Yet another bad national advertising blunder (((sigh)))...

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by -TW

A nationwide ad campaign for a HEARING AID has this little bit of how-in-the-world-did-this-get-past-the-board-meeting copy...

"Our hearing aid is small -- about the size of a THUMB TACK..."

What's next?!?...

"Our suppositories are as thin as a razor blade..."

Uggh.

Thanks TW!

A bad analogy is like coming across a dead skunk on the road... While good analogy can make an ad sell like ice cream in July!

Here's a great article by Gary Bencivenga on this topic...

http://www.marketingbullets.com/bullet25.htm

Meanwhile, one of the "masters of metaphor" I enjoy reading is Raymond Chandler (creator of the "Philip Marlowe" hard-boiled detective character).

Here's one of his...

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."

Here are a couple pages full of "Chandlerisms"... (Not as abundant as grains of sand in the Sahara, but enough to be able to enjoy them...!)

http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/...andlerisms.htm

Gordon Alexander has some great metaphors too... Here's one of his! (You may have read it before, but a refresher never hurt...)

http://www.sowpub.com/story-future.shtml

As Gordon has mentioned before, Harvey Brody also uses a lot of metaphors to teach. He invented the whole concept of the "toll position" - that is, your situation should be like a toll booth - nobody can get your stuff (or get anything like it) without first paying the "toll"...

The whole concept of the "toll position," of course, is also a simile (or metaphor, depending on how it's stated). I've been talking to Harvey quite a lot lately - I feel like a kid riding on his first roller coaster, and I'll be announcing some exciting developments pretty soon!

Best wishes,

Dien