Simple Is Good

As long time readers will know, we are of the belief that too much of advertising is overcomplicated and convoluted. Complicated and over-clever processes tend to lead to complicated and over-clever advertising.

Many in advertising and marketing have forgotten the real power of the mediums that we have at our disposal. This is probably because they are too fixated on the details of their over-complicated advertising, and forget how powerful good, simple advertising can be.

Every now and again we are reminded of the power of the mediums we use, and the amazing power of words and ideas. I just read this story about this poster in Australia...

It has caused outrage/quite a stir/lots of gnashing of teeth. Not surprising. Now, obviously I know we are talking about religion here, and that is a subject with massive power to cause emotion. But what I find interesting is the simplicity of what has been put out there.

Had this been produced by a modern-day corporate marketing department, and an ad agency, do you think it would have come out so simple and direct? I very much doubt it.

People in the business seem to be losing the ability to boil things down into simple solutions. Or at least, are maybe losing the will to do so (after all, sometimes the simplest solutions look so simple that it's hard to justify all that time on the time-sheet, isn't it?).

Plus, people don't like to choose. You can have this - or this in it, not both. These days, people demand to have both, or they go to someone who will drop their pants and give them everything they want.

Which is a shame really. Because advertising is at it's very best, most powerful, and most effective when it's simple.

And it can be.