Advertising Advice from Gary Cooper.

If you're reading my blog, my guess is you're probably too young to know the great American actor, Gary Cooper. Today's recency bias somehow stops people knowing anything about anything that happened before last Tuesday. That explains a man with an eight-second attention span deciding on a whim to invade an eight-thousand year old civilization.

MATH INTERLUDE:

So far the pentafake estimates the non-war has cost us $48,000,000,000. It was begun to distract us from the 38,000 times tump was mentioned in a dossier essentially about child rape. So $48B divided by 38K mentions equals $1,263,157.895/distraction.

But back to the topic at hand.

To be fair, though I'm as old as basalt, Cooper was big before my time. I grew to love him because I love old movies. And Cooper starred in one of my top-ten movies of all-time, "High Noon." Maybe the greatest Western ever, or second, edged out by George Stevens' "Shane."

Cooper was famously "laconic." That is he didn't speak much. When people impersonated him as they did, usually the impersonations consisted of someone saying little more than "yup" or "nope."

This short scene between Cooper and Katy Jurado is a pretty good example of Cooper's style. As John Wayne said once as acting advice: "Talk low. Talk slow. Don't say too much." You'll see that wisdom in action, above.

So many people in our world today, in advertising and just about everything else, seem to be intent on being like everyone else. Months ago, I wrote in this space about Alex Murrell's excellent essay, "The Age of Average." 

Murrell writes,

What gets noticed in the world, and in advertising (which used to be part of the world) is standing out and being different. Not going with the flow and agreeing with the most senior person in the room. Not not questioning the dominant complacency. And never balking against following "best practices" when tautologically that means you're doing something that's already been done by someone else.

About two decades ago when Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In," was on everyone's night-table (though I'd guess no one actually read it) about 98-percent of all planners used the phrase "lean in" in about 98-percent of all their sentences. 

I was in a meeting and one senior planner asserted that at night people go home, turn on the TV and "lean in" to watch. Everyone went along with that. It's like getting popcorn when you're at the movies. It's what you're supposed to do.

After a second, I could take it no longer.

I said, "I dunno, Andrea. I'm old. When I get home at night, I'm beat. The last thing I want to do is do. I don't want to lean in. All I want to do is watch the Knicks and lean the fuck out."

In any event, the other night I saw this clip on YouTube of Gary Cooper not following Gary Cooper-best-practices. It makes me laugh like very little makes me laugh.

It's funny what happens when you break character. 

It's funny what happens when you do something different.

It's funny when you call a dog a cat and a cat a duck and a duck a turtle.

It makes children laugh.

And even people.

Where I come from, laughing is good.

Though it's no longer best practices.

BONUS COOPER MENTION @ 1:06.