What Does It Take To Get Noticed? FTLComm - Tisdale November 8, 1999 By: Timothy W. Shire As you look at the picture you can easily see the irony. This pair of pedestrians have their attention rivetted on something down the street and instead of checking that out the photographer is snapping a picture of these two. When I took this picture it was the startling red hair that had captured my attention.

Manufacturers and merchants are always in pursuit of getting the attention of the public, so that they can sell them their product. Advertising is the heavily funded process that brings commercial broadcasting in the form of television, radio and paper publications into our homes. Billions of dollars are spent each year as markets are identified and products produced then advertised, some times to the point of overkill. The amazing part of all this is that it really does work. But there are some serious rules that have to be followed if you are going to be successful with advertising or any sort of promotion.

Let us examine some of these basic rules: Your product or message is of least importance in the campaign You need a catch phrase, a verbal connection that will act as a hook, preferably an alliteration or pun. You need novelty, the element of surprise in the approach to be remembered and for impact If your message is to get across, it has to produce discussion, people have to talk about it for their word of mouth validates your message and without prompting people to talk about it, the message dies in the wind Though not essential, humour sells better then serious Good design and artful presentation is always appreciated No appeal can expect a response or reaction if the message does not some how infer that the topic affects the viewer's, or reader's, or listener's own life - it must be personal

No doubt there are many other axioms of advertising that I have not identified here, but essentially advertising conforms to a set of principles and as a result, ad campaigns can be mounted successfully, time after time based on nothing of substance other then the money it takes to create the campaign. In other words, the product or importance of the issue is largely irrelevant to the success of selling. For over two years, there has been a growing awareness in Saskatchewan that the direction agriculture and the agricultural way of life are headed will ultimately lead to extinction. In this past year prairie farmers have mounted a strident campaign to reverse this trend and their failure to bring the attention of most of the country to their cause has been monumental. The recent visit by the Premiers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the Prime Minister was far more then a complete failure, it was to bring to everyone here, the complete and total failure of this part of the country to be understood by the rest of the country. My reaction was, as readers of this site will recall, decidedly angry and I was reflecting the feelings I was sensing from the disappointed farmers who are my friends and former customers. (They are no longer my customers because they are now no one's customers) But now, looking back and about, I realise that the whole process has been so badly advertised from the very beginning. The farmers and their advocates have not paid attention to the basic rules of campaigns and advertising, these poor devils think just because they have a just cause, someone will care or pay attention. Rule number one is that they product or message is the least important element. Just as with jokes and stories of any kind, it doesn't matter about the material, its how the story is told. The most important thing about an advertising campaign is to make the message personal. You have to make the recipient of the message care and to do that you need something that affects them emotionally and they can identify on a one to one basis. Is there any reason for people in Upper and Lower Canada to give a damn about people who live out on the prairies and drive millions of dollars of machinery around to grow grains? No, that has no direct appeal to them and they can make no personal connection with the farmer. Until they do, Ottawa and the economy of this country, will ignore the farmer's plight. So if we the people of the prairies, want to get their attention, we have to get the two by four and hit the donkey on his head, we need to get their attention. Blocking the highways or even the railroad, won't do it because that only attracts the attention of the people here and they already know about the issue. No sports fans, we have to burn some banks. The economic forces of this country and the alter at which Paul Martin and Jean Chretien worship, is "money" and the money folks own and operate the banks. If you want to get their attention "Burn a Bank" notice that the phrase has a nice ring to it and seems silly enough to make it in advertising. "Money to burn", "hot money", "flaming cash", those are images that would warm every emotion of those people who live in what is called "Central Canada". To them, banks are religious and emotional shrines, places to pray and weep. It is certain for most people in Ontario, they feel closest to their spiritual centre while standing at an ATM. Though it seems I am advocating a nasty level of violence, it is mild compared with what is being visited upon Saskatchewan farmers and turning a few hundred prairie town banks into ashes would cost a fraction to replace compared with the actual losses farmers are experiencing. Just imagine the impact of a news story telling Ontario folks how prairie farmers have desecration holy ground and attacked the shrines of Canadian establishment. This would get their attention. Chretien and Martin would be in government planes and on their way out here long before the smoke had cleared and would gladly fork over millions to preserve the hallowed and holy places. "Burn Baby Burn" - "A Bank"!! Now of course this won't happen and what is more, Chretian and Martin know it won't happen, because the farmers of the West are also worshipers of these shrines and besides they are damn good people, who would never turn to violence. So since this is the case, let's not burn any banks, let's just say we did. A modest campaign of non-burning of banks might be really effective, a few scattered reports of small fires, would go a long way and in Ottawa they will never know, first of all they don't know where Kerrobert is, or Mankota or East End. If they believe Onyx could have bought Air Canada even if its against the law that they made themselves, they would believe anything. A film clip on CBC beside a smoldering building, hints that others, or attempts at others had occurred and the money from Ottawa would exceed the flow of BS that normally comes from there.