Don't shoot me .......

“They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play.”

The famous line, written by John Caples in 1926, considered by many the most important line in advertising has spawned countless copies in one form or another for the past ninety years. Fifteen words tell a story so powerful and emotional, that the reader cannot help but be swept into the pitch. A pitch that has been turned into movies and stories for fifty years. Look at any motion picture with the under dog succeeding in the end, think Sylvester Stallone or any ugly duckling romance and you come back to the same message that Caples was trying to convey in the shortest possible story with only fifteen words. Fifteen words that contained emotional and technical hooks advertising has been using ever since.

The emotional hook relies on your sympathy and empathy towards the person sitting down at the piano. No one wants him to fail and you want him to succeed with all your might because everyone has been in a similar situation, where they wished they had whatever skill or product was being sold. We all want to believe in the silver lining of Caples' copyright and advertising has used his principles of get attention, hold attention, create desire, make it believable and finally give you a reason to buy, ever since.

From a technical aspect Caples gave his story both negative and positive effects, that create the scene in your mind, as you see yourself being laughed at by the crowded bar, maybe even some booing, the look of embarrassment on the face of your new girlfriend. The silence as you hit that first note becomes the beginning of your triumph, as the audience sits spellbound and amazed. That ending is the analogy for life's triumph over adversity we all seek and the advertising industry has built itself a platform from which to preach to the converted.

The issue was then taking that powerful story and diluting its effectiveness by over use and creating credibility gaps. How often have you seen the back pages of magazines with copy hawking a product along the lines of "I didn't believe this face cream could make me look younger in 30 days but look at me now" and the before and after pictures testament to the so called effectiveness of the product. How many weight loss stories, how many financial successes, how many dreams fulfilled within a single line of copy have we bought into because we want to believe the story for ourselves?

So remember Caples' line and ask and challenge and step back emotionally when looking to buy, to enhance or even to fulfill your dreams via products and services that seem too good to be true. Thankfully the web has thrown up challenges to the advertising industry with its ability to crowd source, work with peer credibility and forums testing what used to be a given, a great copy line on the back of a magazine.

....... I'm only the piano player.