information which will help the consumer make an informed choice. Studies conducted by Ogilvy & Mather found that commercials which name competing brands are less believable and more confusing than commercials which don’t. There is a tendency for viewers to come away with the impression that the brand which you disparage is the hero of your commercial. 5 Problem solution. This technique is an old as television. You show the viewer a problem with which he or she is familiar, and then show how your product can solve it. One of the best problem-solution commercials I have seen was made in Madras for Train matches. It starts by showing a man unable to strike ‘ordinary’ matches in the muggy climate of southern India. He goes mad with impatience. Then his cool, beautiful wife comes to the rescue with a box of Train matches which strike immediately. 6 Talking heads. This is the derisive name given to commercials which consist of a pitchman extolling the virtues of a product. Agency people find them non-creative, and are sick of them, but several advertisers still use them because they are above average in changing brand preference. Talking heads are particularly appropriate for announcing new products. More than a hundred new brands of cigarette have been introduced in Germany in recent years, and the only one which succeeded was launched by a talking head. Perhaps the most persuasive talking head of all time is John Houseman saying, ‘Smith Barney make money the old-fashioned way. They earn it.’ As a former door-to-door salesman, I shall go to my grave believing that, given two minutes on television, I could sell any product on the face of the earth. Any offers? 7 Characters. In some commercials, a ‘character’ is used to sell your product over a period of years. The character becomes the living symbol of the product – like Titus Moody, the crusty old New England baker who has been extolling the quality of Pepperidge Farm bread for 26 years, or Cora, who sold Maxwell House coffee for seven years. Provided they are relevant to your product, characters are above average in their ability to change brand-preference.