Here’s another form of exaggeration that you can use to break writers’ block, to get attention from an ears-glazed-over audience, and to bring results to hungry advertisers.
Misdirect attention by making the advertiser’s product, service, location, or event more important, urgent, or compelling than another major event that your audience would think of as life-changing.
If you take the right angle, milestone events like birth, funeral, marriage, graduation, vacation, getting a speeding ticket, proposing, career promotions, election to political office, serving on a jury, airline safety announcements, 911 calls, reviving from a coma, winning a Nobel Prize, undergoing surgery can pale in comparison to a client’s annual sale, new restaurant menu items, or extended automotive warranties.
Create a story that puts the listener into the scene. Remember, these life events are dramatic and emotional situations. So, just when you might expect a life-saving rescue, a conflict resolution, or a victory celebration, twist the story to your client’s selling points.
I know it sounds deceptive, even cruel, but it’s what comics do – set us up, then unexpectedly turn the situation around, or deliver a punchline that catches us by surprise.
Examples:
- The person who comes out of a years-long coma, not recognizing his loved ones but remembering a wonderful meal at his favorite restaurant
- An Olympic athlete who misses her chance at a gold medal because she gets distracted by a text about earning bonus points from her favorite store
- The brain surgeon who steps out of the operating room briefly to take advantage of a sale on tires
- The rescued hiker who was lost in the wilderness for 3 months – all he thought about daily were the cool things he’d be missing at the local home show.
These kinds of twisted stories could lead you to your own HBO comedy special…or just to happy advertisers and renewals.
