Gravity is everywhere. Consequently, we think of gravity as a powerful force that keeps us glued to the ground. Actually, science tells us that gravity is a very weak force. In fact, it is the weakest known force in the universe.
To prove this to yourself, go to a children’s toy shop and buy one of those little horse shoe magnets. Then put a paper clip on the ground. Place the magnet near the paper clip. You now have two competing forces: the electro-magnetic force of the little magnet versus the gravitational force of the entire planet Earth. The little magnet wins. Why? Because science tells us that the electro-magnetic force happens to be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger than gravity.
Nevertheless, because gravity is all around us, we think of it as a strong force. Same with advertising.
We are exposed to hundreds (thousands?) of advertising messages every day. Only a tiny proportion of them make any impression on us at all. As a whole, advertising is a weak force.
But in the same way an airplane falling to earth makes us believe that gravity is a strong force, the rare big advertising success leads us to believe that advertising is a strong force.
In fact, the rare big ad success is proof of only one thing — the extraordinary power of great advertising.
There are two ways in which big advertising successes usually occur — great creative work or enormous expenditures of money. Obviously, doing outstanding ads is a far more desirable strategy.
The problem is that doing great ads is way more difficult than it sounds.
You’ve probably noticed that about 93% of all ads are crappy. And so are about the same percent of books, songs, and paintings. If you think all this crappy stuff exists because people aren’t trying hard, you’re wrong. The reason is actually quite simple: producing great stuff is really, really hard. And there are very few people who can do it.
Nobody sets out to create a crappy ad or a crappy book or a crappy song. They just have an infuriating habit of turning out that way.
The point here is that creative talent is a very rare and very precious commodity. Not everyone has it. As a matter of fact, hardly anyone has it.
It takes a whole lot of talent to make a weak force strong.
Bob is a writer and speaker. He has written seven books about advertising, each of which has been an Amazon #1 seller.
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