Incredibly insightful, moderately meaningful, an absurd affront or nothing at all.

Which do you want to create?

There are already too many ads in this world. Too many pieces of communication that people would prefer to ignore.

Why should they possibly care about listening to yours?

A promotion of a product or service is ultimately irrelevant to an individual. People only truly care about things that matter to them.

Honestly, how many ads have you ever seen that realistically made you think, “I want to buy that because this ad made a compelling argument?”

Advertising may make you a bit more aware of product. It can possibly nudge you to think slightly differently about a company. It can even encourage you to learn a little bit more about a brand. But it’s foolish to overestimate its power to singlehandedly increase the rate of sales.

Seek to create something that matters, to communicate something that’s meaningful. To do anything less is a sad waste of time.

People respond to things that remind them of something profound. Whether it’s actually truly insightful is irrelevant. In this world of constant distraction, people are just looking for something they can gravitate to and feel akin. They’re looking for things they can care about, things that are memorable and sharable.

Do that.

Don’t waste your time on banality and predictable tropes.

Look, I really don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you’re quiet, you’re not living. You’ve got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.” – Mel Brooks

Be noisy and colorful. Probably the best advice for branding, and for life.