Part 7 of my e-book, entitled, "It's all in the head (and it's not what you are thinking!)"

It’s all in the head (and it’s not what you are thinking!)

Triggers that helped me crank up my copy

4c) ‘Feel-good’ Emotions:

A few posts earlier I had spoken to you about emotions like fear and how I used fear to engage the consumer.

Might I remind you, I am not alone on this one. Others have done it too, only with a gutsy and devil-may-dare attitude added to it.

I am talking of the brand Mountain Dew, the headline of which reads:

Mountain Dew – Darr ke aagey jeet hai

Loosely translated it means, “Victory lies ahead of fear”

The picture is of a bunch of young boys and girls river-rafting in turbulent waters. 

Amazing ad and might I say with a devil-be-damned attitude so intrinsically woven in the youthful exuberance synonymous with the brash and reckless young.

As I recollect, I was in a fix. How in the world was I to better that? They had beaten me to the first place on all counts. 

Who were the target audience for the brand? The youth – spot on. 

What was the reigning emotion? The devil-be-damned devilry that is so symptomatic of the youth – just right there too. 

And what of the copy? Now who could have said it better? Victory lies ahead of fear. Wow! And I was supposed to trump that?

I scratched my head, with scant respect to my bleeding scalp and blood-filled nails. See? That damn brand continues to haunt me even in my daytime dreams!

And then it struck me to turn the emotion around. The exhilaration of throwing yourself at Death’s feet. (Egad! Good Lord, protect those angels. Seems imminently like suicidal to me, don’t know about you!)

 Anyway, apparently these cats think they have nine lives, and throwing them one time too many isn’t going to do them in, you know what I mean?

So I gave them the “thrill” they were looking for, (good grief, son, you give me the jitters!) with the same scene of young devil-be-damned youth thrilled at the thought of meeting their Maker, and across angry rivers. But the headline...? No. You tell me what you think of it.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to it, nor do I see myself suicidal now or in the near future. But that didn’t stop me from wondering what it was they were feeling? And here is what I had to say. Write in and tell me what you think of this one:

Mountain Dew - Kauff nahi, mohabbat hai zindagi se

Loosely translated that would mean: Mountain Dew - It’s not fear, but that I’m in love with life.

Another feel-good ad shows the picture of Big Ethel, that’s right, of the Jughead and Ethel fame, showing her large buck teeth as she smiles so beautifully, with just two words saying everything: you don’t have to have a perfect set of teeth to have a winning smile. I call such a smile the “Colgate  muskaan” (the Colgate smile).