Years back, my wife and I watched a film about China.
Mao Zedong and ‘the Gang of Four’ had been responsible for the ‘cultural revolution’.
They’d thrown anyone remotely influenced by western culture into prison.
But Mao Zedong had recently died.
Deng Xiao Ping had taken over and was busy undoing the damage.
One of the areas the Chinese began studying again was western classical music.
They invited one of the world’s best violinists, Jasha Heifetz, to come to China to judge their students’ progress.
That was the basis of the film.
To impress Heifetz the teachers got their best students to learn the most difficult piece of music.
A very complicated piece for violin by Paganini.
As Heifetz listened, each of the students played it for him.
Their concentration was total, they’d practiced for weeks.
As each one finished the teacher asked Heifetz what he thought.
Heifetz said “It’s very good.”
The teacher asked if he could suggest any improvement.
Heifetz said “Could they try it with a little more feeling?”
The teacher and the students were flummoxed.
The teacher asked “Which notes were wrong?”
Heifetz said “No notes were wrong.”
The teacher asked “Then what could they do better?”
Heifetz said “Could they try it with a bit more…..feeling?”
The teacher and the students didn’t understand, and Heifetz didn’t know how to explain it.
Next to me my wife was laughing.
She’s Chinese, she’s from Singapore.
She said “They don’t understand what he’s talking about. They don’t know what ‘feeling’ means. They only know if it’s right or wrong.”
Cathy understood the problem, it was why she’d left Singapore.
She wanted to go to art school and in those days there were no art schools.
Students should be studying something useful: learning to be doctors, or accountants, or scientists, or lawyers.
She had to come to England to go to art school.
Her dad allowed it because she was only a girl.
He thought she didn’t need a serious career like a boy would.
And that’s why Cathy was laughing at the film.
Having lived in the west she knew how important feelings are in art.
Intuition, empathy, judgement, emotion, impact, memorability.
But the Chinese, students and teachers, couldn’t understand it.
Surely logic and reason ruled over everything.
So, if everything can be broken down into logic, you can spot exactly which notes are wrong, and what must be done to fix them.
To us this seems naïve: a very odd way to create powerful music.
But that’s exactly how we create advertising.
We are suckers for logic and numbers.
We take impact out and put targeting in.
We take persuasion out and put brand-purpose in.
We’re incapable of standing back and saying “Hang on, is something missing? Is it all getting a bit boring?
Is it all the same? Will anyone even notice it?”
We don’t do that because we’re doing advertising the way the Chinese students learned the violin.
Ironic coming from Heifetz as the only thing he was every criticized for was that his playing was so precise as to lack emotion. This passage is from one of his biographies and has been widely quoted:
“As a technician he had no superior, and, of all the artists of his time and later, only two or three could even offer a challenge to his electrifying precision of execution. His diamond-point tone and quick vibrato afforded his playing a clarity of line that some felt was almost too perfect, even cold. Most conductors and other violinists — and audiences — felt differently…”
I’m not sure when Heifetz received this criticism or if it ever had any validity, but I suspect it crossed his mind when he critiqued the Chinese performers.
At any rate I’ve been listening to The Heifetz Collection recently (without any complaints) so this story was timely and greatly appreciated.
Empathy and emotion are what makes the best work great. I defy anyone not to read David Abbott’s Chivas Regal ad and not be moved by it. Because it’s not about how long the whisky’s been in the barrel, or how peaty the water is. It’s about a father’s love, and why he deserves only the best.
Of course, that’s a rightly famous ad. But there’s a small spot for J&J, showing a young mother bathing her baby in the kitchen sink, lots of splashing and laughter and joy. And the V/O says, ‘Who would ever have thought that the love of your life would be short and bald?’
Empathy and emotion get my vote every time.
I remember reading an add for life belts. You had to hold your breath while reading about drowning, long copy..It’s as close as I ever want to come to drowning . Brill stuff.
ps …never post after four Leffes.
One of my fav ads of all time was a print ad for Mercedes selling their latest model. The ad had an old man in his nineties standing by his old 50’s Merc and the headline said “I love the new Mercedes xxx but I still haven’t finish with my old one! A headline as beautiful as his classic Merc.