Fire and Knowledge

I really hate ads — I use an ad-blocker for the web and refuse to buy from any company I get spam from. So of course this caught my eye:

A city stripped of advertising. No Posters. No flyers. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. No Adshels, no 48-sheets, no nothing.

It sounds like an Adbusters editorial: an activist’s dream. But in São Paulo, Brazil, the dream has become a reality.

São Paulo: The City That Said No To Advertising

Marketing is the act of inventing the product. The effort of designing it. The craft of producing it. The art of pricing it. The technique of selling it.

–Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, p. 96

So how do you create an idea that spreads? Don’t try to make a product for everybody, because that is a product for nobody. The everybody products are all taken… The way to break through to the mainstream is to target a niche instead of a huge market.

–Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, p. 31

It’s hard for me to overstate the effectiveness of [the old mass media ad system]. Every time you buy a box of breakfast cereal, you’re seeing the power of TV at work. Due to a commercial you likely saw thirty years ago, you’re spending an extra dollar or two on a box of puffed wheat or sugared corn. Over your lifetime, that’s thousands of dollars in cost premium for TV ads just for breakfast cereal.

–Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, p. 15

Stop advertising and start innovating.

–Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, p. 4

I was logging onto my bank account at Wells Fargo when I was shown an advertisement for a service I did not want. These were the options at the bottom of the ad:

This is a clear example of poor design and carelessness on the part of marketers and web developers. What is the difference between “Show me later” and “Not at this time”? Nothing. If I hit “Not at this time,” they show me later!

The solution, of course, is removing “Not at this time” and replacing it with “Don’t show me again.”

Daniel Gilbert in “Compassionate Commercialism” writes about how corporations are preying on human sympathy and kindness in their latest advertisements. I find this despicable and shameless. Excerpt:

In an advertising campaign that began last week, Nissan left 20,000 sets of keys in bars, stadiums, concert halls and other public venues. Each key ring has a tag that says: “If found, please do not return. My next generation Nissan Altima has Intelligent Key with push-button ignition, and I no longer need these.”

This campaign is clever, but not particularly original.

It was 1997, and the man who was crouched on the sidewalk at 68th and Broadway in New York City was one of the most pathetic souls I’d ever seen. His limbs were twisted in what appeared to be arthritic agony and tears were streaming down his face. “Please,” he whimpered. “Please, somebody help me.”

Most passers-by did what they were named for, but my wife and I stopped. The man looked up. “Please,” he sobbed. “I just want to go home.” My hand needed no guidance from my brain as it reached into my wallet and extracted $10. “Thank you,” he said as I handed him the money. “Thank you so much.” My wife and I mumbled some embarrassed words and walked on.

We hadn’t gone a block when she tugged my sleeve. “Maybe we should have gotten him into a cab,” she said. “He could barely stand up. He might need help. We should go back to see.” My wife is the patron saint of lost kittens and there is no arguing, so we went back to see. And what we saw was our horribly crippled friend walking briskly and happily up 68th Street, opening the door to a late-model car, getting in and driving away after what was apparently a short day of theatrical work….

Now corporate America has taken a lesson from the guild of shameless grifters. Nissan’s plan to leave those 20,000 sets of keys in public venues is every bit as crafty as the fraudulent performance that a decade ago left me with holes in both my pocketbook and soul. There is no selfish reason to bend down and pick up a key ring, but Nissan knows that we will bend without thinking because the impulse to help is bred into our marrow. Our best instinct will be awakened by a key ring and then punished by a commercial. Like rubes throughout the ages, we will be lured by a false cry of distress and quickly cured of our innocence and compassion….

Should we now get used to commercial tricks that play on our humanity? How would we feel about a device planted in trash bins that screams “I’m stuck!” until the lid is opened, at which point it continues, “Stuck in a dead end job, that is — and if you are too, then let us show you how to make millions in real estate with no money down”? Is it O.K. to send a thousand doleful puppies into the streets with tags that say: “Thanks for checking. And speaking of checking, our bank charges no monthly fees”?

And it came to pass that a man who sold shirts was smitten by hard times. Neither did any of his merchandise move nor did he prosper. And he prayed and said, “Lord, why hast thou left me to suffer thus? All mine enemies sell their goods except I. And it’s the height of the season. My shirts are good shirts….

And the Lord heard the man and said, “About thy shirts…”

“Yes, Lord,” the man said, falling to his knees.

“Put an alligator over the pocket.”

“Pardon me, Lord?”

“Just do what I’m telling you. You won’t be sorry.”

And the man sewed on to all his shirts a small alligator symbol and lo and behold, suddenly his merchandise moved like gangbusters, and there was much rejoicing while amongst his enemies there were wailing and gnashing of teeth.

–Woody Allen, Without Feathers (1975) in The Complete Prose of Woody Allen, 36-37