The limited time in your radio, television or online advertising should be used wisely.
Don’t let Captain Obvious steal a moment of it.
Who is Captain Obvious? Captain Obvious is a seemingly benevolent, but ultimately evil villain who swoops into advertising copy and steals precious seconds. Let me give you an example I heard today. It was a radio ad. I couldn’t even tell you what it was for, but I know it started with the line “summer is here”. And dang, so too is that pesky Captain Obvious! Ok so he only stole three words in this particular ad, but the thing is we know summer is here. Summer has been here for a while now. And even if the calendar had only just clicked over to December 1, I reckon we’d have a pretty good idea of what season we’re experiencing by peering out the window. Imagine if those three words had instead mentioned the product/ business name. There would be a better chance of my at least remembering what the ad was for.
Where else does Captain Obvious like to lurk? Well, the Captain is particularly active in the lead-up to Christmas. One of his favourite lines is ‘Christmas is just around the corner’. Holy holly! That’s at least three seconds that could have been turned into something useful. And three seconds is a not insignificant chunk of a 10 or 15 second spot.
The Captain also loves shopping at places ‘where you’ll find friendly, helpful service’ (shouldn’t that be implied?). If a website doesn’t say ‘double u, double u, double u’ at the start, he gets a bit lost. And just to up the obvious factor, he’ll tell you ‘yes, you heard right’.
I voice many ads a week. They come to me mostly through an agency or producer, so if I see that Captain Obvious has wormed his way into the copy, I just have to cringe inwardly and then voice splendidly. But when I have the opportunity to deal with the client or writer directly, and I get a whiff of the Captain’s waffling, I’m able to help them wrestle those wasted words from the Captain’s evil clutches and swap them for something more useful.
How do you best combat the Captain? If you think he may have snuck a line or two into your ad, ask yourself or the copywriter “Is this something we can safely assume the listener knows, just by being a sentient human?” If “yes”, then I’m afraid that sounds like the work of Captain Obvious and it has no business cluttering your important message.
But fear not! If Captain Obvious, or any of his evil script-destroying cronies, have visited upon a script I’m given, I’ll still make it sound superb.
If you have a favourite/ pet hate Captain Obviousism that keeps popping up in ads you’ve heard or worked on, I’d love to hear it. “That line again?” If you have a favourite/ pet hate Captain Obviousism that keeps popping up in ads you’ve heard or worked on, I’d love to hear it.
Oh Captain Obvious!