman and the other out for his first bird. They looked up and saw a cloud of ducks above them.

    "Help yourself!" the veteran said. The novice fired. Not a feather fluttered.

     "How in the world could I miss all of them?" he exclaimed.

     "You didn't pick your duck," was the answer. "You fired at the whole flock."

      If an advertisement is to contain the consumer's viewpoint it must be made with a knowledge of the consumer's personality, sex, tastes, location and habits....One of the most vital facts for an advertising man to remember is that he must never let himself lose the consumer viewpoint which he had before he started studying a product."

     That was a passage from a book that I recently read. I share it, not because it states anything that we don't already know, but because it was written in 1928 by Roy S. Durstine (the "D" in BBDO) and is, what I believe, the fundamental truth of our business. We need to be reminded of that. Yet I hear that advertising is all about Innovation or Conversation or Technology or Delivery Systems or Making Things or Entertainment or God-Knows-What. Those things are only part of what it’s about. Front and center, it’s about Persuading a Consumer. 

     I’m thinking it's time for a reload.

What can we possibly learn from a traveling salesman?

    In the early 1900’s and through at least the first half of the century, a traveling salesman would knock at your door and, if he were any good, immediately do two things to begin his sales pitch. He would make two gestures – one with his right hand and one with his left foot: he took off his hat and he stepped backward. Instinctively you would open the door even wider, inviting the salesman inside. With those two gestures, his sales pitch would become a sales talk.

    These days, it isn’t that easy to get invited inside someone’s home, except in porn movies or slasher films. But the thinking behind his two gestures still holds true. It sets just the right atmosphere for effective advertising.

     There’s the courtesy of the lifted hat from a well-dressed professional and the deference expressed in the backward step, disarming your instinct for self-protection. In a matter of seconds, the salesman laid the foundation for respect and credibility. The step backward left a space for you to fill.

     Now let’s talk about the majority of pop up ads, pre-roll ads and hot links. In a medium designed to fulfill instantaneous wants and needs, these ads screw with our rhythm. There is no knock at our door and there is no deference and there is no space for us to fill. These things are in our face.

     My point is this: There are principles behind the successful techniques of the past, lots of valuable lessons that we can and should learn from. All we have to do is realize that we are in the business of persuasion and suddenly we have the history of human behavior from which to draw.
     As the salesman left, you would smile as he walked down your front steps. Then, almost breathlessly, you’d head back into your home and realize that you had committed yourself to 29 monthly installments of the Encyclopedia Britannica that the nice young salesman represented. You had been sold. And you didn’t mind one bit.

It's so good, I'm tempted to steal it.

     You know Colum McCann, the writer? The New York Times wrote a piece on him in last Sunday's magazine and it reported about an organization that McCann helped found, Narrative4. The organization "brings together kids from different places – sometimes directly contentious places, sometimes just places with their own hardships – and how over a span of days the kids pair off, one from each place, and exchange the story that most defines who they are. At the end of their time together, they tell the stories to the larger group, taking on the persona of their partner – an exercise, McCann said, in "radical empathy.""

     I love this. Imagine an agency that embraces "radical empathy"? Imagine this exercise being part of the criteria to join an agency? Imagine an agency that is serious about its ability to tell the right story to a consumer? 

     I wish I came up with "radical empathy." Hopefully, I'll have plenty of opportunities to borrow it. And if I ever forget to give Colum McCann credit, let this be my admission of his ownership.