Before Winston Churchill was a politician he was a journalist.
Journalism taught him two truths.
If you want to get people’s attention you need two things.
Keep it simple.
And keep it motivating.
As a journalist, Churchill understood that people are involved in their own lives.
They aren’t interested in what you’ve got to say.
Unless you can make them interested.
How you do that is, keep it simple.
If you can’t keep it simple, you’ve lost their attention.
However fascinating the full details are for you.
However complicated the problem is
However many ins-and-outs there are, they aren’t interested.
And you’ve lost them.
Churchill understood as a journalist he was competing with every other story and piece of news in the newspaper.
So he learned to keep it simple.
And put it in terms that applied to the reader.
Not just in terms that applied to the writer.
That’s what made Churchill a superb politician.
Understanding that, if you want power, you need to carry the people with you.
Because it’s the people who give you power.
So you need to keep it simple, to get their attention.
And put it in their terms, to get their understanding.
Another brilliant politician who understood this was Franklin Roosevelt.
The only person ever elected President of the USA four times running.
At the beginning of World War Two, Britain was being beaten by Germany.
They were a bigger country with much greater industrial muscle.
They could turn out more, and better, weapons faster than we could.
Eventually we would obviously lose.
Churchill needed to get weapons from somewhere else.
America was the obvious place.
But the Americans were cynical.
Just over 20 years earlier they’d had to step in to help stop World War One.
Now Europe was fighting again.
The feeling in middle America was, “To hell with them. They want to keep fighting each other, let them get on with it.”
But Roosevelt was sympathetic to Churchill.
He thought it was in America’s interest to support Britain.
So he and Churchill had to present a case to the American government.
Churchill didn’t make a complicated plea with lots of Power Point slides.
He didn’t show the effect on the global economy of a German victory.
He simply said we can beat them, but we need weapons.
In one of his most famous lines he said,
“GIVE US THE TOOLS, AND WE WILL FINISH THE JOB.”
Roosevelt was a man who also understood powerful communication.
He didn’t make a speech about American interests abroad.
He simply said,
“WHEN YOUR NEIGHBOUR’S HOUSE IS ON FIRE, YOU DON’T REFUSE TO LEND HIM YOUR HOSE.”
Simple, short, motivating points.
Everyone understood them.
The situation is put in such a way that you can hardly refuse.
And they didn’t refuse.
The massive industrial might of America began turning out weapons to send to Britain.
And it turned the course of the war.
Of course, political commentators don’t like such language.
They find it crass and crude.
Experts in any field don’t like to simplify things.
For them, it seems trivial and patronising.
But that language isn’t meant for ‘experts’.
It’s meant for ordinary people.
We have a lot of experts in advertising.
People who like to keep things complicated.
There may even be several thousand.
But there are millions upon millions of ordinary people.
So that’s where the real power is.
An ability to talk to ordinary people.
And complicated doesn’t work with ordinary people.
What works is short.
And simple.
And motivating.
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Providing that simplicity isn’t mistaken for stupidity.
Too many pieces of communication treat people as if they are stupid, the brilliance of Churchill was that by being simple and motivating he let people come to their own conclusions (which they supported) rather than telling them simply what was best for them.
Dear Dave,
How in this so called ‘dumbed down’ culture do you answer Robs valid point.How do you overcome seeming ’simplistic’ when expressing the ’simple’?
Thanks as ever for your always stimulating blog.
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
The two points are simple, and motivating.
If it’s “mistaken for stupidity” then it probably isn’t very motivating.
As long as it’s motivating, it can never be too simple.
If it’s not motivating, it won’t work whether it’s simple or complicated.
Agreed, though we all have to get past clients and others who will say that ‘motivating’ always means a blunt price point or huge product feature rather than a compelling point or brand idea.
http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-147.html
Hi Dave,
This is my new opening statement on my CV on the Guardian site.
How can I improve it?
When jobs are few, adaptability is key.
Doing nothing is not an option.
I’d rather help someone for nothing.
That’s a worthwhile challenge.
Imagine what it’s like to be this man:
Cerebal Palsy, Severe Learning Disabilities,
Scoliosis, Epilepsy, unable to speak,
unable to control his own bowels,
imprisoned in his body every day of his life.
This man is my client.
It was tough to begin with,
much harder than working in advertising,
sometimes he is violent, scratching, biting,
screaming incessantly, moaning, irritating,
throwing hot tea over me.
Other times he throws food everywhere
just after I have hoovered-up,
or dribbles uncontrollably down my arm
just after I’ve washed the last dribble off.
It’s not a job anyone can do, but it is a job,
and that’s better than nothing isn’t it?
Some of my unemployed friends disagree.
They think what I do is below me.
When they ask me: “Why do you do it?”
I tell them: “Like you, I have a family to feed.”
I ask you,
Who would you rather hire?
As usual, you hit it square on. If a thought can’t be encapsulated in words far simpler than ‘encapsulated’ it’s probably too complicate a thought.
Churchill also recognised the power of humour. He won the American Congress over when he said the Germans had claimed “In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken: Some chicken; some neck.”
Was Colonel Sanders there?
40 years later we had our necks wrung by KFC.
Hi Kevin,
What you write is undoubtedly very powerful and moving.
But I think you’ve written it more to get it off your chest than to get the desired response.
Personally I am more cynical.
I start by thinking what the person I want something from needs to hear, in order to get them to do what I want.
I don’t care what they think of me.
I care that I get the result I want.
thanks for that Dave…
Best
Charlie
http://www.iamcharliesalem
My motto:
Monetizing content/ building brands - yours or mine!
(what do you think - anyone any better suggestions.all welcome!)
“We will win the World Cup” – Ramsey said after taking the England job in 1963.
@Kevin
Admirable. But as statement on your CV it makes you sound scarily intense. Employers don’t want a lesson in humility. Just someone who may want to write an ad every now and then. (I’m guessing you’re a creative?). Just my opinion as you put it out there. You do what you think is best.
Thanks Dave.
I’ll remove it.
Re-think it.
Re-write it.
Kev, All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Benjamin Franklin
The Creative Carrot.
Advertising needs at least two thoughts to make it work well.
The first thought is usually the emotional one.
The second thought is rational.
This way you get the best of both worlds.
But how do you get two great feelings for the price of one?
Most adults are so rational, when they grow up
they lose the ability to create as the world closes in on them.
They stop being silly.
Most children are so childish,
they don’t want to do anything responsible.
They cannot be serious.
If you’re a boss, you’re probably very rational.
Being a boss can be no fun.
Being a boss you command respect.
Being a boss you don’t have time.
Being a boss you want someone reliable.
Being a boss you want someone who won’t answer back.
Being a boss you need someone to support you.
Being a boss in a silly business you need a daft solution?
I’ll be your Donkey.
Kev, Don’t they say assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups? I wouldn’t assume anything.
John,
“I don’t care if it’s the mother, brother, or any other suckler.”
What film’s that from.
Dave
Sounds like ‘Lock Stock…’.
Yeah, I knew just after i posted it,
but what the hell.
England’s through.
Wahey!
Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Einstein.
Your Roosevelt story reminded me that in 1931, FDR said the following, “If I were starting life over again, I would probably give first thought to making advertising my career…because it combines real imagination with a deep study of psychology.” Like you said, he was a man who understood how to communicate with ordinary people.
Hi Tom,
I think there’s an inbuilt Abe Lincoln style to the way the best communicators address the public, that ’sophisticated’ media types (journalists, etc) sneer at.
I think it’s really powerful.
I think Churchill, Thatcher, JFK, Roosevelt & Bernbach had it.
I think it’s what we do when we do it properly.
But didn’t the fact that Britain was beholden to repay its debts (so long as it maintained its sovereignty) have something to do with America’s later involvement in WWII?
Selling a nation arms during a war leads to debt and the need to protect one’s investment (by sending troops) - surely this was evident at the time Churchill stated “GIVE US THE TOOLS” - you can find reference to this tactic in USMC Major General Smedley Darlington Butler’s “War is a Racket” speeches from the 1930’s.
Hi Z,
What politicians say and their actual agenda are often different things.
Maybe the Brits were after a ratchet effect: get the US to lease/lend us arms and they’re a step closer to coming in on our side.
Maybe the Americans were thinking: if we give them guns to fight, they’ll die instead of our boys.
Probably both things are true and, without publicly admitting it, they reach a compromise that works for both sides.