Adertising Style

Advertising Style ©

By Michael Casey

“Buy this, it’ll change your life” screams an advert for washing powder. So Jimmy buys the washing powder and his clothes no longer reek of sweat, and he finally gets a girlfriend and together they have 12 kids. They are constantly washing their clothes in Pambo washing powder, isn’t love strange.  A cycle even a washing cycle.

Now in America everything is loud and proud, adverts included. Over in England, we do things differently, we are calmer, and our ads have lots of humour in them. There are even shows that show adverts from around the world. I did submit an idea for an advert recently, it would be nice if it were used, the pay is great in the advertising industry.

“Do it this way, do it that way, you just have to do it my way or it won’t work.” Too many cooks do spoil the broth, and only a native will understand the nuances of language in their own country, the perfect recipe. I live with a Shanghai girl so I do know about language, or rather the comedy in language when one person is not a native speaker.

You have to pick your words so anybody can understand, I was also an Esol English teacher so I know the value of vocabulary. In the end you can only do things “my way” as Sinatra sung. Your words are your words, and you hope they translate to another English speaking country. You can try and adopt a style that sells in a certain country, but in the end you can only be true to yourself.

There is style in the way you write, people will like it or hate it. Some writing styles are so bad that you’ll give up after a page. An editor I know not only reads 3 times faster than the average person but she will know in half a page if something is worth bothering with. I do miss her a lot.

Dan Brown cannot write, he sells by the million but he just cannot write. Jeffery Archer now he can write and I have enjoyed his books in the past. Style does show off a good writer. Sadly there is lots of Supermarket magazine writing out there, some people waste a lot of time and money learning to write, exactly like their teacher. Just read and listen that’s my advice. I had 20 years of listening before I picked up a pen, and I read by the yard.

Sex, sex, sex and more sex does sell. 50 Shades of Grey, no need for me to say any more. Somebody said they did not understand the English expression “they broke the bed” I’ll leave it to his imagination if he really did not understand. Again its 2 countries  divided by a common language, just as we mishear 17 and 70, and 6 and 60, or is it sex and the over 60s, pardon, what? Can you repeat that Sir.

Language and words do matter, and how you put them together does matter. It’s all in the telling of the Tale, or as an Irish comedian said “You’ve heard them all before, it’s the way I tell them.” Timing and not killing the joke, or coming to the punch line too soon IS most important. A joke must breath, you have to wait, as great American  comedian used to say.

My 3 years at CPNEC as concierge, and everything else, gave me time to practice my timing. Smart Alecs, or should I say Wise Guys as they say in USA, they kill jokes. A pause does make a difference, wait and more people will laugh. In a hotel you can use your lines, the same lines 20 times a day. One unkind girl on reception, I do remember her name but why give her free publicity, anyway she said it was my “act”. It was no act, it was  personality. She just overheard it 20 times a day.

If you have a Scots guest your vocabulary will just insert a few Scots words such as “wee” its automatic, it helps the guest feel at home. I wasn’t Employee of the Year for no reason. I also spent 3 years upselling the hotel, so you do develop a banter and a style when you talk about the hotel to the 100,000 faces that you meet.

Diplomacy is a kind of style too, it used to be called Gun Boat diplomacy, the Opium Wars was Gun Boat diplomacy at its worst. Today/tonight we have a chance to bring a little peace into this world of ours. A Little Peace was a song by a German girl that won the Eurovision Song Contest years ago, you can Google it if you are in the USA, as I imagine you’ve never heard of it.

o style and advertising is today’s politics, Obama can finally earn his Nobel Peace Prize. Was it Churchill who said walk but carry a big stick? But I do know that Churchill said “jaw jaw is better than war war.” And Churchill won a Nobel Prize too.