“If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.”

George S. Patton, General U. S. Army

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

"The ancestor of every action is thought."

Emerson

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought."

Buddha

"When you are not told what to do you begin to think what to do."

Roger Cohen, Op-Ed Columnist New York Times

"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."

Voltaire

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

"You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think."

Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course

"Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?"

Winnie the Pooh

"Time to think matters ─ at least if we’re interested in getting the answers right."

Stephen L. Carter

"Thinking is always out of order, interrupts all ordinary activities and is interrupted by them."

Hannah Arendt, Life of the Mind

"Too often we…enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

John F. Kennedy

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

Will Durant

"Thinking is like living and dying. Each of us must do it for himself."

Josiah Royce

"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory."

G. Behn

"The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

Albert Einstein

"Pursuing our thoughts in silent contemplation takes an investment in time that few can spare."

Stephen L. Carter

"A moment’s thinking is an hour in words."

Thomas Hood

"Sometimes I think and other times I am."

Paul, Variete: Cantiques spirituels 192

"To think is to differ."

Darrow

"To think is to live."

Cicero

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

William Jones

"What we think, we become."

Buddha

"Our job is not to make up anybody’s mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of the decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking."

Anonymous

"The person who thinks before he speaks is silent most of the time."

Anonymous

"Think ─ and you will be very lonely."

Anonymous

"Thought is action in rehearsal."

Anonymous

"We live in a world that leaves very little time to contemplate."

Anonymous

"Don’t worry too much about what people think because they seldom do."

Anonymous

"Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest."

Anonymous

"One cannot think crooked and walk straight."

Anonymous

"Think Differently + Do Things Differently = Better Results"

Anonymous

August 12, 2013

Six Seconds to Make Your Case

Tags: Promotion,

Driving is getting more hazardous by the minute. And in my case it isn’t just the incessant cell phone calls that are making me drift. It’s also my fascination with billboards and the need to critique every one along the way. Read. Comprehend. Edit. (Whoops!).

There are a lot of terrible billboards out there, as I’m sure you know. The biggest offenders are the cluttered ones: too much copy, multiple images (which means you can’t make out any of them), similar colors that render them unreadable. Too much (or too little) of what you need to get across an impactful, memorable message.

Then you have the billboards that are a bit too clever. So clever you have no idea what they’re selling. Considering that drivers only have a scant six seconds on average to read your message, I don’t recommend too clever.

The “greats” design by the numbers: six seconds, six words. Harder than you think.

Billboards are a secondary advertising medium, great for building brand awareness, supporting a campaign, giving directions, or promoting an upcoming “something.”

Believe it or not, the oldest known billboard was an ad posted in the Egyptian city of Thebes over 3,000 years ago (nubianslavesforhire.com).

But it was the invention of lithography in 1794, a novel etching technique invented by a struggling German actor and playwright that made it possible to produce large scale paper posters. Circuses eventually got into the act promoting their oddities, producing some of the most incredible Museum-quality poster art you’ll ever see.

But the first known bill or poster “rental”  what we know today as billboard space  wasn’t until 1867. And almost 100 hundred years and thousands of billboards later, Lady Bird Johnson got behind the Highway Beautification Act that limited the number and location of billboards across America (but also lined the highways with gorgeous wildflowers).

Billboards have kept up with the times – from paper, to plastic sheets, to electronic, and now digital. Flat is still the standard but more-and-more you see designs with moving parts, interactive features, and 3D appliques like the Chick-fil-A graffiti artist cows ("EAT MOR CHIKIN”)

And considering that the average American spends about 2.5 hours each day driving (nearly 18 hours per week), and is stuck in traffic almost 38 hours a year, billboards seem like a good place to allocate some of your marketing dollars if your customers are on the move.

Since establishing Alvaré in 1981, Anita has guided the agency through 38 years of steady growth and success. A marketing communications entrepreneur who has done it all, she remains deeply involved in strategic planning and creative direction, bringing extensive knowledge and insight to each client project.

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