WE COULDN’T GET ARRESTED

By August 5 2010, 8:45 am 5 Comments
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Imagine if we were trying to smuggle something past customs.
What’s the first thing we’d do?
We’d try to look as inconspicuous as possible, right?
We wouldn’t want to stand out.
We wouldn’t want anyone noticing us.
So we’d find out what everyone else was wearing.
Then we’d buy something similar.
Similar jacket, trousers, shoes.
Maybe give ourself a similar haircut.
Also similar luggage.
Check what everyone else is likely to be carrying.
Make sure ours fits in with that.
Not too expensive, not too cheap.
Not to shoddy, not too flashy.
If we’re lucky we can get through without being noticed.
We can blend in with the crowd and get away without being spotted.
Because if we’re smuggling something, the one thing we don’t want to do is be noticed.
Because, if we’re noticed, we might attract attention.
And if we attract attention, we might be stopped.
And, if we’re stopped we might be investigated.
And, if we’re investigated, they might find out what’s going on.
And then we’ll get arrested.
So, if we’re smuggling something, standing out isn’t what we want.
But hang on.
If we’re doing an advertisement that’s exactly what we do want.
We do want to be different so we stand out.
We want to stand out so we’ll be noticed.
We want to be noticed so people will be interested.
We want them to be interested so they’ll want to know what we’re about.
What’s going on.
We want to get arrested.
We want exactly the opposite of what we’d want if you were smuggling.
So why do we do advertising as if we were smuggling?
Why do we try NOT to stand out?
Why do we try to copy what everyone else is doing?
Why do we try to find out what the rules are for our sector, so we can obey them?
Why do we find out who are the most fashionable directors that everyone else is using, and use them?
Why do we make sure to find out what the awards juries voted for last year, and do that?
Why do we try to find out who are the voice-overs everyone likes, and use them?
Why do we ask panels of people to tell us what they expect the ads to look like?
Why do we try to fit consumers’ preconceptions?
Just the way all our competitors are doing.

Are we trying to get through unnoticed?
Do we want to get past without them spotting us?
To escape their attention?
Is it a result if no one sees us?
If so, why are we advertising at all?
Why don’t we just save all that money?
That way nobody will notice us and we won’t have to take any chances at all.
We can escape with no one ever having even seen us.
We can run our ads without ever having to worry or feel uncomfortable.

We can be absolutely certain we won’t get arrested.

  • http://www.bravenewmalden.wordpress.com Kevin Mills

    Bad meeting, was it? Very true words, though.

  • Misha Newby

    Was watching a documentary on immigration once. They had an interview with a really experienced customs officer. He was saying the thing that he looked out for was the details. Noone who was up to no good would dress outrageously, they’d try and dress as normal as possible, but usually they’d get the details wrong. Particularly the shoes. For instance he said often people would wear what they thought was very Western, with a neat suit etc, but a pair of loud shiny shoes with tassles on.
    Often it’s the things which appear to be normal but are subverted in the details that are most intriguing and draw our attention.

  • http://stuartdirector.com/ Stuart Wood

    I once had to visit a client’s factory in Holland.

    It was the cold, dark winter months, so to brighten things up and to ingratiate myself while there I thought it was a good idea (at the time) to wear the brightest orange wool jacket known to mankind.

    The visit was a success and the Dutch loved the orange jacket gesture.

    But on my return to Heathrow it was another matter.
    I knew something was amiss the moment I got off the plane.
    I heard across various security walkie talkies “guy in the orange jacket” and had developed quite a following of twitchy plain clothed heavies towards the customs exit point.

    Sure enough I was stopped at the exit by the customs police.
    I did declare the jacket was a crime against fashion, but after a look at my ticket was let on my way.

    I didn’t stand out at all in Holland, but was close to being arrested in an environment not used to seeing orange in November.

    So if you want to get noticed put the content into the wrong context.

  • Soap Box

    did you know that a person can be arrested just based on another’s statement?

    i.e. that person had his/her way with me and no evidence is necessary, it can
    get as far as a court room just on someone’s statement.

    today, there are men/women sitting in jail found guilty – who could be innocent.

    i was very surprised to hear this – i always thought it was innocent until proven guilty, when at the end of the day, it seems it’s one person’s word against another.

  • Kevin Gordon

    FEAR
    We live in a fear-based society.
    Theres’s now one CCTV camera for every 12 people in the UK.

    “The most recent British Crime Survey has shown that overall crime was estimated to be 42% lower than at its peak in 1995. People’s greatest fear usually centres on violent crime, but the BCS also shows that violent crime has fallen by 41% and assault with minor injury has fallen by nearly 60% since 1995. The most recent survey showed an overall risk of becoming a victim of violent crime was just 3.6% of the population. This includes the highest risk category of 16-24 year old young men. This shows that over 94% of the population were safe from serious harm.

    Source BCS.

    But when it comes to Advertising and Marketing, all that is thrown out of the window in preference to fear of “The Bogey Man”. That fear of failure myth that only exists in the mind of the weak, feeble and incompetent bean counter and jobsworths whose only fear is fed by: “Will they sack me from my highly paid job if I sanction this ad I do not have the intellectual capacity or common business sense to understand?”.

    That is why this country is losing so much money.
    Fear based-stuffed shirts perpetuating the myth of “The Bogey Man”.
    That is why America will recover quickly.
    They put their money where their mouth is.
    They say what they are going to do and get on with it.
    Here, people mudddle around, smudge, fog, confuse, and destroy.
    But it’s great, because it really frustrates creatives,
    and the end result of that is brilliance that shines.

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