Choose who to lose

A white-knuckled fist coming toward you tends to make other things vanish from your thoughts. In that moment, nothing else really matters; avoiding injury is paramount. You choose to lose other thoughts and get really focused.

Good advertising is a white-knuckled fist that pushes other thoughts and ideas out of your head. And just like swinging a fist, you can’t hit everyone all at once. You have to choose who to lose: one fist, one target. It’s as much about who WON’T get hit as who WILL feel the blunt-force trauma of your message.

Mike Huckabee gets it. Oh my, does he get it. Wrapped in sweetness, warmth, and divine love, his message cuts through the clutter by uttering the ultimate code word: Christ. With six letters, he takes direct aim at his core.

Your ad should be this good. It’s not flashy. It’s just flat good. Watch it and learn:

Holy subliminal messaging, Batman. Did you notice that bookshelf in the background? In a classic case of  message deflection, media commentators have landed on the floating white intersection of the bookshelf in the background, insinuating it is a case of subliminal messaging. Right. Huckabee is sneaking religion into a spot wherein he calls out Christ by name. You just can’t slip anything past the left these days…