Campaigns

The lack of creativity across marketing and PR is a common complaint from clients and agency heads.

We’re meant to create campaigns that get people talking or thinking. Sometimes those people are consumers, sometimes they’re business owners or MPs or budget holders or whatever the target market is. We want them to repeat our messages, take on our opinions and buy our products. We help define the language people use in different sectors and across the country.

But right now, we’re forging a copy and paste culture. Too many campaigns are predicated not on insight but on received wisdom. These campaigns are then put through the creative sausage factory of brainstorms and senior people’s whims and out the other end pop tried and tested, and wholly unoriginal, tactics.

Here are three examples, from corporate to consumer, of some of the tactics that have become lazy and second-hand excuses for real thinking.

Economic contribution

Not a day goes by without a company or a sector stating how much they’re worth the UK PLC. The monetary value is always in the billions, the number of jobs is, at a minimum, many tens of thousands, and then there’s usually something about the total contribution to the Exchequer.

Like pieces of the True Cross, if collected together these economic contributions would add up to a sum greater than the whole.

Every time a minister speaks at a conference, they duly spout out the stats as a reason why that particular sector is so important to the nation. For a moment, everyone feels good.

But feeling good and doing something are two completely different things. If every sector makes a significant contribution, then no one stands out.

It was clever the first time someone did it; now it’s just tired. Let’s leave the final word on this tactic to Chris Giles, the FT’s economics editor:

And for any sector, charity etc thinking of spending money on duff economics suggesting your sector is especially valuable DON'T

— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) November 2, 2016

Our survey said

From large polls of businesses to ropey Survey Monkey questionnaires, business-to-business campaigns often resort to opinion polling to drum up an interesting angle where none exist.

The problem with many is that, even after that is done there is still no interesting angle; worse they overstate what they have happened to have found. A poll of 100 self-selecting small business owners is hawked out to the press as representative of the opinions of entrepreneurs. No one notices them, no one trusts them but agencies pitch them, clients approve them and journalists write about them in a dull circle of mediocrity.

Awareness days

Why stop at days? There are awareness weeks, months and years too. A handful have become iconic. World Book Day is a stonking success. It’s played a key role in lifting sales of children’s books and made a massive contribution to childhood literacy. However, British Sandwich Week or British Pie Week are just boring attempts to fill a few more well-fed bellies.

These awareness days might lead to a temporary sales bump but will they lead to a sustained increase in sales? Of course not. Can anyone remember when these weeks are? Can you remember the companies that promote them? They’re like wallpaper, occasionally noticed but always unremarked, while other more interesting campaigns hold people’s attention.

When you take a step back and look at these tactics, it’s obvious that they’re void of creativity and likely to be ineffective yet they persist.

We’re unthinkingly creating a copy and paste culture.

I said, we’re unthinkingly creating a copy and paste culture

There’s no shortage of opinion online. From established media outlets to blogs (including this one) there’s a cornucopia of opinion. It’s often said that everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but that doesn’t mean all opinions are equal.

Let’s delve into the minds of polemicists and commentators and look at some of the rhetorical tricks they resort to when they’re pushing opinions that don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Whataboutery

In the debate about the anti-Trump protests in the UK, whataboutery is the weapon of choice of those who disagree with the protests. Arguments such as, “Why didn’t they march against the state visits from Saudi Arabia or China?” are put forward by almost everyone questioning the marches and the petition seeking to stop Donald Trump having a full state visit.

Superficially, it is a simple and powerful argument. It doesn’t, however, address any of the issues raised by protestors. It’s simply deflection by comparison.

It can also blow up in your face as Piers Morgan learnt recently in an interview with Owen Jones.

Straw man

Can’t knock down your opponent’s argument? How about attributing an argument to them that you can knock down? The straw man is a newspaper column staple. Just say those you disagree with believe something they don’t and then spend a few hundred words taking it apart.

Anecdote

Ever lacked decent evidence to back up your point? Why not simply recount a personal anecdote and scale it up to a societal insight? Had a bad meal in a chain restaurant? Your experience can’t be unique. Why not scale it up to a problem with that chain in general? Be suspicious of anyone using anecdotes for anything but colour.

Circular reasoning

Having difficulty building your argument? Why not start by presenting your conclusion and then working backwards from there? This way you can pre-load any supporting premise with assumptions that make it support your point. It also embeds your argument and then everything reinforces it. Even though it’s really weak.

False dichotomy

Life can be a lot easier if everything is black and white, good or bad, right or wrong. Life is rarely that simple, and neither are arguments about it. Why not make it simple? Indeed, why not present two options as if they are the only options and then argue your point? Make sure the two options you offer are reasonable (yours) and totally ridiculous (the one you’ll compare yours to).

Ad hominem attacks

If you can’t take down the argument, take down your opponents. Is there something dodgy about them? No? Pick something and make it dodgy, suggest they’re “too clever by half” or that people “have had enough or experts”.

Slippery slope

Object to a small change in something? Don’t want to look unreasonably upset about an insignificant tweak? What if it’s not a tweak? What if it’s the beginning of an all out assault that irrevocably ruins the world? Make a mountain out of a molehill.

Think of the children

Trying to argue about something that most sensible adults would take no issue with? What about children? Why is no one worried about the children? Drag in the children. Who’s going to beat you in an argument when you’ve constructed rhetorical human shield of children?

This is by no means a comprehensive list. What rhetorical tricks do you regularly notice in opinion pieces? Which ones wind you up the most?