George Lois and "The Big Idea"
Published on 11/18/1996 under Interviews
I had the opportunity to spend several hours recently with legendary ad warrior George Lois as he prepared to speak to the Houston AMA Chapter. It was a rare treat.
Lois pulls no punches, and many of his strongly held beliefs are off-putting to AMA member disciplines. For example, "a lot of clients, especially the younger ones, have been trained to think advertising is a science. If advertising is a science, I'm a girl."
Lois is no girl. And while he did acknowledge that scientists are, as a group, among the most creative people in business today, he still refuses to concede that advertising is at least part science.
I pointed out that scientists often learn from trial and error, changing the formula until something interesting happens, and asked if that wasn't similiar to the creative process. He refused to bite.
We talked about the value of testing ad messages on focus groups before commiting dollars to a campaign roll-out. He absolutely gagged on that one.
As evidence, he cited his famous Braniff Airlines campaign (If you've got it, flaunt it). "Those ads," Lois said, "would have totally bombed in ad tests. As things turned out, it tripled their business."
Lois is full of quick facts like that, and while I didn't bother to check any of them, I do remember the Braniff ads more than 20 years later. I'm sure they were successful in building business for the airline.
Lois has written several excellent books on his roller coaster ride through the wacky world of advertising. Many of his favorite anecdotes come from the 60s, when advertising was undergoing a fabulous creative revolution and the agency he worked for, Doyle Dane Bernbach, was at the very forefront of that revolution.
And even though business managers were a little more inclined in those days to take chances on bold advertising concepts, Lois has always pushed the envelope of acceptance. His first book, published in 1972 (Saturday Review Press) was titled, "George, Be Careful."
That should give you some insight into the man.
In his more recent book, "What's The Big Idea?" (Doubleday Currency, New York 1991), he continues the theme by saying, "Being careful guarantees sameness and mediocrity." I asked him what he would say to downsized, re-engineered, middle managers who are afraid to make mistakes, especially high visibility ones involving advertising?
"Fear is pervasive in corporate America, today," he agreed. "People want to be strong, but they don't know how. Not only is it important to develop great advertising to reach new customers, but it's equally important to reach existing customers and employees. They need to be reassured they're dealing with a winner."
Lois railed at the reliance of some managers on legal advice. "Lawyers won't let you do anything," he said, and gave two examples to support this belief: Naugahide and MTV.
Naugahide was a brand of leather-like vinyl material marketed by Uniroyal. It quickly spurred many imitators, so Lois proposed creating a mythical animal called a "Nauga" to clearly distinguish Uniroyal's product from the rest. Their legal department went bananas, fearing the FTC would strike it down as a blatent attempt to confuse and deceive the public.
Fortunately, the case was taken to Uniroyal's top management and they liked the nauga character. To save his concept, Lois armed agency staffers with photos of the prototype Nauga and had them hit the streets of New York, asking the critical question, "Is this a real animal?"
Of course, no one thought it was, so common sense prevailed. And you can see that George Lois does believe in pre-testing ad concepts, but only when the deck is totally stacked in his favor.
The MTV example had to do with their logo, which at the time, was virtually unknown. Lois produced a zany, fast-paced TV spot in which the logo was transformed into dozens of different colors and patterns. Naturally, someone from Legal pointed out that changing the logo was absolutely forbidden. They'd have to re-register it in every variation used. It would be cost prohibitive!
Thankfully, someone told the well-intentioned attorney to go register his time somewhere else. Within six months, TIME Magazine was recognizing MTV as a primary agent for cultural change among young people (not positive change, of course). And, more importantly, cable operators everywhere were scrambling to add MTV to their schedule.
George Lois' message to corporate managers today is to step up to the plate expecting to hit one out of the park every time. Singles are not good enough. They're lost in the clutter and noise of everyday life.
In order to hit homers in the advertising game, you've got to do unexpected, bold and sometimes outrageous things. As Lois says, "ads shouldn't just sell products, they should change the world."
That's a tall order, but you've got to give him plenty of credit, because it's the yardstick he has used for more than 40 years in this business. And his efforts do measure up.
Like the low-budget billboard and telephone booth poster showing for unknown clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger. It listed the 4 great designers for men: R _ _ _ _ L_ _ _ _ _, P _ _ _ _ E_ _ _ _, C_ _ _ _ _ K _ _ _ _, and T_ _ _ _ H_ _ _ _ _ _ _. The outrage from other designers was understandable, but within weeks, major newspapers were speculating whether Tommy Hilfiger was such a success because of his clothes or his advertising.
Lois has accomplished equally big results for ESPN, USA Today, Jiffy Lube, Reebok and dozens more.
The trait that separates George Lois from the pack is not that he strives so fervently for excellence, but that he recognizes the Big Idea when he stumbles upon it. That's why he refuses to concede the scientific aspects of our business.
By his definition, advertising is an art and the process is intuitive.
It's hard to argue with success like his.