A couple of 13 year olds were in the same room as me, where the television happened to be on.

(Of course, normally they’d be head down over an internet device of some kind and wouldn’t be seen dead watching some ‘old’ technology).

An ad came on, though I wasn’t looking at the time so don’t know what it was.

They both watched, it being obviously visually-enough stimulating.

At its end one of them commented, “it looked good, but I don’t have a clue what they were selling.”

Too often television advertising (in particular, though other mediums are often as bad), elicits a ‘what?’

What was that about?

What were they flogging?

Because the ‘what’ of the sale or advertisement isn’t clear, the ‘why’ you should care doesn’t get a look in.

A simple and compelling take home ‘sell’ is obviously much better than a confused and confusing ‘what’?.

If the oft-quoted idea that we’re exposed to 10,000 sales messages a day is true, any confusion whatsoever, and you can be damn sure your particular message will obtain no traction, period.