Sometimes the best way to talk about something is not talking about it… to talk all the way around it, and imply it, and thereby make it all the more central. That’s what Nike did in this ad (take a look, it’s just a minute long).
[youtube link=”http://youtu.be/_hEzW1WRFTg” width=”590″ height=”315″]There are a few reasons Nike did this:
[check_list]First off, it’s cool. You get to fill in the blank yourself, and see the cleverness of never actually mentioning London, England or the Olympics.
Secondly, it’s because of the restrictions on advertising for the Olympics. Nike didn’t want to play along with these extensive restrictions, so they found a way to make an Olympics video without mentioning the Olympics.
[/check_list]This can be done in our communication as well. Sometimes the best way to talk about something, to get it on the table, is to NOT say it. If you communicate in this way the “inside information” the listener gets from you makes you the master of your domain. It’s amazing how long this can go on. There are two variations.
One way to do this is to never speak what the subject is. This is the purest form, as the listener is in on the joke all the way through. The second is to not mention the subject till the end. This lets the cat out of the bag at the end, and enables the communicator to start getting more specific about the subject. The Prophet Amos bascially did that in the first few chapters of his book (and sermon). It’s a wonderful way to circle the mountain a few times before striking.
Have you communicated anything this way, or seen it done?
Years ago at 12Stone (then Crossroads), we had a five prong mission statement. Once PK taught a series on parenting, and it wasn’t until about week 3 or 4 that it became obvious that the parenting series was built on the mission statement. It reinforced that the mission statement applied to all aspects of our lives (it wasn’t just a church thing) and reinforced the mission statement in general (it is a church thing, too).
What a genius idea…
LOVE IT. Spread it
All I kept thinking about that commercial was the sick pogo-stick-flip-off-a-shipping-container! Based on your wife’s old blog posts, I’m guessing your TV is stuck to NBC for 3 wks?
Yes, that pogo thing rocked
and Yes, NBC and it’s affiliates and it’s online stream and updates are my wife’s lifeblood at the moment.
meaning, I have time for coffee at some point if you wanna hang out. 🙂
I’ve seen my pastor do this often in his sermons. Sometimes a vague reference to a sticky situation can let you communicate without officially going on record. The audience makes the connections themselves, actually strengthening their sense of ownership of the point begin made.
Well summarized… yes, Steve does that all the time… in fact, he did it a BUNCH yesterday, didn’t he? 🙂