In 1942, the Blitzkrieg was in full force, Russia was flooded with German armour.
They needed to find a way to stop the tanks, fast.
But the Russian air force had been destroyed and they didn’t have enough anti-tank guns.
If only they could think of another way to destroy the tanks.
Then someone had a great idea.
Man’s best friend would do anything to please his master.
Dogs.
If they could train dogs to carry explosives, the dogs would take it exactly wherever they were trained to go.
Right onto the German tanks.
A dog would do whatever it had been trained to do without thinking.
It made perfect sense.
Of course the dog would die, but they had plenty more.
So they began training dogs to carry packages strapped to their backs.
They trained the dogs to carry the explosives right onto the tanks.
Eventually the dogs did it perfectly every time.
Recognising the tank and carrying the package right onto it.
Then they took the dogs into battle.
They let the dogs loose on the German tanks.
The dogs ran towards the German tanks, but then they stopped.
They put their noses in the air and sniffed.
Then they turned around and ran towards the Russian tanks.
Carrying their explosives exactly into their most vulnerable place.
Dozens of Russian tanks exploded along with the dogs.
The German tanks carried on advancing, unharmed.
The Russians were forced to retreat, the plan was a failure.
What happened?
The dogs had been trained on Russian tanks.
Russian tanks ran on diesel, German tanks ran on petrol.
Diesel has a different smell to petrol.
The dogs did exactly what they thought their masters wanted.
They’d been trained to carry explosives onto tanks smelling of diesel.
But that was Russian tanks not German tanks.
The Russians hadn’t bothered thinking what was important to dogs.
The smell of petrol versus diesel wasn’t important to the trainers.
So it never occurred to them it would be important to dogs.
But to a dog, the sense of smell is far more important than sight.
It went wrong because the handlers only thought of themselves.
So they didn’t communicate what they wanted.
They thought they were communicating the sight of a tank.
But the dogs thought they were being trained to attack a smell.
The Russians weren’t talking to their audience, they were just talking to themselves.
We do that.
We do that when we write advertising that amuses us rather than thinking what works for our audience.
When we concentrate solely on using the latest cutting-edge video technique, or the latest music track, because it appeals to us.
When we execute a strategy just because it mirrors something we read in an IPA case history.
Rather than using our brain.
Finding out who our audience is, and what appeals to them.
When we don’t think what they want, we only think what we want.
And just like the Russian dogs, it blows up in our faces.
Thank you, I will think about this column EVERY TIME I see a Blake Griffin Kia commercial.
Trouble is nearly all the oiks have got themselves a university education these days.
I don’t think the Russians or anyone would be able to have an idea like this today in the first place with the welfare of animals now front of mind in society. The story also reminds me of when I went to Duxford as a young boy with my father. Apart from going on Concorde, which was something unaffordable, we also saw an anti aircraft gun. What stuck in my mind was a story that was told but I don’t know how true it is. The British couldn’t understand why the Germans had such an effective anti-tank gun. It was only after they realised that they actually had the same weapon, it was just that the Germans had used the same gun the British were using for aircrafts to fire at tanks. What stuck in my mind is that we often get told that something has one purpose, is used for one thing and we don’t ever question it. When we do, we often get great results. Thanks again Dave your articles are always brilliant!
Geordie,
The German gun was the 88mm anti-aircraft gun.
At Dunkirk the British tanks were attacking and the Germans didn’t have anything powerful enough to penetrate their armour.
Heinz Guderian told them to lower the elevation on their anti-aircraft guns (the 88mm).
It blew the British tanks apart and became the best anti-tank gun of the war.
as you say, using one thing for another.
The Russians did a similar thing.
Having no powerful anti-tank guns they used their howitzers on the German tanks.
Again, they blew them apart.
As you say, we should always keep an open mind to possibilities.