Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

She stood silently on the cracked asphalt, her summer dress billowing in the breeze, the calm at the center of the storm that was spreading across the country. Around her swirled police officers and demonstrators that had blocked Airline Highway in Baton Rouge to denounce the death of Alton Sterling, shot by police outside a convenience store. Many protesters carried signs. Some shouted into bullhorns. ‘She just stood there and made her stand,’ said photographer Jonathan Bachman to Buzzfeed News. ‘I was just happy to be able to capture something like that.'” – Michael E. MillerIeshia Evans is a 28 year-old mother with a 5 year-old boy.She wanted to look her son in the eyes to tell him she fought for his freedom and rights,” says Alex Haynes, her best friend since the age of eight.This is not an unemployed troublemaker.This is an accomplished woman, a successful LPN.And this was her first protest.But young black men are dying when they should not.And her son is a young black man.When Ieshia Evans was 3 years old, Disney released a children’s movie called Beauty and the Beast.AThat movie is about a girl named Belle, the non-conforming daughter of an eccentric inventor. Belle is ostracized by her peers due to her intelligence and love of books. But when her father is imprisoned by a cold-hearted beast, Belle offers the beast her own freedom in exchange for her father’s.Does that story sound familiar? Belle was not a new character. Disney has been holding up strong, young women as role models since 1950, when Cinderella ran an entire household by herself, prepared the meals, did the laundry and fed all the livestock until she was encouraged by an older woman – her fairy godmother – to rise above her circumstances and all the haters who were trying to hold her down.Cinderella lived happily ever after as a princess in a castle.Admittedly, the vehicle of Cinderella’s escape was Prince Charming.But that was 1950.bIn 1953, Disney gave us Tinker Bell, a loyal, brave and determined pixie forever trailed by glittering pixie dust that can help humans fly if they think happy thoughts. Tinker Bell became one of Disney’s most important icons.r1964  Mary Poppins is an independent woman who knows her own worth. She demands respect at her job and stands up to her boss from the get-go.i1977 In The Rescuers, Penny is a tough little orphan girl who is kidnapped and held prisoner in Devil’s Bayou, where she faces down a pair of trained crocodiles, Brutus and Nero, and thwarts her captors entirely with the help two little mice.Thirteen years ago I wrote the following in the Monday Morning Memo for February 17, 2003.Heroes are dangerous things. Bigger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie.We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as is a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous things to have.The only thing more dangerous is not to have them.Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are ever-present tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we are striving to be.We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they attempt to create us in their own image.”Through their skillful crafting of heroes for children, Disney has been telling women to rise up and be free for the past 63 years.e1989 Ariel, The Little Mermaid, is curious and bold, quite unlike anyone else under the sea. Her thirst for knowledge makes her special.f1995  Pocahontas is a wise and courageous girl who breaks with tradition to follow the beat of a different drummer. She creates peace between two civilizations and saves a lot of lives. 1998 In Mulan, a young Chinese girl saves her father from a burden he cannot bear, keeps up with all the boys in the army, climbs a pole with heavy cinderblocks attached to her hands and saves the city from attack. The emperor, along with thousands upon thousands of people, bow to her. Evidently, it’s okay to want to be on the front lines instead of waiting around for Prince Charming.s2009  In The Princess and the Frog, Tiana is the “anti-princess” princess, a hardworking girl who would rather fulfill her own goals than pin her hopes on the actions of other people. Tiana wants to own her own business. She is also notable as Disney’s first African-American princess.u2012 In Brave, Merida is a rambunctious and strong-willed warrior girl, a force to be reckoned with. She learns from her mistakes, gains compassion, and comes to understand what’s truly important in life.mAnd that brings us to Elsa in Frozen.* Pennie and I have two sons, Rex and Jacob, and two grandsons, Hollister and Gideon.We’ll have our first granddaughter in September.I plan to watch these movies with her.Roy H. Williams

Like most men, I’ve long been fascinated with women.But if we look beyond the physical differences, what is it that defines “woman”? Research reveals a series of definitions so conflicted that I believe anyone who attempts to define “woman” is certain to be criticized.But when has that ever been an impediment to a curious mind?Our examination of the mystery and magic of the feminine begins with 7 quotes that reveal a being so perfect that she can exist only in the imagination of a man. Psychologist Carl Jung calls her the anima.“The lace on a woman’s wrist is an entirely different thing from lace in a shop. In the shop it is a piece of workmanship, on her it is the accentuation of her gentleness of character and refinement.”– Robert Henri, The Art Spirit“The girls in body-form slacks wander the High Street with locked hands while small transistor radios sit on their shoulders and whine love songs in their ears. The younger boys, bleeding with sap, sit on the stools of Tanger’s Drugstore ingesting future pimples through straws. They watch the girls with level goat-eyes and make disparaging remarks to one another while their insides whimper with longing.”– John Steinbeck“What do we know about the goddesses, those elusive female figures, stronger than human males, more dangerous than male deities, who represent not real women but the dreams of real men?”– Alice Bach, Women in the Hebrew Bible, p. 17“I think the idealization of women is indigenous to men. There are various ways of idealizing women, especially sexually, based in almost every case on their inaccessibility. When a woman functions as an unobtainable love object, then she takes on a mythical quality. You can see this principle functioning as a sales device in advertising and in places like Playboy magazine. Almost every movie you see has this quality, because you can’t embrace the image on the screen. Thousands of novels use this principle, because you can’t embrace a printed image on a page.”– James Dickey, Self Interviews, p. 153Gypsy Maiden: One day I will go to your lands and I will dance as a European.Marco Polo: They will love you.Gypsy Maiden: Will I love Venice?Marco Polo: It is magnificent, the city of bridges. Instead of roads we travel on canals in wooden boats.Gypsy Maiden: That’s absurd.Marco Polo: You wouldn’t think that if you saw it.Gypsy Maiden: If it is so magnificent, why are you here and not there?Marco Polo: You must have summoned me.Gypsy Maiden: I did no such thing.  [He tries to kiss her and she turns away.] I’m afraid.Marco Polo: Don’t be.Gypsy Maiden: I’m afraid you will fall in love with me.  All men fall in love with me because I always leave. And there is nothing men love more than the thing they cannot have.– Marco Polo, season two“Her name is Dulcinea, her kingdom, Toboso, which is in La Mancha, her condition must be that of princess, at the very least, for she is my queen and lady, and her beauty is supernatural, for in it one finds the reality of all the impossible.” – Don Quixote, (1605)“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”– Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s OwnOur journey will continue in the rabbit hole of Indiana Beagle, where we will examine two additional perspectives that reflect two additional definitions of “woman,” each of which disallows the idea we have just examined.They also disallow each other.I call the second perspective, “Women are Mortal – Sort of.”And third perspective is, “Women are Just Like Men. But Different.”To enter Indiana Beagle’s rabbit hole, click the image of imaginary Freda at the top of this page. Each click of an image thereafter will take you to the next page.It is a journey you will not soon forget.Roy H. Williams

People have been asking me to explain symbols lately.Symbols are a language of the unconscious mind. This is why our dreams are full of them.A person sits alone in a rowboat on the ocean at night, looking up at the stars.That symbol – whether expressed visually or in words – speaks to us of spirituality and practicality; deep thoughts and big challenges.But how? Nowhere among those 17 words is any reference to thoughts or challenges. We are given only a person, a rowboat, water, darkness and stars.The scene is awesome, majestic and lonely.“Oh God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”President John F. Kennedy, deeply aware of the awesomeness of his responsibilities and the majesty of his position and the loneliness that comes with both, kept those 13 words forever before him as a plaque on his desk in the oval office.Ernest Hemingway animated this symbol in his novella, The Old Man and the Sea. Alone and far from shore, Santiago faces the task of landing a fish bigger than his boat and then defending it from a mob of sharks. Looking up at the stars and down into the water and fighting with all his strength for 3 days and 3 nights, Santiago’s soul-searching self-talk won Hemingway the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.Forty-seven years later, Yann Martel conjured this same image to sell more than 10,000,000 copies of The Life of Pi. In the opening line of its summary, Wikipedia says the book “explores issues of spirituality and practicality.” Go figure.I often begin the second day of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop by asking the students,“Did any of you have an interesting dream last night?”I do this because the first day of that class is filled with lots of big ideas coming at you too quickly to digest and assimilate. Dreams are a just side effect of your unconscious mind’s processing of unresolved ideas during the night.Two weeks ago, a first-time Wizard Academy student, a 65 year-old man, raised his hand and said, “I dreamed I was on a gondola in Venice, Italy, when an incredibly beautiful woman came onto the boat and seduced me.”The class laughed, of course, but then the man asked, “Why do you think I had that dream?”“Did you enjoy the day yesterday?”“Very much! It was magical.”“Would you say that you’re on a journey, in an exotic place, overwhelmed by incredibly beautiful new ideas?”The man brightened. “The woman wasn’t a woman at all! She was just a symbol of what I learned!”“Makes sense to me.”“Me, too!”This brings us to the 4 stories celebrated in the art that overflows the campus of Wizard Academy.The Christmas Story of the Magi, or Wise Men (wise-ards,) in Matthew chapter 2 is a story about a group of people who saw beauty and truth where others saw nothing at all. The Wise Men did more than talk; they took action. They counted the cost and launched an adventure. They pulled the trigger and rode the bullet. They followed a star across an ocean of sand.Don Quixote de La Mancha, (1605) is essentially the same story. “This is my quest: to follow that star. No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.” Like the wise-ards before him, Quixote sees and values things that others neither see nor value. But isn’t this a quality of every innovator and entrepreneur? Quixote is driven by his pursuit of Dulcinea, the perfect woman than exists only in the imagination of a man.1 She was recently seen stepping aboard a gondola in Venice, Italy.A Message to Garcia – Translated into every language of the world, this true story by Elbert Hubbard was for many years history’s most widely distributed work during the lifetime of the author. Here are paragraphs 4 and 5:“Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and having delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.”“The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing – ‘carry a message to Garcia!'”Are you beginning to see a pattern?Quixote and The Wise Men, Rowan and Santiago, did more than talk; they took action.The Old Man and the Sea – On the second evening of his journey, the fisherman Santiago, still being towed by the giant marlin after some 30 hours, lay against the bow of his boat, looking up at the sky. “The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have his distant friends.” 2The call of an impossible dream. A journey. An adventure. Reckless and silly to everyone but you.What is lifebut a small boat,a big ocean,and a night full of stars?Roy H. Williams

I scribbled my original “Twelve Most Common Mistakes in Marketing” on a hotel bar napkin in Portland, Oregon in 1997 and then presented those mistakes in a seminar the next day to 800 people.The following year it became an important chapter in my first book, The Wizard of Ads. Happily, that book went on to become Business Book of the Year in 1998 and it launched a trilogy of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers for me.Even though plenty of people still make the original 12 mistakes, I believe it’s time for an update since a new group has emerged to become the 10 Most Common.Inappropriate Use of Social MediaThe whole world is on FaceBook, but is that the right place for your product or service to be advertised? To get a clear idea of the kinds of offers that are working well on FaceBook, go to the Success Stories page at FaceBook.com. Judging from this list of success stories, it would appear that FaceBook works extremely well for getting people together socially, not so well for hard goods and services. (HINT: I think there may be a reason they call it “social” media.)Overconfidence in the Value of TargetingJeffrey Eisenberg insightfully points out that, “online customers are exactly the same people as offline customers, yet advertisers tend to think of them as an entirely different species.” For the same amount of money it costs you to reach 5 tightly targeted customers online, you can reach 5 customers who have that same profile PLUS 127 of their friends by using broadcast TV or radio. Do you want your brand to be the one people think of immediately and feel the best about when they finally need what you sell?The Assumption that Every Message is RelevantWhy does every advertiser believe their product or service category to be intrinsically interesting? More than information, entertainment is the currency with which you can happily buy your prospective customer’s time and attention. But most ads have zero entertainment value.Fear of CriticismMost ads aren’t written to persuade. They’re written not to offend. But any message that has the power to move people will always move some of them in the wrong direction. When you’ve written a good ad, you must brace yourself for the negative backlash you’ll receive from people who are anxious to be offended. The only alternative is to forever settle for ads that are mushy, mundane and mediocre. Please don’t.Measuring Ad Effectiveness Too QuicklyIts claim to “instantly and accurately measure every ad’s effectiveness” is part of what makes digital marketing so appealing to advertisers. But didn’t you say you want your brand to be the one people think of immediately and feel the best about when they finally need what you sell? This requires ongoing advertising and longer measurement cycles. You cannot hold every ad immediately accountable and expect to build relationship with your customer.Unsubstantiated ClaimsAdjectives are the marks of an ad filled with empty rhetoric.Verbs are the marks of an ad that demonstrates its claims.Verbs – action words – “show” your customer what your product can do. Fluffy adjectives simply “tell” them. In the words of Christopher J. Maddock, “Show, don’t tell.”Believing that “Old” Media No Longer WorksIt is true that you need a website and that most customers are going to visit your website before making first contact with you. Therefore, it’s vital that your website be a good one. But if you believe that online marketing is the most efficient way to drive traffic to your website, you need to go back and read Most Common Mistake #2. Do you want to see a massive jump in the effectiveness of your online ads? Begin advertising on radio or television. But Take Note: your elevated metrics will make it appear as though your online efforts are working magically well when, in fact, the credit should be attributed to mass media.Assuming “The Decision Maker” Is The Only Person You Need to ReachDecisions aren’t made in a vacuum. You must also win the influencers if you want to create a successful brand. If you don’t value the opinions of influencers you’ll evolve into a direct-response marketer. But does your business category lend itself to direct response?Believing that “Millennials” Aren’t Like the Rest of UsMillennials aren’t a tribe, they are a collection of tribes. They do not behave as a single, cohesive birth cohort. Google “Millennials” and the dictionary definition that will pop up will show the word “millennial” most commonly used in this sentence: “The industry brims with theories on what makes millennials tick.” But when you look at a list of what millennials supposedly want, it’s exactly what the rest of us want. Yes, they’re not like we “50-somethings” used to be, but then we’re not like we used to be, either.AdSpeakPeople don’t hate advertising; they hate boring advertising; they hate predictable advertising. They hate the time-wasting, life-sucking sound of too many words wrapped around too small an idea. They hate AdSpeak. But they love entertainment. Learn to purchase your customer’s time and attention and goodwill with delightful, interesting, entertaining ads.Come to Wizard Academy and we’ll teach you how.Roy H. Williams

Indiana Beagle is the spirit of curiosity, exploration and adventure. His twin sister Intuition is the beagle of my Destinae trilogy and the mother of Faith and Hope.Intuition is wordless but Indy can speak.Intuition came to life in June, 2001, during some early morning laughter with Princess Pennie.There is a beagle in our brain,” I shouted in mock rage, “and it must be unleashed to go where it will!” With my fist raised in defiance to anyone who would keep their beagle tethered, I shouted, “Free the Beagle! Free the Beagle! Aroooo! Arooooo! Aroooooo!”The subject of our laughter became a Monday Morning Memo, “The Beagle in Your Brain,” the following week. Two months later it was chapter 54 in Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, which quickly became a Wall Street Journal bestseller.It was only when I was writing the Destinae trilogy that I realized Intuition has a mischievous brother, Indy, who can walk into any work of art and instantly be in that place, at that time. For Indy, photos and paintings are portals, giving him entrance into other worlds.But isn’t that what photos and paintings do for all of us?Indiana doesn’t appear in the Destinae trilogy because that’s the story of his sister. Likewise, you’ll find no photo or painting of Indy on the campus of Wizard Academy in Austin. When he isn’t guiding guests through a rabbit hole, Indy lives in the art collection you’ll find in the 12 buildings, 18 courtyards, parks and gardens, and 98 uniquely decorated rooms of that place.When you’re here and a work of art intrigues you, ask Indy what it means.There’s a scene at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) that tells us where Indiana Jones got his name.SALLAH: “Please, what does it always mean, this, this ‘Junior?'”HENRY JONES: “That’s his name. ‘Henry Jones, Junior.'”INDIANA JONES: “I like Indiana.”HENRY JONES: “We named the dog Indiana.”SALLAH: “The dog? (heh-heh) You are named after the dog?” (Laughter)INDIANA JONES: (Irritated) “I’ve got a lot of fond memories of that dog.”Like I said, Indiana Beagle is the spirit of curiosity, exploration and adventure. This is why he’s the guiding spirit of the Worldwide Worthless Bastards.“You know, Lydia, I used to be a rationalist.”“What is that?”“Well, it’s sort of believing only in what you see, or hear, or feel. But lately, I’ve begun to suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than I ever dreamed in my philosophy.”“You learn much when you learn that.”– Colonel Ralph Denistoun to the gypsy woman, Lydia, in Paramount’s 1947 Movie, Golden EarringsIndy and I have enjoyed the conversations we’ve had with prospective members of the Worthless Bastards during the past several weeks.Here’s what those conversations sound like:“You should join us at the Toad and Ostrich Pub on Friday afternoons at four.”“What do you do there?”“We just talk, mostly. But you’re not allowed to discuss business, or work, or politics or sports. And you can’t complain about anything or talk about your problems.”“What is there to talk about, then?”“We sip water and tea and wine and whisky and talk about music we love or movies we’ve seen or restaurants we’ve tried or sometimes someone will do a magic trick or tell a funny story about growing up or a colorful person they used to know. It’s really amazing how interesting people can be when business and politics and sports are off the table.”Worthless Bastards are people who have discovered that life’s nonproductive moments are often the most life affirming of all.There is a time for goal setting and grit, struggle and striving, determination and defiance. There is a time for vision and valor and timelines and tenacity.But it isn’t all the time.Roy H. Williams

When I was a boy, I wanted an older brother.Not just a year or two older, but six or eight or ten years older. I wanted to be able to ask him things and trust the motives behind his answers.Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to accumulate seven older brothers who speak wisdom into my life. These brothers give me the benefit of all their experiences – their successes and their mistakes – and help me remember who I am.I’ve never told you this, but I like to think of myself as your older brother. I try to give you the benefit of my experiences, if indeed there is any benefit to be found.Today your brother needs a favor. Will you indulge me?I’ve always been proud and ashamed that I never went to college. So when a group of scholars – department heads of major universities, mostly – asked me to contribute a chapter to their book about what Don Quixote means to the average person in the 21st century, well, I jumped at the chance.And then I put off getting started.And now I need to get it done.That’s where you come in.Will you write me a sentence or two or twenty about what Don Quixote represents to you?It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve read the book. Your thoughts and feelings will come from wherever they come from. That’s the beauty of this project. You don’t have to defend your opinion, you only have to have one.Every generation for the past 400 years has seen Don Quixote differently. How do you see him today? What do you take from the story? Who is Sancho Panza and why does he matter? Who is Dulcinea and what does she mean to you? And if you are familiar with any of the other characters and elements of the story, I’d love to hear your thoughts and interpretations of those as well.How do you see Don Quixote? Your response can be as brief or as in-depth as you choose.Twenty different Cervantes scholars will each contribute a chapter to the book. I was the nineteenth person to receive an invitation, but at least I got invited.It means a lot to me.My chapter is supposed to be 5,000 words, so I need to hear from a lot of you. And please remember to give me your first and last name and your permission to publish what you send me. Also, tell me what you do for a living.Indy has volunteered to help me by collecting your emails at IndyBeagle@WizardOfAds.comTwo of my older brothers, Ray Bard and Don Kuhl, have already contributed their thoughts and will definitely be represented in my chapter.I’d love to see your name alongside theirs.Roy H. Williams

“Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver.” The wit of these 7 words is rooted in the fact that the second sentence is an anomaly – an unexpected intrusion into the oft-repeated idea that silence is golden. The anomaly is then brought to closure and resolved in the mind of the listener. Duct tape is, in fact, silver. You smile a little.Bad ads leave no gaps and have no anomalies. Everything is stated clearly. No questions form in the mind of the customer.Good ads intrigue the customer and arouse their curiosity. Online marketers call this “engagement.”Novelists, screenwriters and storytellers have been intriguing us for decades, yet few people in advertising ever bother to study how they do it.Good news: I am one of those few people.Good storytellers use gaps and anomalies to trick the reader/listener/viewer into supplying the information they intentionally left out.Result: engagement.But… it’s up to your reader/listener/viewer to find resolution and bring closure to your mystery. Will he or she be able to piece it together and figure it out?Here’s an example of an effective ad that uses gaps and anomalies to elevate the interest of the listener:Guy2: You heard about John and Elisabeth?Guy1: Never thought he’d do it.Guy2: I never thought she’d say YES. [both laugh]Guy1: She definitely could’ve done better.Guy2: Yeah. I think John knows that, too.Guy1: Did he go to Ramsey’s?Guy2: Yeah, he got that part right, but he was about to mess it all up.Guy1: How?Guy2: He was just gonna hand it to her like it was a box of cookies.Guy1: Who saved him?Guy2: His ring consultant at Ramsey’s asked him how he planned to propose.Guy1: Yeah, mine asked me, too.Guy2: John didn’t have a plan, so his consultant said, “Hey, you’re giving her a ring from the Heart of New Orleans collection. Why not give it to her in the Heart of New Orleans?”Guy1: Please tell me he’s gonna follow through on that.Guy2: Yeah, he’s putting together a big master plan.Guy 1: Every town should have a Ramsey’s.Guy 2: Definitely.ROY: Rrrramsey’s Diamond Jewelers, on Veterans at I-10 in Metairie and on the West Bank in Fountain Park Centre on Manhattan.Caroline: and at Ramseys dot com.How long did it take you to figure out that John had asked Elisabeth to marry him? Yet the characters never say marry, marriage, engaged, engagement or proposed. Likewise, the fact that Ramsey’s is a jewelry store was left unsaid until the announcer finally mentions it in his closing tag.Here’s another ad – written on the same day – that leaves out a different kind of information. This ad features two characters that have been in this radio campaign together 52 weeks a year for more than a dozen years.Sarah: Shopping for an engagement ring at Spence is different from every other jewelry store on earth.Sean: [doubtful.] That’s a pretty big statement. You’re going to need to back that up with some evidence.Sarah: Number One: We have virtually every style of engagement ring that has ever been designed.Sean: [speaking as though judging.] Yes, that’s true.Sarah: Number Two: All our rings are out in the open where you can pick them up and try them on and read the price tags.Sean:  Yes, I’ve got to give you that one, too.Sarah: Number Three: A truly fanTAStic diamond is included in the price and you get to CHOOSE the diamond for yourself.Sean: Also true.Sarah: That means I’m winning three-to-nothing, right?Sean: Sarah, it’s not a contest.Sarah: [a little bit defiantly] No, it became a contest the moment you challenged what I said.Sean: [quietly. realizing his mistake.] I think you’re still mad that I told everyone you weren’t born in Canada.Sarah: [a little bit angry.] Canadian engagement rings are the BEST engagement rings in the world.Sean: I agree.Sarah: [still angry.] And Hockey is better than football.Sean: [Conciliatory.] And YOU are very Canadian.Sarah: Thank you.LOCATION TAG: Spence [SFX – scream of joy] plus LocationsSean’s rejection of Sarah’s opening statement is interesting because characters in ads rarely – if ever –  challenge the credibility of positive statements about the advertiser. Later, Sarah’s “three-to-nothing” comment communicates an undercurrent of emotion because it is likewise unexpected, another anomaly. You raise an eyebrow and wonder, “When did this become a contest?”Sean has done something wrong that he isn’t aware of. But you are required to figure this out for yourself.When Sarah blurts out that “Canadian engagement rings are the BEST engagement rings in the world,” you wonder, “What the hell is a Canadian engagement ring?” Because there is no such category. This is followed by an even weirder anomaly, the non sequitur* “And hockey is better than football.” But then you realize that Sarah is trying to prove her Canadian-ness. Finally, you have closure.Traditionalists would argue that all of this is a waste of time and does nothing to help us convert the listener into a customer.But they are wrong.People will remember stories long after they have forgotten your bullet points.”– Laurie Beth JonesAnd people remember people long after they have forgotten facts.Any idiot knows what to include if you have the customer’s attention. But most ads fail to win the customer’s attention. Most advertising is just white noise.There can be no conversion until first you have engagement.Carefully chosen gaps and anomalies are the signature of skillful storytellers.It isn’t what you include that makes you a great writer.It’s what you exclude.Roy H. Williams

If the pendulum of the West continues as it has for 3,000 years, our current “We” generation will zenith in 2023.Frankly, I’m looking forward to getting past that zenith and heading back the other way. The early part of a “Me” generation is a beautiful thing. But then again, so is the early part of a “We.”It’s as we approach a zenith that everything goes out of control.If you want to understand today’s crazy American politics, you need only to look at the pendulum.A generation – for the purposes of today’s discussion – is not a group of birth cohorts, but life cohorts, everyone who is alive at a particular moment. We’re not talking about Millennials, Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers. We’re talking about the personality-shaping values that enchanted each of these groups during their adolescence. Those same ideas and values then altered the worldview of their mothers and fathers, the birth cohorts that preceded them.I was 5 years old in 1963, the year the most recent “Me” generation began its upswing toward the zenith of 1983, when Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and shouted, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The president at the zenith of the previous “Me” (1903) was Teddy “San Juan Hill” Roosevelt and during the “Me” prior to him (1823) it was James Monroe, the president who notified European powers that America would no longer tolerate colonial expansion in our hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine effectively said to all the powers of Europe, “Step back or we’ll kick your ass.”A “Me” Generation is about individuality and self-expression, marching to the beat of a different drummer. It’s when one-of-a-kind is king, so do your own thing. A “Me” is the time of heroes.“Me” the individual, possessing unlimited potential,1. …demands freedom of expression.2. …applauds personal liberty.3. …believes one man is wiser than a million men,“A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee.”4. …wants to create a better life.5. …is about big dreams.6. …desires to be Number One. “I came, I saw, I conquered.”7. …admires confidence and is attracted to decisive persons.8. …leadership is, “Look at me. Admire me. Emulate me if you can.”9. …strengthens a society’s sense of identity as it elevates attractive heroes.10. …produces individuality and differentiation, one-of-a-kind heroes.Both “We” and “Me” are built on beautiful ideas, but we always take a good thing too far and then crave what we left behind. So we turn and face the opposite direction and do it all over again.And we’ve been doing it for 3,000 years.I was 45 at the beginning of the upswing of our current “We” generation (2003.)The driving force behind a “We” is “working together for the common good.”“We,” the group, the team, the tribe:1. …demands conformity for the common good.2. …applauds personal responsibility.3. …believes a million men are wiser than one man,“Two heads are better than one.”4. …wants to create a better world.5. …is about small actions.6. …desires to be a team member. “I came, I saw, I concurred.”7. …admires humility and is attracted to thoughtful persons.8. …leadership is, “Here’s the problem. Let’s work together to solve it.”9. …strengthens a society’s sense of purpose as it considers all its problems.10. produces efficiency, compliance, mass-production and consolidation, “best practices” and peer groups.As I said, the first half of a “We” upswing is a beautiful thing (2003 – 2013.) But we always take a good thing too far. What begins as an inclusive “we,” ends as an exclusive “we.”Inclusive: “We are all in this together.”Exclusive: “We, unlike you, are good and wise and right and true.”During the 10 years approaching the zenith (2013-2023,) a “We” is shaped by the group that controls the definition of “the common good.” This is why every “We” ends in a witch-hunt. The president at the zenith of our previous “We” (1943) was FDR, who pulled the nation together following the Great Depression. At the zenith before him (1863,) it was Abraham Lincoln, who held the nation together during the Civil War.But you should remember that FDR was also the president that put 127,000 Japanese-Americans into prison camps during World War II. And 62 percent of those were American citizens. Not our proudest moment. During this same “We” zenith Senator Joseph McCarthy ruined other American lives by pointing his finger and falsely shouting, “Communist! He’s a Communist!” and the infamous blacklists began. Adolph Hitler was defining “the common good” in Germany. Likewise, Joseph Stalin’s idea of “the common good” in Russia included pogroms and purges that murdered millions of his own people. Everyone was on a witch-hunt.Throughout the 3,000-year history of western civilization, any time we have burned people at the stake or guillotined them, we’ve been at, or near, the zenith of a “We.”Our next zenith occurs in less than 7 years (2023.) The political climate is starting to make a little more sense, isn’t it?But the pendulum isn’t really about politics. It’s about values and core beliefs, the kinds of things that make ads produce results or not.Advertising copy that works during a “Me” will falter and fail during a “We.”I began teaching advertising professionals about the “We” generation in 2004. That first session was in Stockholm, Sweden and it was attended by most of the advertising agencies of Europe. Then it was off to Melbourne and Sydney and Townsville, Australia. Then Canada. Then the United States.When I was asked to put all that information into a book, I said, “Now’s not the right time. What’s ahead of us isn’t pretty.” But finally I relented and Pendulum was released.I was talking with Michael Drew, my co-author the other day. He said, “It’s time for a Pendulum update focused on Advertising and Marketing.” The idea struck me like a thunderbolt.I said, “And we need to recruit Ryan Deiss to be the lead author.”Ryan is a Cognoscenti of Wizard Academy and a close friend. He and I meet regularly with Eric Rhoads to talk about art and trade insights about the future.The book is going to happen and it’s going to be awesome.In the meantime, I’m planning a special preview event on campus, a 2-day update on The Changing Face of Marketing. Ryan Deiss and Michael Drew and I will be there. I’m even hoping to recruit Eric Rhoads and Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg.If you want to receive early notification the moment this event is scheduled, just email vice-chancellor Whittington with the subject line, “Tell Me First, Okay?”It’s going to be a future-altering 2 days and 3 nights.Now aren’t you glad you kept reading this exceptionally long memo all the way to the end?It’s good to finish what you start.Roy H. Williams

Chronic dissatisfaction is the price of progress.Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos are famous for never being satisfied. Always pushing, driving, demanding, questioning, never slowing, positively perfectionist.But is it wise to look at them as role models?What’s the value of pushing and driving if you can never be satisfied?These questions occurred to me as Pennie and I drove to the new home of close friends last week to sit and mourn the death of their mother. My pocket pixie spoke to us along the way. She was the perfect navigator, telling us where to turn and how far it would be before we’d need to turn again.That drive took 49 minutes.If someone had told me 28 years ago that I would one day carry a device in my pocket that would cheerfully guide me to any place I named, I would have thought them insane. But my pocket pixie also plays any song I want and shows me TV shows and movies and gives me details about everything important that’s happening in the world. She is the catalogue of all that can be bought and the repository of all the world’s history and knowledge. Touch a button and she becomes a camera. Another touch and she records a video. You can also use her as a telephone.Oh, I forgot to mention that when she’s being a catalogue, all I have to do is touch a button and she will purchase the item, charge it to my credit card and ship it to my house by 2nd-Day air.One click.But none of this surprises you. In fact, I wearied you a little by carrying on about it for three paragraphs. Am I right?You have an iPhone or something like it and you know how to use the navigator function on Google Maps and MP3 players have been around awhile and streaming video has been global for a decade.No king or emperor, pharaoh or czar ever lived in the comfort of a modest home with central heat and air conditioning. None of them ever ate such a wide variety of delicacies or enjoyed such entertainments as you and I have at our fingertips.We live beneath a waterfall of inventions and innovations and improvements. They come at us faster than we can see. Your pocket pixie has more than 1.5 million apps available that will give her specialized powers to serve you in ways you’ve never imagined.Yet we roll our eyes as we yawn and ask, “Is that all?”Chronic dissatisfaction is the price of progress and we are the most dissatisfied generation that has ever lived.I should know. I make my living by pointing at things and promising they will make tomorrow better than yesterday.I am an American ad man.If I were to run for president, I would be a spectacle. I would speak directly to the deepest dissatisfactions and frustrations and fears of the people. I would throw accusations and blame from my fingertips with such power that people would see me as a straight-talking teller of the truth. I would be colorful and irreverent and entertaining and keep you focused only on your dissatisfaction. I would promise to fix it all.My accusations could be silly.My promises could be ridiculous.The only thing that would need be true is the dissatisfaction of the people.And we are the most dissatisfied generation that has ever lived.Let us hope I never run for president because I would be a terrible one.And all it tookfor me to realize thiswas the deathof the motherof a friend.Roy H. Williams

Hungry people look for food.Sad people look for hope.Ambitious people look for opportunity.Oppressed people look for escape.But if food is available and you are neither sad nor oppressed and your ambition is – for now at least – satisfied, you are contented.Contented people look for entertainment.The company that wins more of the customer’s time is the one most likely to win their money.What currency do you offer your customer in exchange for their time?Do you offer them information?Information holds little interest for persons who aren’t currently in the market for your product.Information is valuable only to a customer who is currently, consciously in the market for a product they haven’t already chosen in their heart. This is when the search engine optimization energy of all your competitors will wiggle and wink at your customer from 46 different directions.SEO is a last-minute, last-ditch attempt to win the affections of the undecided and uncommitted.Why not win your customer’s heart before they need your product?Great ads make customers think of you immediately – and feel good about you – when they finally need what you sell.Would you like to win your customer’s time and attention?Give them entertainment.ENTERTAINMENT: “A thing to which a person chooses to direct their attention due to the pleasure it brings them.”We direct our attention to many things each day that do not bring us pleasure: the obligations that come with employment and the ambushes that come with life; tax returns and kids in trouble, lawsuits and medical problems.Entertainment is a currency.You would be amazed at what you can buy with it.You may recall that last week’s Monday Morning Memo ended with these lines:Weirdly, Wizard Academy doesn’t advertise. The only way you’ll hear about the Academy is from an alumnus who thinks you belong.And guess what?You do belong.”I was able to say “you belong” because you were entertained enough by the subject matter to read it all the way through to the end.And now you’ve done it again.This makes me happy.It’s a clear indication that you are a self-selected member our tribe.Welcome.Roy H. Williams,with Indy Beagle andAll the Cognoscenti of Wizard Academy.