Thinking Out Loud

Everybody does it. When you’re in the middle of something, whatever it may be, words describing the success or failure of your actions emerge almost uncontrollably from your mouth and, at least if you’re like me, the entire thing transpires without even mildly attracting your attention.

Earlier today, I watched someone give a presentation (that’s the not-so-interesting part). What was interesting, however, is that every time that the presenter mispronounced a word or made a mistake, that mistake was followed with a very short monologue on what the presenter had done wrong.

As far as presenters go, this isn’t something that’s limited to anyone in particular. I’ve seen distinguished speakers pull the same routine time-and-time again (albeit with less frequency).

So, how do you combat the monologue of doom? Chances are, it’s probably harder than it sounds. From a psychological perspective, this behavior likely occurs because it has been seen to occur many times before and the repetition of the behavior likely arises with a desire for social conformity. In other words, because other people do it you’ll do it too.

Still, like most behavior that exists as a recovery mechanism for embarrassment, solving this problem is mainly a matter of recognizing that it exists. Of course, at the end of the day, it isn’t really a “problem” at all. In fact, I’d venture to say that this topic probably seems rather boring because it happens so frequently that most people don’t even notice it anymore.

That’s where marketing comes in. Any time that something happens with greater and greater frequency, its ability to stand out in a crowd becomes much like the presentation-slip-up recovery that plagues us all. Just as no one (probably) notices these little mistakes and slip-ups, no one (probably) notices the same ad that they’ve seen 500 times. Subconsciously, they may recall the ad or have some attachment to the advertisement or product anyways, but the fact remains that they’re still not paying attention to it now.

Why? Because they’ve seen it before. In advertising, any time you show the world something that’s only more of the same, you put yourself in a position to be ignored because people aren’t actively looking for something to pay attention to.

Look at Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s much lauded Subservient Chicken campaign for Burger king. It’s weird. It’s different. It’s interesting. It’s still the subject of hundreds of e-mails even today.

Watch Apple’s Get a Mac ads. They’re every bit as funny as the Subservient Chicken campaign with less interactivity.

Now, tell me. What happened in the last ad you saw for Dell? How about Honda? McDonald’s?

Attention is every bit as valuable as money. After all, companies will spend millions every year just to nab 30 seconds of it during the Super Bowl. But what’s interesting about attention is that it’s intrinsically free. If you do something different and something that’s interesting, people will stand up and “pay” attention.

When it comes to advertising, start thinking and stop thinking out loud.