You talkin' to me?

The first in a series of posts under the banner: Everything I know about advertising I learnt from the movies.

I’ve loved the movies for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid it was the Sound of Music with my mum, and the sound of gunfire with my dad – from Spaghetti Westerns, cop thrillers and gangster movies – and so much more. And so many movies. They talk to me. Like Travis Bickle.

But it’s not just the characters and stories in the films: I also love all the stories around them. How they were made and the people who made them. The trailers, the posters, the taglines, and how the great ones become embedded in our culture, shared, loved, and quoted by millions.

So, when I’m trying to explain or describe something, like the germ of a creative idea – or simply why it’s a great one – I have the habit of referencing stories, scenes or even just lines from movies. The good, the bad and the ugly. It’s maybe some kind of psychological condition, and probably rather annoying. But I find myself coming back to the movies time and time again, because they are full of such powerful stories, that pull you into a particular world. Just like we as advertisers want to pull consumers into a particular world: even if it's only the world of vacuum cleaning.

It's harder to do with books. Even if they’re multi-million bestsellers, they don’t have the same common currency and immediacy as movies, as a point of reference. Movies are like the campfire stories our ancestors shared long before multiplexes were invented. They are a shared experience, that bind people together – even if not everybody has seen or heard the stories at the same time. Or seen them at all. 

Even if someone hasn’t, when I’m using a story, scene or quote from a movie to illustrate a point, I often carry on regardless, as it helps me paint a picture. And if that picture features a familiar movie star, then it helps whoever I’m speaking to see that picture better still. Of course, I usually recommend that they watch the movie (or TV show) too. And, thanks to Netflix, HBO and YouTube etc. movies, or just particular scenes from them, are much easier to check out than books.

Or maybe I don’t keep intellectual enough company. But that’s also kind of the point. Whether we're trying to sell teabags or taxi rides, we need to communicate (sometimes complex) ideas in a simple, engaging and memorable way, that connect with (sometimes big) audiences.

This has kind of made me realise that my work as a copywriter and creative director is very much inspired and informed by what I see in the movies. The best ones tell stories that connect deeply with people, because they are true. Sometimes historically. Sometimes not. Either way, they illustrate universal truths that many of us see in our own lives, with believable characters who speak in a believable way. Even if they’re from a different time, place or planet. Or drive a taxi.

The best advertising does the same: entertaining and enlightening us, and selling a lot of stuff as it does so, by telling stories that strike a chord, that we might feel a part of in some way. And don’t forget, a great movie is also an ad – for itself. By creating word of mouth, that drives more people to see it.

OK, so maybe not quite everything I know about advertising I learnt from the movies, but at the very least they serve as a kind of mnemonic: constant reminders and triggers of how to create better stories. They also contain lots of lessons that help me to better handle all the pesky things in our business that can get in the way of telling those stories – like brand guidelines, budgets, deadlines, clients…

Maybe I’m just a frustrated movie director: which I do get to play at in a tiny way when shooting advertising films. But it’s not just about making TV ads and films: it’s about all the ways we can tell stories through advertising in many different channels.

Whether it’s Charles Foster Kane, Jerry Maguire, Maria Von Trapp or Travis Bickle, movies talk to me powerfully, to help me talk more powerfully to my audiences – colleagues, clients and consumers.

It could be through a song and dance. Or a Smith and Wesson.