Peeling back the messaging layers of modern advertising

Contrary to the belief of many, advertising isn’t about a form of mind control. It’s not about making people want stuff they don’t want or do things they don’t want to do. For the most part, it’s about getting people to do a little more of what they are already doing. That is among the insights in this book about the art of persuasion and more specifically about how the world of advertising works.

Weltman, an experienced creative director, worked on the critically acclaimed TV series Mad Men that characterised life in an early 1960s advertising agency.

Advertising tries to do one of four things, he observes. This can be introducing a new product, encouraging trial, inspiring loyalty by reminding consumers of a unique or differentiating feature, or identifying with consumers by demonstrating shared values or ideals.

For much of his career, Weltman felt brand building required choosing between being emotional and evoking feelings or being rational and transferring facts. He concluded the process involved both.

Among other insights, Weltman notes that every message that is trying to persuade, sell or seduce needs to answer one of four fundamental questions people ask before choosing any product or service: What is it? Why do I need it now? What makes it different from other things? And who else thinks it is good? Answering these questions economically, truthfully and memorably is the art of advertising, he says.

The conundrum is that for a message to break through to, connect and motivate a prospect, it can only answer one of these questions at a time and it takes a very different kind of message to answer each question.

There’s a lot of nonsense talked about creativity and freedom in advertising teams, and that these two elements are required to execute a brief successfully. The contrary is the case, he believes.

“Give smart, ambitious, creative people a tight brief, a list of mandatory elements and seemingly no way to make a project interesting and they will figure out how to claw their way of the box and prove that the tight brief, requirements and mandatories are nothing compared to the awesome power of imagination.”

Looking for too much inspiration from what others have done is also counterproductive, he says. Ad agencies are practical places where things need to get done, presented, sold, written, bid, produced and sent out the door today. Agencies are not big on criticism, deconstruction and analysis of work that has nothing to do with the job at hand.

Self-interest tends to keep advertising people from lying. If they are dishonest about what really motivates a person to buy things, the ads simply won’t work. That spells bad news for their careers.

Brand vs reputation

Brand is an overused term, he maintains, especially for smaller concerns. If you can fit everyone responsible for the success or failure of your business into one room, there’s no need to use the word brand. It’s too abstract and it tends to sound like a standalone entity that can be built or addressed in and of itself. Try using the word “reputation” instead, he suggests. It’s much more compelling and it causes people to care a little more.

Weltman leaves it surprisingly late in the book to addresses the online world and, while he makes some pertinent observations about how digital consumers are not the creators of their own networks, one senses a certain nostalgia for the way things used to be.

Nonetheless, there’s plenty of good material here including well-chosen case studies about the emotional appeal of brands. Weltman provides an interesting and informative insight into the world of advertising from a practitioner’s perspective.