February 24, 2007

Talking With, Not At

There's been a fair amount of attention to Jane Mayer's wonderful New Yorker article on Joel Surnow, the creator of the TV hit series 24.

Torture plays a big role in the series, and it inevitably succeeds in getting terrorists to fess up. Some folks who know better are concerned that the show justifies and even promotes torture, along with the notion that acting outside the law is OK, if it's in the service of "freedom."

As Mayer points out, the truth is that the torture stuff works fine on TV as a device that enables the show to move along at its customary manic pace. But, in real life, it doesn't really work at all.

Several experts quoted by Mayer substantiate that fact. One even says, "If anything, physical pain can strengthen the resolve to clam up."

So what does work?

The experts agree: "rapport building," notes Mayer, "the slow process of winning over informants." [Obviously, a process that would take way too long for the slam-bam style of 24.]

Once again, we're reminded of the value of talking with our audience, rather than at them.

I had to be reminded of that yesterday, when we brought some creative work to a client. We had been spending too much time with people further down in his organization, and they had filled our heads with all the great stuff they were doing. And we translated that into a bunch of ads that were more sensitive to the voice of those individuals, rather than ears of our audience. The president gracefully nudged us back into the right direction.

Our friends at MTV Networks are terrific at talking with, rather than at. Another expert is Nikki Hardin, who in her Skirt! magazines, makes a very powerful connection with her audience: women. It's a deft skill, one never to take for granted...and one we need to work on every day.

Back to Jack...I wonder how he could build rapport with some of those creeps. That would be a fascinating show of its own.