“10 Things to Avoid When Writing Ads”

This post is a complement to another called "Ad Speak is Invisible".

I have always been a believe that “Facts Tell and Stories Sell”. I believe people make almost decisions emotionally. You can make a pretty good argument about two doctors making a life or death decision over the “facts” presented to them in a diagnosis. At the end of the day, they/you are forced to trust “facts”. You have to have faith in the facts, making it an emotional decision.

My job is to sell stuff for people using media. To do it well, I have to tell stories. I decided to become a better story teller, by studying the best in the country. I bought the book STORY, by Robert McKee. He is the number one go to guy regarding movie screenplays in the country. I found a YouTube video of Mr. McKee called 10 Problems To Avoid With Dialogue In Screenplays. Wow, these are pretty much the same things I try to avoid when writing commercials that don’t sound like commercials!

I am calling this “10 Things to Avoid When Writing Ads”

1. Repetitiousness

a. Make sure you don’t say the same thing over and over and over using the same words.

2. Trightness

a. Dialog filled with clichés

3. Character Neutral Language

a. Using “all-purpose” lines that anyone could say in the same situation. Almost a cliché, but more of a “Duhhh, that is obvious!”

4. Ostentation

a. The writer using “flowery” with very artistic words to show their artsyness.

5. Arid Speech

a. Dry, “Ivy-League” and Pretentious wording, trying to sound like an intellectual.

6. Over-Statement

a. “Brawny” words with puny motivation. Often profanity is used when there is no substance.

7. Talking Wallpaper

a. The humdrum chit-chat of “Hi, how are you? I am fine. The weather is fine.” Writers add this stuff to sound natural, but no one really speaks this way.

8. Forced Exposition

a. One character telling another character what they both already know, in order for the reader or audience to learn important facts of the story.

9. Malformation

a. Scenes that are badly shaped. The audience or reader becomes distracted when their brain is screaming: “This is not a plausible situation.”

10. Writing Dialog “On the Nose”

a. Writing or saying exactly what the character is thinking and feeling without any sub-text. This is treating the audience or reader like they are stupid and insulting their intelligence with too many words.

If you fancy yourself a story-teller, a preacher, teacher or public speaker, you might consider avoiding these as well.