Be real, not rational
Easy Read
In 1996, Copywriter and Art Director Dave Dye wrote one of my favourite ads for Adidas.
The ad was for runners to promote the brands’ products.
It showed a typical street with cars parked outside homes, signposts, crossroads — normal suburban living.
The copy read:
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“Just to the signpost. Just to the car. Just to the crossroads. Just to the kerb. Just to the truck.”
With each line getting smaller and trailing off into the distance.
The beauty of this ad is it doesn't say anything about the product. Doesn't even show it in the visual.
Instead it captures the inner dialogue people have when running.
Dave said:
“I had an idea for a one that was more personal, not a word play or a clever headline. In fact, it’s not really a headline at all, it was just an idea relaying what I went through when I ran around Regents Park with my mate Mike McKenna. We’d drag ourselves around by agreeing we’d stop when we got to the gate. When we got to the gate we’d say we’ll stop when we got to hut. Kind of tricking ourselves around the park.”
So he tested the idea with colleges at the office:
“I checked with a couple of other people in the Creative Department: “Ever do that thing when you’re running where you say to yourself you’re going to stop at a certain point, then keep going to another point, then to another point?” Most said yes.”
Despite being rejected by his Creative Director, Tim Delaney, Dave ran the ad.
And it became a stand out piece in a series of completely new and distinctive ads for Adidas.
Because the work was introspective. Real runners thoughts on running.
The ad was Real. Not rational.
No yakking on about features. No desperate plea’s to buy. No bad stink left by being too salesy.
In a few lines he moved the earth for anyone reading that ad, pulled them in with so much emotion, turned them on by simply working within the consumer’s mindset.
He appealed to what makes runners uniquely human.
“You sell on emotion, but you justify a purchase with logic …” says Joe Sugarman.
“Why do you think people buy the Mercedes-Benz automobile … Is it because of the rack and pinion steering or antilock braking system … or is it to own a prestigious car and belong to the crowd that drove Mercedes?
People may say they buy because of rational appeals and logic.
But as the saying goes “hit the heart and the mind will follow.”
