$7 million pays for a lot of annoyance

1984, by Apple.

It’s a noisy world. There are two ways to be heard.

First way: Say something loud. Say it a lot. Shout and scream. Fill people’s inboxes over and over. Create ads that pop up and intrude. Annoy.

Second way: Say something interesting. Say it to a few people who trust you. See if they’ll tell a few other people. Soon everyone is talking about it.

The first way is expensive. And I don’t just mean the cost of advertising. I mean the price you pay by annoying 100 people for every individual that responds.

The second way is cheap. But it demands creativity and originality.

As you watch the SuperBowl ads, see who said something interesting. Yes, those spots cost $7 million each. But the ones that shout are creating $7 million of annoyance, and the ones that intrigue are creating hundreds of millions of dollars of resonance.

How may were interesting enough that they could have done that without spending the $7 million?

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