Mobile compatibility is absolutely vital.
How could an ad manage to sell its product by making fun of its industry and its own product?In this video ad from stock footage producer Dissolve, we see clip after clip of all the worn-out video we've ever seen.
There are windmills to appeal to the environmentalist in us, babies that make us smile and cross-racial collaboration that make us feel accomplished. But the whole time, the ad is pointing to the fact that these images are cliches. Here's one of the lines from the voice-over actor: "We care about the environment...loosely. Here's some powerful, rushing water. And some people planting trees." What boggles my mind that it’s an ad that makes fun of ads, while trying to sell the stock footage it’s making fun of. How does that even work?! To me, this ad shows that being savvy to your audience overshadows all else. Dissolve knows that our world, skeptical of ads, will appreciate this tongue-in-cheek statement. If you can make your audience chuckle and feel like they're in on a joke, you can get away with just about anything. Will this be the case forever? Probably not. Advertising and media are shifting at rapid rates. But the mere fact that Dissolve is ahead of the humor curve creates very successful promotion. Either Facebook will have to step up its game, or Facebook marketing is going to change. No doubt there is opportunity for marketing to seniors (+80% in the past 3 years). But when it comes to young people, Facebook is not the platform of choice.
How should we respond? What the consequences for brands still trying to promote their fan pages to youth? Where is the latest platform where we can tap into youth culture? Interviewing for nonfiction is essential. Nonfiction is not memoir. Readers don’t pick up the Sunday paper to read all the clever and beautiful wanderings of your brain.
For this reason, it is imperative to honor the interviewee’s words. They are the lifeblood of your article. The most bucolic scene imagined will never replace hearing the savory the words of a real, live human being. The deep profundity and irresistible quirkiness of people is what makes nonfiction alive. Sometimes the best stories in the library are not found on the bookshelves, but within the people wandering the aisles. Even the most dull office building is full of interesting people with interesting opinions and experiences. Stop. Ask. Listen. Learn. Then write. There are several things a writer can do to ease the process of the interview:
Yet you are also obliged to do their words justice. If the interviewee rambles or talks in circles, don’t print it. You may crop and preen as needed, keeping in the spirit of their message. Journalism requires these kind of judgement calls. Let integrity always come first. Principles from “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. The intellectual usefulness of literature is not that it necessarily tells us the truth about an issue, but rather that it serves as a catalyst to thinking about the great issues of life.” - Leland Ryken I adore this quote. Literature is not the end-all-be-all philosophical Encyclopedia Britannica. Literature is a question. Literature is the satisfaction of falling asleep at night not because life is figured out. But falling asleep after pondering life deeply.
As Christians or Buddhists or Secular Humanists, the mission of humankind is not to batter one another’s brains out with doctrine. Rather, our mission is to ask the questions that sweetly linger. Lingering around topics of ethics and economy. Justice and pain. These wafting questions will change humanity. The answer is not found in bread or bombs or broadcasts. The answer is found in questions. Pointed, humble, glimmering questions. Questions that tug on the heartstrings of every being with a soul. So let us write literature. So that we may ask questions. |