When I worked in mass advertising, I asked the CEO of an ad agency to recommend the best book on strategy in advertising. Without missing a beat he replied, “The Art of War
During my read, I recognized many parallels between advertising and war, not the smallest of which was the lexicon. The following is a list of words that are used as often in the war room of the Pentagon as they are in the boardrooms of Madison Ave.
Target Base
Tactical execution
Strategic intelligence advantage
Propaganda
Conquest
Loyalty
Domination Strategy
Convert a hostile audience
Rifle Precision
Although there are many great lessons to be learned from The Art of War
(plus several insightful gems on motivation and the human condition), the heart of the metaphor we’re exploring today situates the customer as the enemy.
Friends, your customer is not your enemy.
No one wants to be conquered. Nobody wants to be hit with rifle blast precision. We are not a hostile audience to convert. Please don’t consider my family for your tactical execution.
Advertisers need to adopt a new lexicon in order to wrap their heads around the idea that they no longer control the media.
War is over, if you want it.
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3 Responses to “The Media Dyslexicon”
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December 18th, 2008 at 10:36 am
collin, your insight always impresses me.
you have a way of looking at things that is not way off the grid but still provides such a refreshing perspective.
i LOVE the “Instead of/Think” graphics you do to illustrate these points. Have you considered making a short coffee table book with just those graphics? I’m not sure how many you have in total, but i it would make a great read.
z
December 18th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Interesting idea on the book. I only have a few, but I will keep it in mind for the future.
good idea!
January 7th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Colin
I hate being the guy that has nothing to say but “great post.” But I can’t help it man…Great Post.
Cheers
James