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RAM TRUCKS EXECS TRY TO RAM VIRTUE SIGNALING INTO EVERYONE'S MIND DURING SUPER BOWL 52.


One of the big deals about the NFL's Super Bowl Sunday is the advertising. Many millions get spent on advertising both in the production and in the price paid to air ads. Nearly $420 million was spent on advertising aired during Super Bowl 52.



The execs at Ram Trucks, a subsidary of Fiat Chyrsler, paid for an ad to run during the Super Bowl. The ad was little more than a bad attempt at combining virtue signaling with their slogan. It didn't go so well for them.




As seen in the clip, the ad agency responsible for the so-called creative took audio of a black rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and married that to imagery, almost none of which had anything to do with Ram Trucks.

TV advertising is horrible anymore. Those in marketing and advertising simply do not understand how to sell through mass media advertising.

Instead, every ad is either a set up for a punch line joke or like this one, virtue signaling.

Effective advertising exists to help your would-be customers buy rather than to help you sell. Real advertising is the art of revealing what is lacking and how to get that lacking fulfilled.

What was the central selling point of this Ram Truck ad? When King said, "Recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant," King stole that from Jesus. And then King said the foregoing is the new definition of greatness.

So the central selling point of the ad is this: A Dodge Ram will be your servant. Even the slogan at the end is "Built to serve."

But how is it built? What part of the building process ensures that it will serve?

Clearly, a slogan like "Built to serve" implies durability. It's an empty slogan. "Built to serve" is an empty slogan that is little different than making an unsubstaniated claim: strongest built.

How is the truck built that ensures durability?  What is interesting about Ram Trucks that shows quality?

I could have sold manifold more trucks for Ram Trucks, merely by saying and then showing this:

We test our trucks with 8,000 pounds of dead weight.

And as a kicker, I could have shown different kinds of things that weigh  8,000 pounds.

Here is an Excerpt from My Forthcoming Work on Selling


TV Advertising is merely selling to as many individuals who see your ad at the same time.
Selling hinges on getting your ideas about your products into the minds of would-be customers so that they come to believe your products give them advantages and fulfill their needs.
In the true art of selling you are not trying to explain anything. You are not trying to prove anything. You are not trying to reason with your would-be customers. You are not trying to convince would-be customers. 
As selling is persuasion, confidence is the key to closing a sale. Foremost, you must bring your would-be customer to believe you, believe in your product and your offer.
You sell arriving somewhere faster and not transportation nor cars. You sell hours of freed up time and not labor saving devices. 
Your would-be customer cares only about one thing — What will it do for me? What you have for sale might have specific uses, but you must show your would-be customer how he or she can gain advantage by it. For that is how you awaken desire. 
Show the would-be customer how she gains by what you offer. Gain can be profit, indulgence (comfort, etc.) or preservation (preventing loss).
Your would-be customer must have come to full confidence that your offer will gain her or him profits, savings, time, easier effort, status or pleasure, before your would-be customer will buy.
So know what you have to offer. Tell your would-be customer what she or he can expect to gain.
Your would-be customer cares only about one thing — What will it do for me? What you have for sale might have specific uses, but you must show your would-be customer how he or she can gain advantage by it. For that is how you awaken desire.
Before you can get the would-be cutomer to desire what you have to offer, you must show the would-be customer how a quality of the product helps him or her. As soon as you do, the would-be customer no longer will be satisified with what she or he has or has done. Once you do, then you can sell the would-be customer on your product and its quality.
Talking points lets you differentiate your offer from all others.
Your goal is to define your product clearly in the mind of your would-be customer. Definition makes exact what otherwise would be hazy in the mind of your would-be customer. Through definition, you remove objection.

David Ogilvy on Advertising


Famous ad man David Ogilvy created an ad for Rolls-Royce once upon a time that went like this

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. 

That fact proved the quality of the build. That interesting fact made anyone reading the ad think. That ad sold Rolls-Royces.





To comment about this story or work of the True Dollar Journal, you can @ me through the Fediverse. You can find me @johngritt@freespeechextremist.com

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