The Encyclopedia of Advertising (15% Off!)

... by Alan Van Dine, © 2006, Light Verse for a Heavy Universe

Chapter 3: Presentations
Before advertising can sell a product someone has to sell the advertising. The agency presents a new campaign in medium-size conference rooms to advertising, marketing, sales or brand managers who, in turn, try to sell the campaign (and its budget) to top management. If management approves, the whole thing will have to be presented again, later, to the advertiser’s regional offices, division managements, sales force, and possibly to outside distributors and dealers.
 

In all such presentations, the advertising campaign is itself “the product” being advertised. Anyone who has witnessed this awesome spectacle – how an advertiser advertises his own advertising – may wonder how the same company manages to produce the advertising – or even the product – in the first place.

The difficulty (and the charm) of such presentations is the same endearing disease of Amateur Nights everywhere. Here we have commercials featuring James Garner and Laurence Olivier, being presented by Elmer Fudd.
 
The Presenter's Arsenal

1.Talking
2.Slides (or slidefilm)
3.Film (or videotape)
4.Flip-chart (also called flip-flops)
5.
Multimedia
(e.g., two flip-charts; or, eight-screen rear projection slidefilm synthesized with film-surround and infinity-box, followed by magic tricks and sales-incentive comedy skits.)

The so-called flip-chart has seen its day, but like any outmoded medium, it continues to outlive its usefulness. Flipcharts are used in room-size presentations to prevent the speaker from leaving out the main point or distorting the facts by resorting to his own words. They are preferred over slides by exceptionally boring speakers whose only hope is eye-contact and whose audiences would sink into deep slumber if ever the lights were turned down to show slides.)

 

Aside from their inherent awkwardness (see Fig. 3.1), charts suffer from cognitive dissonance. If the words on the chart do not precisely duplicate the words the presenter speaks, then the listener becomes confused and occasionally surly. But if the charts and the speaker say the same thing, then the listener is reminded of second grade reading class – when he needed that kind of help (and didn't get it) to read the flash cards.
 
The best thing to do with such a blighted medium is to abandon it. For those that are not free to do that, the damage can be minimized through avoidance of the six deadly sins of flip-chart and slide presentations:

1.Cute Graphics
(cartoon cats, birds, and moneybags)
2.Cheap Thrills
(lightning bolts, rainbows, and day-glo bar charts)
3."Paper Dolls"
(bar charts made up of strings of little silhouette men with post-World-War-II hats and briefcases)
4.Flyspeck
(small, unreadable type. No letter or number on a projected slide should be smaller than a June bug)
5."War and Peace"
(all-type slides with text longer than the Gettysburg Address)
6.Non-Functional Erotic Illustrative Material
(inappropriate tits)
 

Slides used to be called “lantern slides” and should be still. They are good for showing photographs or ads but are the worst conceivable medium for reading words or numbers because they keep shining a light in your eyes while you're trying to read.

Nevertheless, the “all-type slide” continues to dominate many presentations, and the world record of 280 words and 73 numbers on one bright yellow slide is far from safe.

Storyboards. One of the most difficult things to present is the idea for a television commercial. The usual technique is to prepare a “storyboard”, which is like a comic strip, with pictures of each scene and action to be filmed or taped.

This takes care of the visuals, but it leaves the presenter with the task of filling in what will be heard on the soundtrack. The average account executive needs years of experience before he feels comfortable making squeaky voices and saying “meow, meow … ding-ding-ding” to five, pinstripe suits around a walnut conference table.
 

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