Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A Feat of Association

“All thought is a feat of association; having what's in front of you bring up something in your mind that you almost didn't know you knew.”

--Robert Frost


This week, or at least today and tomorrow, allow your mind to make feats of association: associate disparate things that have never been considered alike before. What results are new, refreshing ideas.

A few feats of association worthy of note:

• King of the mountain + millions of people (for online play with Sony Playstation)
• Evolution + taste ("Noitelove" spot for Guinness)
• No. 2 + good (for Avis)
• Running shoes + self-actualization ("Just Do It" for Nike)
• Toyota + bubble wrap
• Bill Gates + Jerry Seinfeld (good on paper, not so good in execution)
• Beer + skydiving
• Insurance salesmanship + Little Richard
• Wrinkles + Sistine Chapel (or Winnie the Pooh or... you name it)

A lot of these are execution rather than conceptual. In other words, there's really no idea, just a great ad (or three or five). But you get the point. The more unexpected the association (and yet still relevant), the better the ad. The bigger the impact.

In other words, the association should illuminate the benefit in an unexpected way. All you're doing is drawing parallels here, people. Make them simple, direct, and germane.

Nice job tonight. Derek, post your reworking of your campaign. Your classmates need to see how to rock.

Keep making us proud.

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