8 How to make TV commercials that sell veryone who writes about television commercials faces the same E insoluble problem: it is impossible to show them on the pages of a book. All I can do is reproduce some storyboards which illustrate my points, and pray that you can decipher them. In my chapter on print advertising, I have relied not only on research, but also on long experience. My experience in television has been more limited. True, I once won an award at the Cannes Festival, but it wasn’t a good commercial. So most of this chapter will have to rely on research, and the judgments I have formed while looking at thousands of other people’s commercials. Testimonials by celebrities are below average in their ability to change brand preference, but American Express has been running commercials like this one since 1975 — with outstanding success. They have a special element of mystery: ‘Do you know me?’