BeagleFormulaOne - The Monday Morning Memo

“Visualization is simply the mental rehearsal of possible future events. When the word ‘rehearse’ was invented more than 700 years ago, it simply meant to hear again; to re-hear.

I am an ad writer. My job is to get people to imagine doing what my client wants them to do. I cause future customers to rehearse future events in their minds.

I could just as easily have been a songwriter.

When you repeatedly imagine an action, or a sequence of future events in your mind, you move precipitously close to taking that action and bringing those events to pass.

Guard your thoughts. The more often you imagine an event, the more likely you are to take that action in real life.

NOTE to Ad Writers: Your audience will not imagine an action until you use a verb.

Few sentences are as captivating as a sentence written in 2nd-person perspective, with present-tense verbs.

“You are standing in the snow, five and one-half miles above sea level, gazing at a horizon hundreds of miles away. It occurs to you that life here is very simple: you live or you die. No compromises, no whining, no second chances. This is a place constantly ravaged by winds and storm, where every ragged breath is an accomplishment. You stand on the uppermost pinnacle of the earth. This is the mountain they call Everest. Yesterday it was considered unbeatable. But that was yesterday.”

This is the point in the radio ad where we move from 2nd-person, present tense into 3rd-person, past tense.

“As Edmund Hillary surveyed the horizon from the peak of Mount Everest, he monitored the time on a wristwatch that had been specifically designed to withstand the fury of the world’s most angry mountain. Rolex believed Sir Edmund would conquer the mountain, and especially for him they created the Rolex Explorer.”

And then we move into 2nd-person, future tense.

“In every life there is a Mount Everest to be conquered. When you have conquered yours, you’ll find your Rolex waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Justice Jewelers.”

Finally, the listener meets the speaker as we wrap the ad in 1st person, present tense.

“I’m Woody Justice and I’ve got a Rolex for you.””

- Roy H. Williams

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