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In his book *Deviating from the Norm*, Werner Gaede explains how successful advertising works
In his book "Deviating from the Norm", Werner Gaede shows how successful advertising worksBy Andreas Panzeri Creative solutions are realized by breaking the rules, by deviating from the norm. Berlin-based Werner Gaede explains how this is done in a book with over 4,000 examples on 760 pages.
"The theory of breaking the rules, of deviating from the norm, is undisputed in theory and practice. But no one has yet answered the question: Which norms are broken in creative advertising and how?" writes Werner Gaede in the introduction to his book "Deviating from the Norm". He taught verbal communication and verbal design as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. Today he is emeritus, "but still active". And very well-read, as his book's record-breaking collection of quotes and wisdom of all kinds on the nature of communication shows.
Gaede scatters these suggestions with a great sense of association among the more than 4,000 examples from advertising, which have been collected on the 760 pages of his comprehensive "bible" not only as documents, but above all as a very rich treasure trove of ideas. "There are books that you merely taste, others that you devour, others finally - but there are only a few - that you have to chew and digest, so to speak," Gaede quotes Francis Bacon (1561-1626).
Only the knowledge of the rule enables the deviation
In Gaede's book, however, the reader must first find out how such digestion works in a rather new sense. Unlike conventional textbooks, the reader is not guided by a continuous running text. True to Bert Brecht's recipe "You have to learn from the old to make something new", Gaede provides a collection of material for further exploration of the questions posed, rather than his own ideas that have been thought through to the end.
"This book is intended to guide and stimulate! It is not a closed system, but an open one. That's why it contains a large number of examples; they demonstrate how to do it," says the author, explaining the unconventional form of his textbook, in which the reader is initially faced with the choice on each page of whether to read the quote at the top left, the headline at the bottom right or perhaps the table in the middle, the theorems in the large box or perhaps the basic considerations in the small box first.
However, the longer one struggles through these multi-layered pages, the more one becomes captivated by the constantly new contexts that open up. Creativity is "the ability to see new relationships, to produce unusual ideas and ideas and to deviate from conventional thought patterns", Gaede could be quoted as saying about this interactive form of reading. He is even clearer in his summary: "The best books are the ones that everyone thinks they could have made themselves."
However, a reader could hardly have compiled the examples from the history of communication and advertising found around the globe that Gaede presents for study in his great work. "Theories without examples are like examples without theories," he explains the meticulous documentary style of his textbook. The communication scientist comments on all examples as implemented ideas based on certain rules. However, Gaede usually starts from the back when he says: "Knowledge of these rules enables a better, more conscious violation of these rules and norms. Only those who know the norms can find the deviations."
How a flop illustrates a creative surprise
For Gaede, every advertiser must assume that around 95 percent of contacts are made with a low-involvement audience. This means that only two to five percent of the information offered is noticed. For this reason, Gaede's solution is always to deviate from the norm. This increases attention. It activates the target person. Or to quote Umberto Eco: "Together with the emotional component, the aesthetic component is certainly the most important. Advertising is governed by the baroque precept: the poet's intention is to amaze." Those who prefer a more everyday formulation will find the following sentence in "Deviation": "Before Fosbury, no one had thought that the high jump could be performed in any other way than from the front." Or in other words: strawberries with green pepper instead of cream and sugar as before.
In this sense, the book is conceived as a "catalog of norms". It repeatedly culminates in the message: "Creative advertising can only be created if rules are broken, if you deviate from norms. Inventing a purple cow, for example." Or as Richard Strauss said during rehearsals for his opera "Salome": "Courage, gentlemen, the more wrong it sounds, the more right it is." Behind all these rule-breaking, however, it is essential to stick to the rule: "You can only be successful in the long term if you know why you are successful."
Gaede, who studied German, journalism and theater studies, has gained the basis for all of these considerations "in advertising practice" during various professional engagements, for example at Stern and the Hamburg agencies Lintas and McCann. Werner Gaede is also an honorary member of the Art Directors Club Germany. 26 agencies have supported the book and are each featured on one page with an advertisement on the subject of deviation.
"Deviating from the norm" is suitable for both copywriters and visual designers. True to the motto: "There is nothing more practical than a good theory", Gaede naturally summarizes his collected documents scientifically time and again. For copywriters, there are various interesting passages in the book, in which the numerous possible variations with language and its deformations and alienations are dealt with. True to the insight of a certain Rudyard Kipling, who said: "Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind", various chapters deal with topics such as youth languages, vulgarism, dialect, foreign words, rare words, new words and word mixtures such as wave kissing or Schweppstase, as well as scientifically analyzing phrases such as "pocket book an entertaining vacation". Gaede describes vertical extensions, for example: "Tio Pepe. Just drinking nothing is drier."
"The true poets of our time are in the advertising agencies," he says, as the playwright Tennessee Williams flattered him with such ideas.
For visual designers, there is also talk of redundancy norms or association norms, image-headline relationships, norms of image communication or typographic norms.
As befits a professor, the book is supplemented with a very extensive bibliography. And if this review has perhaps included a few more quotations than usual, then Werner Gaede should be mentioned again here at the end - with an explanation on his book jacket: "No one should say that I have reported nothing new. The arrangement of the material was new."
Werner Gaede: "Abweichen von der Norm", Wirtschaftsverlag Langen Müller/Herbig, Munich. 760 pages, ISBN 3-777844-7416-0.
"The theory of breaking the rules, of deviating from the norm, is undisputed in theory and practice. But no one has yet answered the question: Which norms are broken in creative advertising and how?" writes Werner Gaede in the introduction to his book "Deviating from the Norm". He taught verbal communication and verbal design as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. Today he is emeritus, "but still active". And very well-read, as his book's record-breaking collection of quotes and wisdom of all kinds on the nature of communication shows.
Gaede scatters these suggestions with a great sense of association among the more than 4,000 examples from advertising, which have been collected on the 760 pages of his comprehensive "bible" not only as documents, but above all as a very rich treasure trove of ideas. "There are books that you merely taste, others that you devour, others finally - but there are only a few - that you have to chew and digest, so to speak," Gaede quotes Francis Bacon (1561-1626).
Only the knowledge of the rule enables the deviation
In Gaede's book, however, the reader must first find out how such digestion works in a rather new sense. Unlike conventional textbooks, the reader is not guided by a continuous running text. True to Bert Brecht's recipe "You have to learn from the old to make something new", Gaede provides a collection of material for further exploration of the questions posed, rather than his own ideas that have been thought through to the end.
"This book is intended to guide and stimulate! It is not a closed system, but an open one. That's why it contains a large number of examples; they demonstrate how to do it," says the author, explaining the unconventional form of his textbook, in which the reader is initially faced with the choice on each page of whether to read the quote at the top left, the headline at the bottom right or perhaps the table in the middle, the theorems in the large box or perhaps the basic considerations in the small box first.
However, the longer one struggles through these multi-layered pages, the more one becomes captivated by the constantly new contexts that open up. Creativity is "the ability to see new relationships, to produce unusual ideas and ideas and to deviate from conventional thought patterns", Gaede could be quoted as saying about this interactive form of reading. He is even clearer in his summary: "The best books are the ones that everyone thinks they could have made themselves."
However, a reader could hardly have compiled the examples from the history of communication and advertising found around the globe that Gaede presents for study in his great work. "Theories without examples are like examples without theories," he explains the meticulous documentary style of his textbook. The communication scientist comments on all examples as implemented ideas based on certain rules. However, Gaede usually starts from the back when he says: "Knowledge of these rules enables a better, more conscious violation of these rules and norms. Only those who know the norms can find the deviations."
How a flop illustrates a creative surprise
For Gaede, every advertiser must assume that around 95 percent of contacts are made with a low-involvement audience. This means that only two to five percent of the information offered is noticed. For this reason, Gaede's solution is always to deviate from the norm. This increases attention. It activates the target person. Or to quote Umberto Eco: "Together with the emotional component, the aesthetic component is certainly the most important. Advertising is governed by the baroque precept: the poet's intention is to amaze." Those who prefer a more everyday formulation will find the following sentence in "Deviation": "Before Fosbury, no one had thought that the high jump could be performed in any other way than from the front." Or in other words: strawberries with green pepper instead of cream and sugar as before.
In this sense, the book is conceived as a "catalog of norms". It repeatedly culminates in the message: "Creative advertising can only be created if rules are broken, if you deviate from norms. Inventing a purple cow, for example." Or as Richard Strauss said during rehearsals for his opera "Salome": "Courage, gentlemen, the more wrong it sounds, the more right it is." Behind all these rule-breaking, however, it is essential to stick to the rule: "You can only be successful in the long term if you know why you are successful."
Gaede, who studied German, journalism and theater studies, has gained the basis for all of these considerations "in advertising practice" during various professional engagements, for example at Stern and the Hamburg agencies Lintas and McCann. Werner Gaede is also an honorary member of the Art Directors Club Germany. 26 agencies have supported the book and are each featured on one page with an advertisement on the subject of deviation.
"Deviating from the norm" is suitable for both copywriters and visual designers. True to the motto: "There is nothing more practical than a good theory", Gaede naturally summarizes his collected documents scientifically time and again. For copywriters, there are various interesting passages in the book, in which the numerous possible variations with language and its deformations and alienations are dealt with. True to the insight of a certain Rudyard Kipling, who said: "Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind", various chapters deal with topics such as youth languages, vulgarism, dialect, foreign words, rare words, new words and word mixtures such as wave kissing or Schweppstase, as well as scientifically analyzing phrases such as "pocket book an entertaining vacation". Gaede describes vertical extensions, for example: "Tio Pepe. Just drinking nothing is drier."
"The true poets of our time are in the advertising agencies," he says, as the playwright Tennessee Williams flattered him with such ideas.
For visual designers, there is also talk of redundancy norms or association norms, image-headline relationships, norms of image communication or typographic norms.
As befits a professor, the book is supplemented with a very extensive bibliography. And if this review has perhaps included a few more quotations than usual, then Werner Gaede should be mentioned again here at the end - with an explanation on his book jacket: "No one should say that I have reported nothing new. The arrangement of the material was new."
Werner Gaede: "Abweichen von der Norm", Wirtschaftsverlag Langen Müller/Herbig, Munich. 760 pages, ISBN 3-777844-7416-0.
