David Garfinkel’s latest ‘World Copywriting Blog’ article titled “The Goldilocks Rule In Advertising: Not Too Little, Not Too Much, There You Go: Just Right” is reprinted here. Click on More to read the article.


David Garfinkel’s latest ‘World Copywriting Blog’ article is reprinted here.

world_copywriting_blog2.jpg

The Goldilocks Rule In Advertising: Not Too Little, Not Too Much, There You Go: Just Right

Moderation is not a quality you typically associate with copywriters. After all, copy is so often about extremes… superlatives… the quintessential:

“The most important letter you ever read.”

“Simply better than the rest.”

“Protects you from the worst weather conditions.”

But there is one area of copywriting that cries out for moderation — not abstinence, not extremism, but moderation — and that is the area of Entertainment.

Most jolly hail-fellow-well-met ad agency employees act and think like advertising is ALL about Entertainment.

Most tight-jawed, steely-eyed direct response advertisers say, without a trace a humor, that entertainment belongs in the circus –it has no place in copy.

I say something different than all of them.

I say entertainment is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY –but it is one of the elements of your copy that calls for moderation (perhaps the only one).

Here’s why I say that.

“You can’t bore people into buying.” — David Ogilvy, the old-school Madison Avenue guy for whom I have immense respect.

He took direct marketing principles to mainstream advertising and made a fortune, for himself, his agency and his clients.

Several fortunes, actually.

Mr. Ogilvy was and is right. Boredom is not the ticket to higher response.

Then there’s the other extreme. Chihuahuas that want American fast food from restaurants with one Mexican word in the restaurant’s name.

A shady-looking car salesman who talks fast while titles on the screen say “He’s Lying.”

Animated characters who stuff themselves with food and then croon, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

Just three documented examples of “highly entertaining” ad campaigns that have led to REDUCED sales.

But there’s a middle ground — a middle zone. That’s what I want to talk to you about today.

I was reminded of the middle zone because two of my partners on a new venture (I’ll tell you about it in a minute) remarked that one very perceptive marketer had tracked the difference in response between spoken audio messages with no background music and spoken audio with background music all the way through.

Hands down, music in the background got MUCH higher response.

As I thought about why that might be, it occurred to me: People demand SOME entertainment when they’re being sold.

But here’s the key word:

“Background.”

Notice in this example that the music doesn’t dominate or cry out for attention — the voice message (THE COPY) does. Yet, the music makes listening to the voice (THE COPY) all the more entertaining.

Without drawing attention away from the voice (THE COPY).

I’m being a little heavy-handed in the last two paragraphs with my use of capital letters to emphasize a point.

If Bill Clinton were running for President of Advertising today (whatever that is), I’m sure his campaign headquarters would have a big sign up there saying,

“It’s the copy, stupid!”

Now comes the question: How do you make your copy moderately entertaining, without drawing attention away from the sales message?

The answer is simple.

Hot buttons.

When you push people’s hot buttons, they are entertained.

For an extreme and barely relevant, yet instructive, example, look at the box office report from last weekend. Americans spent $34.3 million watching “Saw III,” a movie that requires victims to engage in self-mutilation for survival. I think. I read the review. I’m not going to go see it myself.

But. Millions of people did. Because it made them very, very afraid. Without putting them in actual physical danger. In other words — it pushed their hot buttons.

So