Thursday, January 31, 2008

Creativity Tips: You Lost Me At Hello

Earlier this week, my friend (and this blog's resident cartoonist) Mike Brown rceived an email from the American Heart Association. Here's how it started:

Dear Brown,
This Friday, February 1, is the fifth anniversary of National Wear Red Day. It's the day to wear your favorite red clothes or accessory -- a red blouse, a red dress pin, a fabulous red handbag -- put on red lipstick, or sport a red tie and red socks.

I'd have hit "delete" at Dear Brown. Mike is more patient than I am -- I think he stuck with it until the fabulous red handbag.

Avoid the heartburn. Know your audience. Write to the audience. And please: Sweat the little stuff -- like the programming for names. It really does make a difference.

OK. I will now put down my red pen, because -- marketing mistakes or not -- this is a wonderful cause. And I'll wear my red lipstick tomorrow!

3 comments:

Vicki said...

Scratches head, tries to think up some clever comment with "orange" in it.... ah well.

Anonymous said...

I tried to work in Mike's orange socks ... I ended up scratching my head too.

FYI for those of you who don't know Mike: At Yellow Transportation, he is known for being a brand cheerleader and wearing orange socks. Yes, Brown wears the corporate color for Yellow -- orange! http://www.myyellow.com/dynamic/services/content/aboutyellow/safety_security/safety.jsp

Anonymous said...

To see the Fast Company reference that made Orange Socks mandatory, look on the upper right side of this webpage: http://www.mikebrownspeaks.com/