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I’m just kinda wonderin’ here….

Why are they having a conversation in which he has to shout to be heard but she is able to speak in a conversational tone?

“I didn’t know La Costa had a water slide!”

Are we supposed to relate to a grown man who gets so excited over his discovery that the resort he’s staying at has a water slide?

How often do you include the name of your location in your conversation?

Do you say, “Boy, this casino inside the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino sure is big”?

Or, “Gee, it sure is fun watching our automobile get scrubbed clean here at A-1 Car Wash”?

Probably not.

But both Mr. Stupid and Mrs. Stupid do that.

Why does Mrs. Stupid sound like a human brochure, listing La Costa’s oh-so-exciting features?

How did Mrs. Stupid become psychic? She must be; how else would she know to come to a complete stop in the middle of a sentence — “a spa…” — because her idiot husband was going to interrupt her?

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“And you haven’t even touched your golf clubs!” — In the history of the world, do you believe any human being ever has uttered those words?

“I thought you wanted to play golf” — sure, I’ll buy that. But “you haven’t even touched your golf clubs”? I’m sorry, what did you say? It’s difficult to hear you over the blaring B.S. alarm.

If “the kids came back to the room a half hour ago,” why are they there at poolside for this conversation?

Just when we think this guy can’t be any more moronic, he gets even more excited when he learns that the family will be making s’mores.

Uh-huh.

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Here Comes The Clue Train

In a radio commercial, the person who is enjoying the results of your product or service represents your targeted listener…who should identify with that person.

Do YOU identify with that guy?

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RADIO STATION REMOTES: NON-STOP EXCITEMENT

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Illustration © 2009 by Bobby Ocean

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J.J. Johnston


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Steve-Holly-Don50Steve Cunningham, Holly Adams and Don May relax after completing the audio-visual set-up for  the 2009 International Radio Creative & Production Summit.

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CONVERSATIONAL DIALOGUE IN RADIO COMMERCIALS

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Nancy Tyler emailed me this question:

How can I make character dialogue sound like natural conversation while still delivering the key copy points?

Hopefully those key copy points all focus on how the consumer’s life will be better if they avail themselves of the product or service the advertiser is offering. So just SAY it in the language THEY would use —you know, real people’s language.

It’s the difference between:

“How can one utilize commonly used linguistic patterns with a high degree of cultural resonance while simultaneously incorporating the manufacturer-to-producer transfer of benefits?”

and

“How can I make character dialogue sound like natural conversation while still delivering the key copy points?

A radio commercial is a conversation with the consumer. So speak conversationally. Use language they recognize, the same language that they use.

No real people say “storewide sale” or “friendly, knowledgable staff” or “family owned & operated” or “conveniently located”; why in the world would you speak to your prospects in a language that is foreign to them?

And by the way, they’re not key copy points if the targeted listener doesn’t care about them.

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