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Advertising: 11 Insights
from Creative Directors
by ROBIN LANDA
Now that I’m a parent, I look back with affection on a priceless scene in Carl Reiner’s
film, The Jerk. Navin R. Johnson, the main character in the film, decides he must leave the safety
of his loving family home to venture out into the world. He informs his father who understands;
and using alliteration, his father goes on to explain a critical difference to Navin—the difference
between a substance one avoids stepping in and Shinola brand shoe polish, a substance one
purposely applies to one’s shoes. The lesson is: if Navin is capable of distinguishing one
substance from the other, then Navin will be able to successfully make his way through the oh-
As Navin’s father was doing (albeit rather briefly), all parents must. We have to teach our
children to navigate the world, teach them what to avoid, what to do with purpose, to be able to
distinguish and categorize, to recognize intention. “Honey, that’s a commercial. The people who
created that commercial are trying to persuade you to buy that toy.” “That’s right—a
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By the time my daughter Hayley reached the ripe age of four, she could identify a TV
spot as such. Now, that ability to identify—to distinguish a commercial from a television
program, and thus avoid a sales pitch, is good news for folks such as Navin’s father and me, but
really, really bad news for advertisers. Though Hayley is precocious, her ability to recognize, to
identify television advertising isn’t a result of her keen intelligence (though I’d like to think so);
it’s because ninety-five percent of all advertising is formulaic. Most ads look and sound pretty
much the same—indistinct marketing messages. For marketing executives who need to think the
ads they are getting from agencies are indeed what they think ads should be, the familiar may
“That’s a Rembrandt.” “That’s Shinola.” “Oh, yes, that’s definitely an ad.” Knowing
what to expect, knowing food from foul, certainly must provide some emotional comfort. But, in
advertising it’s the kiss of invisibility; formulaic ads don’t grab anyone’s attention. Hearing the
same voice-over you hear in a dozen other commercials, seeing the same types of clips depicting
cars handling winding roads through scenic Californian landscape at twilight, seems to,
well...allow the audience to identify a TV spot as such, and then immediately proceed to tune it
Guido Heffels, creative director of Heimat, Berlin, points out: “There is always
somebody who makes up rules: an ad must work in so-and-so-many seconds, a poster headline
shouldn’t be longer than five words. Funnily, it is precisely those things that move the world that
throw these kinds of rules out the window. These days the man on the street is so clever and
informed about advertising that you can usually only still reach him by charmingly ignoring his
communicative expectations: posters with headlines that are way too long, advertisements you
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only understand after a quarter of an hour, but which are so interesting you gladly take the time
In Search of Guidance
impulse of most every beginner. As soon as I realized only the ads that don’t look or sound like
ads are the ones that are noticed, I looked for every word of advice about creative advertising I
could find.
Defy convention. That was the first directive I learned about creative advertising. It was
from Bob Mitchell, then creative director at a top New York City advertising agency and now
best-selling novelist. Bob Mitchell emphasized using visual metaphors—with the aim of
seducing the viewer with a more poetic visual, as opposed to featuring product shots which alert
In order to get a viewer’s attention, one must present something of interest. When I
interviewed Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, and asked: “How
do you convince a client to take a chance on a daring ad concept?” part of his answer was: “The
risk for clients isn’t in being noticed. The risk is in being irrelevant and invisible.”
Of course, Bob Isherwood’s answer makes perfect sense. So, why is much of the
advertising produced so pedestrian? Many marketing executives must assume formulaic work
plays it safe. Concurring with Isherwood, creative director Doug Adkins, Hunt Adkins in
Minneapolis, points out the error in the ‘formulaic=safe’ assumption: “The ultimate risk is to do
something ordinary. You risk being invisible. You risk throwing all your marketing money into
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the dark oubliette of homogeneity. It is far safer to create something shockingly different,
something that grabs people by the brain stem and squeezes. The safe ad is the ad that no one has
done before and so has a much greater chance of being noticed the first time that it is seen. Risky
ads are for huge, monolithic companies that can afford to throw endless media dollars at a
problem in hopes of winning with sheer ubiquity—companies that would rather be invisible than
Therefore, it’s back to that first astute directive from Bob Mitchell—“Defy
Convention”— which made me eager to gather more advertising insights from every creative
director I ever worked for, interviewed, or met. It’s been a career-long pursuit. Recently, when I
conducted research for Advertising By Design and the third edition of Graphic Design Solutions,
I collected yet more wisdom from venerated and generous creative directors; herein are some
from my cherished collection. You’ve already heard Doug Adkins, Guido Heffels, Bob
Ishwerwood, and Bob Mitchell incisively weigh in. So read on—and may this be the beginning
INSIGHT #1Endear.
When I interviewed Stan Richards, principal, The Richards Group in Dallas, I asked Mr.
Richards about using humor in advertising. He replied: “Look at the process that one goes
through in selling anything: Suppose I’m a car salesperson. I want you to like me. If you like me,
component in every piece of communication. Sometimes it’s a laugh. Sometimes it’s a smile.
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To endear a brand or cause to the audience, viewers should become emotionally engaged
from seeing or hearing the ad. As creative director Paul Renner, Wieden + Kennedy in New
York, writes in Advertising By Design: “Make people feel something. If you do that, they will
remember you. And they may even buy the blender you are trying to sell to them.”
Yogurt is good for your bones; it’s good for your immune system. Most yogurt brands are
a convenient, nutritious fast meal. Many people now find yogurt more than palatable. There are a
lot of ways to pitch yogurt; and, if you pitch all that I’ve just mentioned, it would be
overwhelming.
“Print, like all advertising, needs to be first and foremost simple. One idea. It can be visual,
verbal, or the result of how you juxtapose the two. Ideally it shows you something or conveys a
thought that makes you look at something, even if it’s a basic truth, in a way you’ve never seen it
before.”
“Sounds like advertising.” That is just one of the many illuminating shorthand critique
signs hung in Sal DeVito’s classroom. Sal DeVito, creative director and partner of DeVitoVerdi
in New York, uses those signs to critique students’ ads in his course, at the School of Visual Arts
in New York.
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When advertising does look and sound like advertising, whether in print, on TV, radio or
screen-based, it is usually an unappealing sales pitch. “What does advertising sound like?” you
may be thinking. (I’d bet that you already know since, most likely, you immediately zone out
when you hear or read an ordinary ad.) Basically, it is fake sounding. On TV and radio, warning
signs include jingle-house generated music, same old actors’ voice-overs, inane talking heads,
formulaic beginning / middle / end narratives, stereotyped characters and situations (much like
sitcoms or soaps), voices barking sales at you, among many other shopworn formulas. In print,
the tip offs include hyperbole, trite copy, and corny copy (that is not ironic), among other
prescribed ingredients.
And if that’s not argument enough for you, think about this: the consumer’s ‘I’m-about-
ad, and the viewer goes on the defensive. Everything comes back to Bob Mitchell’s directive
It’s not enough to avoid creating an ad that sounds like a sales pitch, you have to avoid
designing a sales pitch, too. What does an ordinary sales pitch look like? On TV, the warning
interrupting the narrative, and homogenized / sanitized actors, among many other hackneyed
recipes. In print, the tip offs include: huge logos, products as main visuals, non-descript models,
stock imagery that looks like it could be used for a variety of other ads, common layout
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If you offer your audience a visual surprise, you are much more likely to grab their
attention.
Edward Boches further advises: “You get attention by saying or showing something
that’s never been said or seen. Or by surprising someone. Or stunning them with beauty. Never
forget that the first job of every ad in every category is to get your attention. If it doesn’t do that,
nothing else matters. Therefore you have to take into consideration everything from what the
consumer is used to looking at, to where will the ad run, to what are the competitors doing,
I had the honor of interviewing the legendary graphic designer and advertising creative
director George Lois, for my book Graphic Design Solutions, 3e. Lois created some of the most
powerful magazine covers of all time for Esquire. Lois also created the famous “I want my
MTV™” campaign and the Wolfschmidt Vodka print campaign, among many other remarkable
works (http://www.georgelois.com).
Lois’ passion and unique talent infuses his work. That passion and talent are his alone.
But, he did offer this advice to me. Lois affirmed that if you “blend a mnemonic visual with a
mnemonic phrase, and if it’s a big idea, it can be a piece of communication that is impossible to
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If you can manage to engage someone with your brand, cause, or group as an intriguing
being whose behavior is of interest, who has a past, present and future (with an emphasis on the
future), then you are a brand storyteller. Certainly, brand storytelling needs to jive with the brand
strategy, and give it a hook. A good story, a fully realized entity with a vivid spirit, always
And as Richard Palatini, senior vice president/creative director of Gianettino & Meredith
Advertising in Short Hills, New Jersey, advises: “Brand storytelling is a wonderfully effective
technique, providing marketers with the ability to gain preference with people and build strong,
long-term relationships. It’s most effective when it engages a person in a shared experience. If a
tagline can be considered the ‘title’ of a brand novel, then products can exist as ‘characters’,
headlines as chapter headings. The ability of a brand and a person to cohabit in an experiential
narrative builds interpersonal relationships that transcend the marketing artifice and its goals.
Truly successful brand storytelling is equal parts honesty, humanity, consistency, and above all,
page. The directive was: no negative stereotypes about religion, ethnicity, race, age, or gender
could be employed. The class protested in unison: “The assignment is impossible. Get real!” they
implored. I insisted they could find or write jokes that didn’t degrade others. Read essays and
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jokes by Bill Cosby, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, and Paul Reiser, I directed. It was a very
interesting lesson for my students who did manage to write or find funny material about politics,
The only way to operate fruitfully in this world is to respect others. And the only way to
distance advertising from its lingering smell of hucksterism is to create socially responsible
solutions for brands, causes and groups, nothing less. No negative stereotypes. No slurs. No
When I interviewed creative director John Butler, of Butler, Shine & Stern in Sausalito,
California, I asked: “What’s your philosophy about advertising?” John Butler replied with this
pearl, “It has to be likeable. It has to inform and inspire. It has to have some emotional hook to it
that makes consumers interact with it. It can’t talk down to the consumer. There’s a great
quote—although I can’t remember who said it—but it’s hanging on my door: “He who writes the
stories defines the culture.” I think that pretty much sums it up. We are given a voice, and we
“We also need to be held responsible for where our brand’s voice lives. In this media-
centric world we live in, one would think we’d be surrounded by all this amazing,
groundbreaking work. It’s the contrary actually (I am never more reminded of this than when I
am looking at new hire books). I see a ton of cool media outlets, but the messages are unclear or
there is no idea behind it at all. It just lives in a cool space. It is not good enough to just plaster
your website on an egg, or write a branded content TV show for the iPod™ anymore. People
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expect that now. Media isn’t the IDEA. It certainly is the way the idea will live out there in
public. But we shouldn’t disrespect our audience by invading their space, and, then not make a
real connection with them. That is a missed opportunity. I mean, if your website is on my egg
every morning, it better be for a damn good reason. As advertising shows up anywhere and
everywhere, people will eventually tune it all out,” creative director Paul Renner advises.
As technological changes bring yet more media carriers into the mix, choosing media for
When I set out to write Designing Brand Experiences, I knew I wanted to emphasize the
brand as an experience; it is not just the brand identity that needs to be effective, it is all that
Guido Heffels cautions: “A good campaign is always more than just a series of
advertisements, no matter what they’re like. A campaign is a clever, convincing underlying idea
that can have many forms of expression. If I always have the feeling that the same company is
talking to me, then at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the promotional tools look like.
This, of course, clearly contradicts everything the corporate design agencies spell out to us on a
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“Bullshit” is another one of Sal DeVito’s infamous critique categories. Advertising copy,
along with the entire brand message, needs to be believable. It’s very hard to believe hyperbole.
‘The best.’ ‘Amazing.’ ‘Life changing.’ When a TV spot claims that a fast food salad will make
you feel like a queen (and that’s from an actual TV spot for a leading brand), that’s (ridiculous)
hype. Those claims are enough to make anyone, other than a neophyte, suspicious.
What hype translates into is brand bullshit: the advertising is unconstrained by the reality
of the brand. (In his book, On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at
Princeton University, explores the general phenomenon of bullshit, and points out the
undermining ramifications of it.) Hype is different than lying, which is illegal in advertising, and
can be spotted by watchdog groups or federal regulators. Puffery, hyperbole, or just illogical
Talk about what your brand actually is and make that characteristic endearing or relevant.
About using logical arguments in advertising, Frank Fleizach, senior vice president /
creative director at McCann, and Jim Perretti, director and owner of Perretti Productions, former
creative team partners offer this: “Your ad must not only have graphic stopping power, it must
have conceptual stopping power. You must assume your consumer is on his way to purchase
your competitor’s product. If your ad can’t at least give him pause to stop and consider your
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product, you haven’t done your job. Years ago, at Scali, McCabe, Sloves an ad was done for
Pioneer Electronics that read: “A Lot of $600 Receivers Sound as Good as this One.
Unfortunately for Them, This One Sells for $300.” Whether you’re on your way to spend $300
In Closing
And I will leave you, dear reader, with this pithy bit of advice from Doug Adkins: “There
was a Gallup poll done some years ago in which people were asked to rank various professions
in order of perceived integrity. Out of the twenty-eight professions included in the poll
advertising came in second to last, narrowly edging out—you guessed it—lawyers. I for one find
it disturbing that in order to move up the integrity food chain I need to start selling used cars. The
point being, of course, that people don’t trust advertising. They are predisposed not to believe us,
which is utterly shocking considering how wonderfully honest most advertising is. Humor is the
best tool we have to get past people’s well-earned cynicism for one brief moment, giving us an
opportunity to share our message with them. Back when there were three channels on your
rabbit-eared black-and-white television you could irritate people into submission. Now you must
reward them for spending precious seconds of their life with you. It is a pain, I know, but it must
be done.”
• All quotes used with permission. Great thanks to Doug Adkins, Edward Boches,
John Butler, Sal DeVito, Frank Fleizach, Guido Heffels, Bob Isherwood, George Lois, Bob
Mitchell, Rich Palatini, Jim Perretti, Paul Renner, and Stan Richards. And warm thanks to
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ROBIN LANDA
HOW International Design Conference, the College Art Association, and the Graphic Artists
Guild.
Robin Landa is the author of 11 books about art and design, including Designing Brand
Experiences and Graphic Design Solutions (Thomson), Advertising by Design (John Wiley &
Sons), and Thinking Creatively (North Light Books). She co-authored Visual Workout:
Creativity Workbook (Thomson) with Rose Gonnella and Creative Jolt and Creative Jolt
Inspirations (North Light Books) with Rose and Denise M. Anderson. Robin’s article on ethics
in design, “No Exit for Designers,” was featured in Print magazine’s European Design
Annual/Cold Eye column. Her articles have been featured in HOW magazine and Icograda.
2006. The book is co-authored with Rose Gonnella and Steven Brower.
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Advertising By Design
Thinking Creatively
Visual Workout
Creative Jolt
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