When you’re dealing with an emotive and quite controversial subject in your adverts, you have to make me care to have any chance of getting me to see your point of view.
With that in mind, take a look at the advert below, trying to get me to agree that the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport is a good thing (you can see the full image and blurb, here):
Okay, very quick question (two actually): who the frig is Paul Brown, and why should I give a rat’s backside about his business?
Why do I care that this completely unknown chap’s company has ‘21,000 square feet of hi-tech mail routing systems’?
In fact, for two of the three columns of copy in this ad, it does a better job of selling Paul’s services to potential clients, than selling me into the idea that an expanded Heathrow is a good thing.
I get the idea of using a case study, and this must’ve been a hard brief to crack, but (my apologies to him) Paul and his plight mean nothing to me – they certainly don’t twist my arm enough to make me care about expanding Heathrow Airport.
I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, but Paul isn’t it.