TWIS: What’s the difference between the USA and yogurt? If you let yogurt sit for 300 years, it develops a culture

Hi Strat Pack,

Guys. I just learned that Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Isn’t Actually Screaming. And like what?! Having never taken an art class, it feels like that's such a foundational part of art. And it's wrong!

So went down a rabbit hole to find out what other things I had taken for granted are just flat out wrong, and you know what I found out? Dumpster is a branded, trademarked term. So is realtor, which nobody cares about, and Zipper which is also a word.

Alright guys, stop messing around on weird Wikipedia and let's jump right in.

The one thing to read this week
1) Dave Trott: Make them do the work for you [Campaign Live]

As Napoleon said: "Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake." Years ago, Avis ran its famous campaign: "We’re only no 2. We try harder." It worked so well it began to harm morale at Hertz, the market leader.

Hertz was forced to respond with a campaign saying: "For years, Avis has been telling you Hertz is no 1. Now we’re going to tell you why." It worked for Hertz employees, but for the public it cemented Avis as an equal competitor to Hertz.

Avis had forced Hertz to do its advertising for it.

We shouldn’t be frightened of provoking a response, we should be trying to provoke a response, especially from someone bigger.

If we can use our budget to provoke our opponent into spending their money answering us back, it’s a very effective way of positioning ourselves in the public’s mind.

2) Decoding emotions in advertising [Warc]
A friendly reminder from Phil Barden that evoking an emotional response in an ad does not make it effective.

“An emotional response triggered by an ad can make the ad a more effective vehicle for the motivational message, but the emotional response while watching the ad is only a response – it is not the message in itself,” advises Barden.

Barden cautions against making simplistic assumptions about Daniel Kahneman’s work on System 1 thinking, which people sometimes mistakenly think shows decisions are made on emotion rather than, as actually is the case, intuition based on associative processes. “Mixing up intuitive, implicit, unconscious processes with emotion is just wrong,” he states.

3) The value of deep work is your only real value [AdLiterate]

Every day we (planners, strategists, etc) fight a battle to engage in deep work. Proper, meaningful, in flow, immersed work that delivers the thing we are paid to deliver, new value for our agencies and clients.

We are members of teams that demand our time and attention for a million reasons, many of which are not directly related to the added value tasks we need to deliver. We work in sociable places, where products are made through the constant interaction of people with different skills in formal and informal ways. We work on devices that are eternally connected to resources and temptations of the outside world. And ultimately, we possess brains that, while nurtured and satisfied by the ‘flow’ state of focus, are suckers for the superficial and distracting and that love a good rabbit hole.

That’s the eternal battle, the paradox of an environment that wants us to deliver the fruits of deep work but wants us to operate in a way that encourages only shallow work.

The critical thing about deep work is not simply creating the time for it, its fighting the distractions that harm it and honing the skills that protect it.

This is a great article that doesn't just bitch about the problem but provides some ways in for solutions. Click through because you work in an open office. Because you're in meetings from 9 to 5 every day. Because timelines keep getting crunches, your scope keeps going down and expectations go up.

4) Quick Hits: A few articles that are concise, important, interesting, impactful, and I'm not going to write long descriptions for them.

The CIA hosted "Secrets to Creative Problem Solving” presentation at SXSW and posted a great tweet thread about it [Twitter]They're amazing and adorable and a friendly reminder that we should all probably follow the @CIA on twitter
Monica Lewinsky tweeted "just wonderin’ if i’ll ever buy any of the products i screenshot from insta? do you?" [Twitter] and it is too damn real (with great tweet thread)
The Marketoonist knows the real world isn't like Cannes [Twitter]

5) Department of Great Work
Great stuff this week. Let’s see what it was.

‘Privacy matters’ in Apple’s latest iPhone ad [The Verge] Great work. And such a goddamn smart response to the Facetime glitch.
Controversial UK military recruitment ads proven to be a success [Prolific London] British Army adverts targeting "me me me millennials", "snowflakes" and "selfie addicts" have driven the highest recruitment rates in at least seven years, despite their divisiveness.
McDonald’s Debuts Vegan ‘McNuggets’ So Nobody Can Say No To Nugs [DesignTaxi] Really smart.
Mayo Clinic's understated 'Journey to Certainty' campaign captures emotion in the face of patient diagnosis [AdAge] A case study in why stripping away advertising cliches is always more effective.
Clear Channel Sweden's 'emotional art gallery' in Stockholm's Metro is designed to reduce Anxiety [AdAge] The medium is the message, indeed.
Coors Light Rolls Out a Tap That Glows and Dispenses Free Beer When It Hears Bud Light Ads [AdWeek] When going negative benefits the rest of us!
Burger King taps Chef's Table director David Gelb to helm film about the quality of its coffee [Ads of the World] This might be my favorite ad this week. David Miami killing it again. It's a 3 minute film that's really fun to watch. Of course McDonalds already clapped back in a really uninspired way, and apparently totally oblivious to the fact that Burger King is trying to compete with Starbucks.

6) Platform Updates
I'm not linking to Stadia, Google's gaming platform, or Apple's new streaming service Because you don't live under a rock.

Google removed 2.3bn 'bad ads' in 2018 to tackle fraud and misinformation [The Drum] But it's cool. We're going to continue business as usual and pretend that everything is under control. It's all fine here now. How are you?
Snapchat Will Reportedly Launch a New, In-App Gaming Platform Next Month [Social Media Today] Welcome back to the table, Snapchat!
Cedars-Sinai puts Amazon Alexa in patient rooms as part of a pilot program [TechCrunch]
Instagram launches in-app checkout with 20 major brands [Mobile Marketer] I'm sure you already saw this too...but here are a few ore details.
Pandora Pitches Ads Targeted to Amazon and Google Smart Speakers [Wall Street Journal] Brands try to crack voice marketing in the restrictive worlds of Alexa and Google Assistant
Facebook and YouTube still can’t handle mass shootings [Quartz] Tangentially related to advertising but still v. important.
Apple buys voice app startup Pullstring [Axios] Why it matters: This could help Siri better compete with Alexa.

Busy week! Thanks as always for sticking around. Have a great weekend!