WHY A COURTROOM CROSS EXAMINATION TECHNIQUE IS IMPORTANT TO EFFECTIVE RADIO COMMERCIALS

Last week I shared with you the “Strategy of Sequences,” which I adapted to radio advertising from the book, CROSS-EXAMINATION: SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUES, Larry S. Pozner and Roger J. Dodd.

One of the authors’ rules is: “One New Fact Per Question.”

In those movie or TV courtroom dramas you’ve seen, you might recall an attorney objecting that the opponent asked a “compound question.” That’s a question that asks the witness to address more than one issue at a time:

“Did you see the defendant enter the barroom and then hit the plaintiff?”

That question introduced two facts.

The “One New Fact Per Question” Rule is offered not only to avoid objections but also to enable the attorney to maximize the overall impact of the testimony.

Advertising Application

In a commercial, of course, there’s no rule against making compound questions or compound statements….But they either confuse the listener or they weaken the impact of your sales message.

Ed’s Jewelers is the oldest jewelry store in Smallville, with the largest selection and guaranteed lowest prices, and we specialize in repairing delicate heirlooms.

If you’re forced to deliver such bland information, at least you can punch it up by breaking it up:

Did you know that Ed’s Jewelers is the oldest jewelry store in Smallville? Did you know that no other jeweler in Smallville has as large a selection as Ed’s? Did you know that Ed’s guarantees that his prices are the lowest in Smallville? And if you have a delicate heirloom piece that needs resetting or repair, did you know that THAT is Ed’s specialty?

Not a great commercial, to be sure. But assigning each fact to its presentation sentence gives more emphasis to each.

(And to any readers who were erroneously taught that you never should ask a question in a radio commercial: If the listener doesn’t know those facts, now they do. If the listener already does know those facts, their knowledge simply has been confirmed.)