Stop selling & start telling

Breaking News: The world’s most notorious egg – Humpty Dumpty, is a fraud. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings to all the kiddies out there but Hump’s is not what he seems. No sir, he was significantly more dangerous than breakfast omelette. Hump was in fact a large canon used in the English Civil War of 1642 at the Siege of Colchester to be absolutely accurate. The story is surrounded by intrigue but I will give that a very large berth lest I stray from my point.

Bad egg Humpty is of course a nursery rhyme with what I call pseudo reality roots. The fable if you like had the intent of dressing a real life tragedy and making it palatable for the gentry of the seventeenth century, after all a damaged egg can be cause for a certain amount of humour as opposed to an ugly and bloody war.

Today our television insists on screaming at us with ‘buy me’ ads – it’s sell, sell, sell and I can see audiences turning off in the thousands. It’s the big sell of the BOGOF’s (Buy One Get One Free); 50% offs; No interest finance until you die etc. etc. etc. Apparently we are to be treated like morons forever. It’s ugly, it’s bloody and it’s war. Enter the story teller.

At the box we made a conscious decision, long ago to never treat the consumer as anything but intelligent, capable and human. It was our intention from day one and is reflected in our philosophy.

We say, “Stop the sell and start the tell – stories that are human, transparent, entertaining and messages which mean something more than selling hype.” There are great examples out there, examples which you can see on our Jack TV presentation on Facebook every Friday. What we need is great creative and entertaining advertisements. Advertisements which tell a story, advertisements which help consumers make decisions by delivering scenarios which touch us as humans… that make us laugh and cry and understand.

Story telling is an art and it is time for us in the world of communication to deliver more than the hotch posh of garbage which manipulates consumers. No-one likes to be sold but everyone likes to buy. Telling stories lets the consumer buy and that is the essence of great commerce.

Just to give you a taste of this world wide move towards stories and engaging a consumer base ready for interaction, view Friday’s Jack TV for one of the most heart warming advertisements I’ve seen – it says it all.