Don’t get it? Don’t worry.

Why do some people get your idea and some people not?

Is it you who has been too ‘clever’ or are they just stupid?

One of the hardest parts of creating communications is knowing how to respond when someone totally does not get your idea.

You have three options when this happens:

1. Call them an idiot.
2. Explain it to them like an idiot. Then see if they now get it.
3. Punch them full in the mouth for being an idiot.

Of these three options number two is the most promising and most acceptable in today’s ‘woke’ office environment. But why?

Because this does not mean your idea is a bad one (if they do in fact get it when explained to them). It just means you just haven’t expressed it the right way.

In other words, there’s hope.

What usually makes ideas unintelligible? Let’s start with a basic adlob and some random possible problems.

1. Obscure reference. Maybe your headline is assuming a reference to something like an idiom or phrase or cultural reference that is not as widely known as you thought it was. IE: Some people know a DeLorean is a time machine, some people just see a car.
2. Too cryptic. Yes short is good and it might be attention grabbing but if you didn’t know what it was for would you understand it? Ideas that use line structures like ‘FIND YOUR YOU’ – usually fall into this category.
3. Wrong context. Just because your idea features the word that the subject matter is about doesn’t make it right. For instance, you have a product that is good for cognitive maintenance and you’ve used a line like MIND THE GAP – that is a totally different use of the word ‘mind’. The English language is a bummer like that.
4. Assuming backstory. People often describe images that have an unseen backstory. Like ‘She’s his mum and she’s just come in and found him like that and now doesn’t know what to do’. This backstory might be important to know but all people see is an older woman standing looking at a man in a room.
5. Mismatch. If there is no relationship between the picture and headline. There’s a picture of people climbing a mountain but the headline refers to being ‘lost at sea’.
6. Crossword puzzle. People often try and find an idea within the name of the disease or condition. Like YOU CAN using the first three letters of CANCER. This is less actually confusing and more in the camp of just being tired and crap. It might seem like nice idea but it usually is just meaningless.
7. Variable intent. If your idea is intended to have a double meaning then this can be great, but if you’re trying to show, let’s say, a woman in pain – that expression could also mean she’s mid romantic engagement (or vice versa) which can be confusing for all concerned. People will always go for the most obvious interpretation and that usually means the dirty one.
8. The pharma literal conundrum. Remember people in pharma are really smart, they were the kids you copied your homework off at school. When you were getting drunk and avoiding lectures, they were writing their PhD thesis. However this also means that very often (not always) normal jokes, double-entendres, irony and implied imagery do not register and are taken literally. (They are the verger in the video). However, the good news is that agencies are jam packed with these brain-boxes and so you can always test to see if your idea lands, before you show it to a client.

Here’s a few things you can do:

1. Do away with that headline that doesn’t work and just write the idea out in long hand – literally as if you are explaining the idea to someone – and put that on the image. Then try and shorten it. Then keep shortening it until it is ‘headline length’.
2. Use the WHACKY VISUAL/STRAIGHT LINE or the WHACKY LINE/STRAIGHT VISUAL rule. IE: Don’t make both the image and the line ‘whacky’ or creative, choose one or the other. If they’re both trying hard it doesn’t let the idea breathe.
3. Show your idea to more than one person, if some people get it and some don’t – don’t settle for that. The people who say that they get it may have had a totally unintended interpretation. (This isn’t always bad by the way)
4. Does the image help the line or vice versa? it’s ok for the line to help you get what the image is saying and it’s ok for a visual to accentuate the sentiment of the line, but if neither of these things are true you probably don’t need at least one of them.
5. If you love the line and think that’s working try three totally different ways to visualise it. Explore different casting, visual styles or situations. See if that makes it clearer.
6. If they’ve misinterpreted the intention of the image just make it absolutely clear that the woman is in pain, not in the throws of ecstasy. Take her out of the bed and put some clothes on her for heavens sake.
7. Just because it’s clever doesn’t make it right. It takes a lot of work to find the simple answer so keep peeling back the layers.
8. Avoid abstract notions. This usually comes from a brief that is all about abstract notions. Like this product gives you more confidence. Apart from a confident expression on a face this an almost impossible brief to take head on. It’s not impossible to crack but you have to demonstrate it in other ways. Don’t expect someone looking confident to be enough.

But one last piece of advice. if somebody says.”I get it, but nobody else will’ ignore them. If they got it, so will others. These people are also idiots and deserve a swift uppercut to the chin.

I once had this happen to me with a line for the Citroen C5 when we launched it as a French car that was built like a German one. The poster campaign was all French/German puns that worked in English. Quite the challenge.

SCHNELL NO5*

I don’t care if puns are a big no no, this was like a triple salchow of advertising and it never ran!

Oh well, C’est la vie as we say in England.

So the point is, if you have faith in the idea keep pushing it. Be tenacious. wrestle with it.

And if nobody still gets it, kill it.

Move on.

Never liked it anyway.

*(Translation for brain boxes: Schnell means fast in German, but it sounds a bit like Chanel, which is a French fashion house. Chanel has a perfume called Chanel No5. Citroen was launching the C5.)