WILL FRED & ETHEL DESTROY YOUR ADVERTISING?

Honey and I have been discussing the inevitable destruction of good advertising by clients who allow  F&E to rule.

F&E.

Fear and Ego.

Or, as I’ve recently dubbed them, Fred & Ethel.

Why the names?

They are destructive entities.

As abstract concepts, they are agents of change. Bad change. Destructive change. Ignorant change.

Fear & Ego are fools who deserve our contempt.

So they now have names.

Yes, they have the names of a couple from a 1950s TV sitcom.

No disrespect to Vivian Vance and William Frawley (who apparently couldn’t stand each other), but Fred & Ethel were fools.

As are Fear & Ego.

So, what are Fred & Ethel all about?

THE STORY TYPICALLY GOES LIKE THIS…

A copywriter has a meeting with the client and learns all about the client’s business.

Under the best of circumstances, the copywriter goes and experiences the client’s business.

The best copywriter will become the client’s customer.

Then, he ends up creating really good advertising. Maybe not award-winning, but emotionally evocative.

Advertising that captures the essence of the client’s brand and conveys it to the audience in a way designed to capture hearts and minds.

Then the advertising goes out for approval.

Next…

FRED & ETHEL KILL WHAT’S GOOD TO SATISFY THEMSELVES

Fear rears its ugly head and says to the advertiser, “No, no, no. We can’t say THAT. That’s too different. It doesn’t sound like a commercial.”

Fear wants to play it safe. Fred wants to go to school dressed like all the other kids-despite the fact that all the other kids are an ignorant, unworldly mess trying to grope their way through life and figure things out.

But because the message doesn’t sound like all the other garbage on the air, Fear has decided it is wrong and must change to conform.

“They won’t understand what we’re about. They won’t understand how we do business. They’ll think we’re different. We don’t want to be different.”

And ultimately, Fear has its way. It destroys advertising that could have done great and beautiful things.

Ego, well…

Ego is even worse then fear.

Ethel gets in there and starts throwing her weight around.

“It doesn’t say how many years we’ve been in business. It doesn’t talk about the size of our inventory. It doesn’t say how we’re family owned. It isn’t all about ME!”

Ego is an infant demanding attention.

Ethel refuses to recognize that the advertisement is not about her, but about her customer.

Ethel forsakes the customer experience and demands the message be injected with prideful bullet points that influence nobody except possibly her mother.

FRED & ETHEL ARE LOATHSOME

As advertising people, we give everything we’ve got to give when it comes to building butterflies for our clients.

Unfortunately, many clients, ignorant of anything to do with good advertising, squash the butterflies and demand caterpillars in return.

Caterpillars are functional. They are the ingredients that become butterflies.

Butterflies are light and delicate, inspirational and engaging.

Advertisers are often blind to the difference.

They need education. They need to know why something is good when Fred & Ethel insist differently.

They need a courageous guide.

They need advertising professionals who know the difference and don’t let them shoot themselves in the foot as they shoot the wings off the butterfly.

It’s very easy to destroy something good. Fear & Ego make it so.

But it’s not easy to build something good.

Just as good advertising needs protection from Fred & Ethel, advertisers need to be protected from themselves.

You are presumably reading this because you are a professional persuader.

How are your powers of persuasion when it comes to protecting clients from Fred & Ethel?

As always,

Blaine Parker

Your Short, Fat Creative Director

in Park City