The Torrid Forty.

I have a bit of patter that I use with clients. 

Just because it's patter doesn't mean it's bullshit.

I repeat my spiel, not because I'm glib, but because as obvious as it is to me, it hasn't occurred to many other people.

I usually start this way: "When I started in the business, there were a lot of magazines and newspapers. If you were working on a fast-moving consumer good, say Grey Poupon mustard or A-1 Steak Sauce like I did, you and your partner would be given a week or two to create three print campaigns of three ads each to present to the client.

"There were the seven sisters magazines in those days. Women's books, like McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens. We did ads to fill these magazines and to move our clients products.

"Back in 1980, their combined circulation was 45 million. By 1990, it was just 37 million. And by 2008, the seven were down to six, and the circulation was only 26 million. Today, just three of the magazines are left and their circulation is likely less than the printed version of my blog.

"We presented our campaigns to a battery of clients. After a couple of months of bi-weekly presentations and revisions, we eventually sold something. After another couple of months, we'd have shot, written and produced our ads and another couple of months later, they'd start to run.

"In those days, a campaign might include three ads and last a year and a half. If you were on a popular campaign, you might have to go through all that for another round. Three more ads. Most often, you had already moved onto something else."

If my client hasn't run out of the room screaming at this point, I'll usually continue.

"Somehow, the agency world has stuck with the number three. Even though there are a million channels today and advertising is always on, and people actually get pissed when they see the same ad over and over, agencies seem to present three ads or five or eight. Never really enough to keep a brand fresh and top of mind without being annoying."

That when I usually bring up an offering GeorgeCo., LLC, a Delaware Company developed. 

I got the idea when I worked with Joe Alexander and Cabell Harris and a few others on this corona virus campaign. 

The assignment wasn't to do an ad. It was come up with a way to be newsy and way to be different and relevant every day.

That led me to develop my Nifty Fifty™. Going into my sixth year of running GeorgeCo., it's become my second most popular offering.

It gives the clients a lot of ads. And lines they can use wherever they spread their brand. Their emails, their site, their sales-presentations.

There are three other things the Nifty Fifty does that I think are valuable and should be pointed out.

One, when you're dealing with increments of fifty, it takes away some of the preciousness that has somehow attached itself to advertising. People (agencies and clients) have so many expectations from an ad when they only do a couple, that they usually crumble under the weight of everything they're supposed to be doing and every constituency they're supposed to appeal to. 

What's more there are usually a dozen or so idiosyncrasies that further sully the work. Like someone doesn't like the word "get," or wants to imply "hamburger" without actually saying the word hamburger because that would be too limiting.

Finally, you can rightfully argue that working this way allows clients to be small-c catholic--more accepting. So what you don't like Tuesday's ad? There will be another ad on Wednesday. 

Secondly, when you're dealing with doing fifty ads at a time, the brief has to be complicit. It has to be good and simple and broad (not esoteric) otherwise you'll never get to fifty.

Good, simple and broad doesn't mean beige. It means the brief has to be able to handle a lot of selling points. 

The VW template below is a good one for Nifty Fifty's. It explains in part how DDB was able to create so many great ads for Volkswagen through the decades.

The third thing the Nifty Fifty does is maybe the most important. 

It unconstipates you.

When you have to come up with fifty of something, you have to train yourself to be more accepting. To let a joke fly even if it ain't a barn-burner. Or a word-play. Or a news item. 

That joke, word-play or news items isn't 33% of your campaign. If you're doing fifty, it's 2% of your work. That'll loosen the ol' sphincter in a good way.

Call me.