picture of the car. It could be easily bought in any photo stock. We had no money for the complex staged shooting. How to deliver the main advantage of the bank in the format of print layout?
How to prevent competitors from copying the patterns of fashionable hats on their delivery route from Paris to Athens?
Let me tell you the third situation. After production moved to factories in Thailand and Taiwan, the world-renowned corporation Reebok faced a serious problem. Some local workers were not the best example of honest and decent people in the world. They not only stole shoes directly from the factories, but also some of them established a delivery channel directly to the US market at rock bottom prices!
Punitive measures didn’t have any effect. Mass theft in factories went on and on. The company carried significant losses. How to overcome the major inclining to the theft of Reebok company’s local staff?
Now to answers and solutions, which are the most interesting part. I’ll start with the banking problem since the process of searching for advertising ideas has passed before my eyes. We came up with 24 options. Each of them carried the right message to the consumer with more-or-less acceptable degrees of expression.
But all options demanded studio shooting and unfortunately none of them was sharp or to-the-point. Every time, something appeared to be missing. Or on the contrary the idea was too difficult to understand on the spot.
We felt the creative block. At some point it became clear that within the single image there was no solution. But if we split the layout it would produce a graceful and almost mathematically tuned solution.
It was enough to show two pictures of the same car. Before receiving the loan and after getting the loan there were absolutely no changes (see Fig. 2.1.). That was the promise that we had to deliver.
With kind permission of MasterUm, Moscow, Russia
Fig. 2.1. Advertising solutions which you cannot get with just one image.
What did they come up with at Reebok? It was the very simple and elegant way out which reduced the “value” of theft to zero. Production was divided: Taiwan began to produce shoes only for the left foot. Thailand produced shoes just for the right foot. Shoes were put together for sale only once they arrived in the United States. Thus, theft at the local factories was eradicated completely.
How did Reebok solve the problem of mass theft in its factories in Thailand and Taiwan?
Reebok as before enjoyed a high price for the dealers. The top management of the corporation could sleep peacefully and not be afraid of market dumping. Actually, the same technique, though in microscopic scale, is used in many shoe shops when they put just one shoe from each pair in the showrooms.
Should I tell you the decision the hostess of the Parisian atelier came up with? I hope that now you can easily formulate it yourself. I will not deprive you of this innocent pleasure.
In my personal collection there are dozens of real-life problems of many different areas—from medicine to nuclear physics—that can be solved in a similar manner. But no doubt you have caught the basic idea.
It is a very strong creative tool to divide into pieces what we perceive as an indivisible unit. Have a look at the next layout (see Fig. 2.2.).
With kind permission of TBWA, Bangkok, Thailand
Fig. 2.2. Stain remover erases impurities at the moment they appear.
In the stain remover advertising, the stain of spilt coffee is divided from the sofa—it is literally peeling off. In a similar way, we can show the separation of the stain, for example, of melted ice cream from the back seat of the car. Or the stain of the ink could be divided from the carpet. And so on. These separations are performed quickly and easily. That is exactly what happens if you use the advertised product.
It is a very strong creative tool to divide into pieces what we perceive as an indivisible unit.
For the promotion of the powerful racing car we can divide, for example, the reflection of the car in the lake and the car itself (see Fig. 2.3.). To increase the contrast, we can place several trees with the “correct” reflections.
The idea of Maurice De Bevere, Brussels, Belgium, redrawn by Juriy Gerasimov
Fig. 2.3. The advertising of the car which outruns his own reflection.
The same technique can be applied to the beams of the headlights of a fast sedan with a four hundred horse-power engine under the hood (see Fig. 2.4.).
With kind permission of Michelangelo Cianciosi and Francesco Fallisi (DDB Milan, Italy)
Fig. 2.4. The division of the inseparable unit is a promising thinking tool.
The essence of the tool remains the same. We split what is normally connected to each other. The transition to a flexible system of thinking can give tangible benefits. The same approach in advertising allows us to deliver our message in a new and stronger way.
But why is it only in advertising?
Aircraft collisions with birds sometimes lead to serious disasters. During years of aviation development people invented a variety of ways to scare away birds from airfields. In order to keep birds off, people tried mechanical stuffed animals, naphthalene spraying, and so on.
But the best and practically free solution to the problem turned out to be the playing of loud screams of frightened birds recorded on magnetic tape.
Would you agree that separation of the cry of birds from the birds themselves is an unusual solution? It took time to come to it.
Another charming example comes from the history of science. The German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was famous for his genius not only as an outstanding scientist, but also in lively everyday communication.
One day he received a letter with a request to mail some X-rays! Also, the ridiculous correspondent asked to attach instructions to the parcel about how to use the rays. The author of the letter did not have time to come, even though he wanted to get rid of an age-old revolver bullet in his chest.
Röntgen wrote in response: “Unfortunately at the moment, I do not have the X-rays. Besides mailing of X-ray is a very troublesome thing. Let’s make it a bit simpler: send me your chest ...”
What principle did the outstanding researcher and the first winner of the Nobel Prize in physics use for his answer?
Here are a few more examples. In advertising moisturizer we see a tattoo with rose petals falling from a fading flower (see Fig. 2.5.).
With kind permission of Tiago Valadão and Paulo Henrique Gomes (Mood/TBWA, São Paulo, Brazil)
Fig.
