Babbling Point

.
“Joel, I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a fucked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.” –Clementine, from ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

How the heck do you get to write stuff like that? How far does one have to dig to find such words, such thoughts? Which chamber of the heart do I open to find the right story? Do I use a scalpel, a butcher’s knife, or a black Pilot V5 sign pen to stab my heart and make the right words spill out onto the paper? Is that how it works? How bloody does this story have to get? How do I make money out of misery? How do I make the right words splatter across the computer screen and not make people cringe and say, “Ick! He’s being sappy again!”? Which vein do I slice open that will let me spill the words into the page that will make people say, “Oh wow, that’s me. That happened to me. It’s like he’s writing about me. Damn. That’s my story.”?

One of the TV commercials that won in the Adfest was for a cellphone company called i-mobile. It showed a guy in his 30s come home to a dark apartment. Through out the commercial he’s on the phone listening to his mom rattle off advice and nag him about what he’s wearing and if he’s eating the right food. The mom reminds her son that if he needs anything, he should call her. A pre-recorded voice suddenly cuts in to say: If you want to hear that message again, press one. And the man presses one and listens to his mom’s litany again. We then see a picture of the mom and there’s a black ribbon tied-up around the frame. The screen fades to black and words CONNECT appears on screen, followed by the logo of the cellphone company.

After watching dozens of really funny commercials, that one just made everyone fall silent. Then applause filled the ballroom and I’m sure there were some teary-eyed people there as well.

It takes a brave company and a very bold client to approve an ad like that.

To tell stories that ring true, how do you do that?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Couple of weeks ago, Ms. Diyco featured another campaign made by the creatives here at Harrison Communications. Here's her review about the Neozep "Neozerye" TV campaign: Romancing the mighty colds cure ADS AND ENDS, Nanette A Franco-Diyco BUSINESS WORLD Vol. XX, No. 139, Friday-Saturday, February 9-10, 2007 http://www.bworldonline.com/Weekender020907/main.php?id=marketing_diyco The four television commercials that serialize the life of pretty housemaid Luwalhati, culminating in a storybook wedding to her once-upon-a-time señorito from the imposing mansion belong to an ad campaign awards class all its own. There have been other spoofs of soap operas selling other brand categories in the past. But for several reasons put together, the Neozep series of commercials that began with honest-to-goodness ad teasers that looked and sounded like teasers for true-blue soap operas proved ultra entertaining and more importantly, "reinforced Neozep’s leadership and further s...

I AM A FILIPINO

I am a Filipino – inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such, I must prove equal to a two-fold task – the task of meeting my responsibility to the past, and the task of performing my obligation to the future. I am sprung from a hardy race – child many generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the centuries, the memory comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned men putting out to sea in ships that were as frail as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I see them come, borne upon the billowing wave and the whistling wind, carried upon the mighty swell of hope – hope in the free abundance of the new land that was to be their home and their children’s forever. This is the land they sought and found. Every inch of shore that their eyes first set upon, every hill and mountain that beckoned to them with a green and purple invitation, every mile of rolling plain that their view encompassed, every river and lake that promised a plentiful living ...

The Mini Manifesto

LET'S BURN THE MAPS. Let's get lost. Let's turn right when we should turn left. Let's read fewer car ads and more travel ads. Let's not be back in ten minutes. Let's hold out until the next rest stop. Let's eat when hungry. Let's drink when thirsty. Let's break routines, but not make a routine of it. LET'S MOTOR.™ This is the copy for the MINI “Let’s Motor” campaign. The creatives who created this campaign said they weren’t just writing copy on how great it would be to own a Mini, they were writing a manifesto, a way of life for people who drive a Mini. I just love how the copy has rhythm, how it just flows and rolls off the tongue, how it just wants you to go out and drive and just keep driving. Makes me also wish I could write copy like that. More wonderful copy ads can be found at: http://www.libraryofmotoring.info/miniprintads.html