Comments on Dusenberry, Then We Set His Hair on Fire
I’ve just started Phil Dusenberry’s Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising. Eventually I’ll add it to the list of sources for the VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook and perhaps post a review. But a proper review doesn’t always allow me to discuss all the points I find particularly interesting, so here are a couple things that struck me from the introduction and chapters 1-2.
1. Insights vs. ideas. “Ideas, valuable though they may be, are a dime-a-dozen in business… [A] good idea can inspire a great commercial. But a good insight can fuel a thousand ideas, a thousand commercials” (pp.6-7). As an art historian and critic (www.ForgottenDelights.com), I find this fascinating because I know that in any good work of art, all the details (from pose to colors to composition) must help convey the message. I hadn’t thought of an advertising campaign in quite that way before, but thinking of it this way will be useful in planning campaigns that play out over time or in several media at once.
2. Planning ahead. Dusenberry tells an anecdote about Michael Deaver, Ronald Reagan’s communications director. Deaver realized that rather than letting the media set the terms of discussion, the president’s staff could plan “news arcs” based on Reagan’s upcoming schedule. “You don’t win if you’re constantly moving forward into the future; you’re only playing catch-up. You win by working backwards, by mapping out your schedule six months ahead to see where you want to be and then figuring out what you have to do and say to get there” (p. 31). Well, that’s obvious … once you put it that way. Reminds me of the principles set out in Lakein’s How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life and David Allen’s Getting Things Done.
3. Research should find out what you don’t know already. “When things go off track [in business], you can’t find all the answers solely in the sales figures or in what you’ve been doing all along. You need to step back and get some fresh feedback from new sources, such as your customers, vendors, competitors, and friends. Quite frankly, you should be listening to anyone who can tell you something you don’t already know. Let me repeat: you need to learn something you don’t already know. … [S]o much of what passes for research is little more than people seeking information that confirms their biases, their goals, their inclinations, and their decisions. It has nothing to do with acquiring new information.” (p. 81) Again obvious—once somebody says it.
More to come on Dusenberry.
