April 27, 2012 - Comments Off on Whatever You Are Making, Make It Better Than It Has To Be

Whatever You Are Making, Make It Better Than It Has To Be

On his blog advertising guru Luke Sullivan shares an excerpt from the 4th edition of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe the operative element is subliminal; not subliminal advertising the way Vance Packard complained about in his conspiracy book The Hidden Persuaders. No, the operative element we’re talking about here is subliminal quality. The very word sublime helps explain my point. “Limen” is Latin for threshold. Below the threshold of awareness. We’re talking about baking quality so far into a thing that people who look at it perceive this quality subconsciously. They know they’re looking at something of quality before they’re even conscious of it because when a thing is made way better than it has to be its quality comes off of it in waves.

What a fantastic concept: subliminal quality.

This extra effort is how all of life’s pursuits are turned into art; yes, even advertising. An old man from Bali once patiently explained to an anthropologist studying his culture: “We have no  ‘art.’
We do everything as well as possible.”

(via heywhipple.com)

 

The Thinking Mechanism is a series of weekly posts written by Antonio Ortiz and published on Fridays, covering the ideas The Mechanism is thinking and talking about with our peers and clients. This edition of The Thinking Mechanism is cross-posted from the blog SmarterCreativity.com.

Published by: antonioortiz in The Thinking Mechanism
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