The Chicken Rules

A crude bomb – acid + petrol – was set off in Chennai. I read the news with some interest. But below that piece was an advertisement for a computer that could ‘pause, rewind or record’. I stopped reading the news-story.

Much before the bomb was set off, a friend asked me to write a small article about advertising. When I began to write that, I said to myself, ‘Hey, try connecting this piece up with something in the news.’

There was so much, and so little. So much, in that, advertising and advertising campaigns had become news-y material. So little, because they were already old news. Then it struck me!

The two incidents were related. Advertising is no more advertising. It is not even news. It is now as much a part of daily occurrence, as, well, terrorism. Here’s why.

Terrorism, to employ a phrase, goes for the jugular. It tries for maximum impact, least effort. Good advertising, inherently, is the same. Each advertising campaign is judged on a simple yardstick. How many people will it affect? How many eyeballs will it capture?

Terrorism is about showmanship. It is communicating your message in BIG, BOLD, STRONG LETTERS. Terrorism is telling the world, “Look at me, world! And listen to me when I speak!”

Why, advertising is that, too! Only, more so. A good advertising campaign puts the product or service being advertised on top of everybody’s minds. And when a good ad campaign speaks, even whispers, everybody listens. As they ought to.

Like show-business, advertising has glittering lights, confetti, sequinned girls and magicians pulling rabbits out of the hat. It puts a spotlight on the product, thrusting a guitar into its hand. Advertising is 30 seconds of fame, every half an hour.

To quote Luke Sullivan, a veteran ad-man,

People don’t want to see your stinkin’ ad. Your ad is the comedian who comes onstage before a The Rolling Stones concert. The audience is drunk, and they’re angry, and they came to see the Stones. And now a comedian has the microphone. You had better be great.

Given that, advertising has necessarily got to be intrusive. Like terrorists and terrorism, it needs to be more interesting than the soaps on TV, or the price of your blue-chip stock. Advertising has to be more interesting than daily life.

Terrorism is about putting a particular brand of fear into society’s head. Bombs, killer-viruses, oil spills, alien death rays and the more. It’s about getting people to throw out old fears and buy into new ones.

As for advertising – Out with the old; New Improved; ‘Bigger, Better! With 20% more!’ – We shout from rooftops. Brand X vs. Brand Y. Them or Us!

Continuing the analogy, terrorism is about a change in the way we see our world. The victims of terror are unsure about their life, about their presumptions and about the guy next door. Nothing is for granted anymore, no siree! Terrorism, at its basic level, is about destroying beliefs and changing perceptions.

That is what this column is about. How advertising challenges your perception.

A good idea, any idea, is at the core of advertising. And ideas are always destructive. They change. They bring about havoc. An idea cannot live in the ‘usual’.

The right idea, told in a memorable way to enough people is the success of an advertising campaign. This involves distilling the idea to its smallest, simplest unit, packaging it effectively and spreading the net wide, but carefully.

To distil an idea to its core requires us to change our perceptions. It requires that we let go of our prejudices and our hang-ups. Not something we all do easily, if we do it at all.

Like terrorism, ideas too create doubt in the minds of the victim. Ideas work us up to a frenzied stage. We itch for something to do, clamour for a badge to carry. The right idea is far more destructive than the best Al Qaeda plans. Even getting the right idea is a destructive process. According to James Webb Young, an idea is “nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements”. To combine two elements to create something new requires that the old ceases to exist.

Sugar-coating an idea is something advertising does exceedingly well. It packages a product enough to ensure first-buy. Glossy papers, film-stars, lights, action, money-back guarantees and NOW OR NEVER. (Here, I will state a point I believe in – good advertising kills a bad product faster. Advertising can only ensure first-buy. Repeat sales are solely on the product’s merit)

To the next point – Spreading the net wide, effectively so, requires skill. More importantly, it requires a change in the way we think of people. Not as uncles or cousins or as neighbours. Or as Abhijeet Sethi, 26, Male, Software professional. It is about thinking of people as enemies of your idea. They need to be won over, told why Us is better than Them. And why, Brand X is no match for Brand Y.

Advertising changes our perceptions. And changes stereotypes. It takes a well-recognized stereotype – the Punjabi, the Tam-bram – and twists them to package a message. In the process, changing the way we look at them. (Remember the ad for a plywood brand?)

Further, it changes our tastes and preferences. Advertising creates a need where it doesn’t exist. Or, desire where only interest existed. And it does so, by playing on our fears, on our insecurities and even our strengths.

In doing this, advertising is perceived by those outside it with a certain level of contempt, and fear. (Just like the terrorists.) For you see, it is not always a good thing to change the way the world runs. It throws people out of the well called familiarity.

Note: An edited version of this piece was first published in the Sunday Express Magazine section, under the title – It all ads up