probably should have been more productive but c'est la vie.
yesterday i learned in my 'campaigns' class how to present ideas to a client. without boring you with details of how to structure the presentation, i would like to say i have a huge problem with the concept of the presentation in the first place. when you turn on the tv are you briefed with what goals this ad is trying to achieve? no. are you presented with data on how the target market responds to blond hair 32 year old moms? no. your sitting on your ass, thinking how shitty commercials are and praying another doesn't come on. its presented to you in a blur of other commercials flying past you and your hardly even listening, much less remembering.
so why, when showing an ad to the people who are going to be the most attentive, the most knowledgeable on the product and the most brand savvy do i need to fill them up with bullshit they already know first? 'so as you can see here in the brief, we wanted to let the consumer know your car is the most fuel efficient car in its class so we decided to......blah blah blah'. in real life no one gives a shit about your commercial and thats how they should be judged every time.
our teacher told us to sell it to the client like lawyers cross examine a witness. instead of asking them 'did you murder him?' and give the witness an easy ride to NO. you ask them, did you go out the night of october 8th? yes. did you get in your car? yes. did you drive down this road?yes. did you pass this house? yes. did you stop? yes. did you get out of your car? yes. did you see mr. john? yes. and so on and so on until you have made them admit to so much already that they can't possibly say they didn't commit the murder. so... basically i am supposed to stand up in front of the client and say, did you want your ad to resonate with the consumer? yes. did you want the tone to be serious? yes. did you want there to be a call to action at the end? yes. did you want car to be featured? yes. and once they have agreed to all of these things and see that you have done them in your ad they can't possibly tell you your ad is bad and not buy it from you.
BUT THAT IS BULLSHIT
you can't make your ad for the client. you have to make it for the dumb bitch drinking diet coke on the couch and eating rice crackers. because thats who is seeing it. thats who you want to see it and thats who you want to make an IMPRESSION on. (and as dumb as this bitch is, shes seen a lot of ads and getting anything to stick in her brain isn't easy).
in theory i can understand why i should try and sell my ideas to the client like this. if they understand your thinking they will arrive at the same conclusion you did. but this doesn't happen in the real world and i don't understand why it should happen in the board room. i've been told that 40% of my career in advertising will be coming up with ads and 60% will be selling them to the client. what a waste of time.
(and yes, this rant may have stemmed from bitterness because my presentation skills aren't top notch and i still get all queasy thinking about talking to real clients about why they should choose to pay my rent this month)
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