Why don't we ask more questions?

Nowadays in advertising we are exhort to engage our target in a conversation. For example Nick Moore from Wunderman gave a great talk at Cannes saying just this. Simlilarly Seth Godin exhorts us, “Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.”

But how?

Our creative briefs are based on single-minded propositions. Our creative brings these alive and gets a message across. We measure the impact our message has in terms of reach and message recall.

Our aim is to tell people something about ourselves in the most creative and engaging way we can.

But is that how you’d start a conversation in real life?

No. You’d start by asking questions.

How are you doing?

How’s the new job going?

Did you see what Jennifer Lopez was wearing at the Oscars?

What about them Leafs?

Or as a particularly ineffective friend of mine used to say to girls in bars ‘What’s the word?’

So why don’t we ask more questions in advertising?

We know it works. Here are some great examples to inspire us. But we need more.

Wendy’s famously asked ‘Where’s the beef?’

Shirley Polykoff asked ‘Does she or doesn’t she?

Caramilk challenged us with “How do they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar?’

And Dove has asked us ‘ Grey or Gorgeous?’ and most recently – ‘Does retouching distrort your perception of beauty?’

Great examples. But there must be more out there. Please send me some and I’ll post them.