Goliath Lost

Advertising is about telling stories; happy stories, the ones that make you feel good; sad stories, the ones that make you emotional; motivating stories, the ones that get you up and moving. 

What does that mean to a writer in advertising? You need to know how to write: write all kinds of stories, evoke all kinds of feelings with your stories, understand all kinds of culture to appeal to all kinds of people to evoke all kinds of feelings with your stories.
And that, is no Mini Goliath.

David. Goliath. David? Or Goliath? It’s not always easy to know which one I am. One single stone makes the difference between laying defeated under the victor and standing victorious over the defeated. 

But I do like cars. 

I once heard that a great new idea is just the re-combination of existing elements. Stories are the same. David and Goliath is classic story. It has been told and retold a hundred times and then a hundred times again. Today we call it the story of the underdog and the stories keep grabbing our interest by simply rearranging the basic elements. Let’s see if I remember the original underdog story correctly. David, a shepherd, heard about the Philistine army and the giant-of-a-man, Goliath. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Four smooth stones slip from the riverbed into David’s pocket. 

Five. The fifth stays in his hand. 

Sling meets stone, stone meets Goliath, Goliath meets his match. 

I know what it feels like to be the underdog, to be up against the odds, facing a challenge or multiple challenges that all seem unconquerable. 

Goliath Lost.

David lost.

While only one is historically correct, both phrases are equally present in the story of my life. Even when I do overcome, it feels nothing like the heroic story of David. There are times that I feel I have emptied my own riverbed of not just the rocks and stones, but of anything even remotely similar to them: sticks, glass bottles, fish, frogs. If it can be thrown: it has been.

The whole idea of the underdog winning against a formidable foe is, in itself, Outside the Bun Thinking. For me, my bun is a lack of self-confidence. Time has made this bun old and stale; hard as a riverbed stone. Not quite the easiest medium to get ‘outside’ of. I have thought a lot about where this lack of self-confidence comes from. What are its flour, water, and yeast. Mostly, it comes down to a few of those “David Lost” stories. Not just any “David Lost” stories though, but the ones that should have ended with David as the victor. In retrospect, maybe they ended the way they did because of a personal failure to Think Outside the Bun when faced with something that seemed bigger than my ability to overcome. We do though find ways to overcome our challenges.

Today, I am in the BYU Adlab, a hub of advertising activity in the Brimhall Building. Over the past several months this place has become my second home. You could say that I have become Fully Invested in what goes on in that place. It is where I invest most of my time, most of my energy, and whatever talent I have. It is an investment in the story of my future. All my effort is spent with the hope that the Outside the Bun ideas that lead to the David beats Goliath stories will better prepare me for my future in an industry built by the stories it tells.

The lab is filled with advertisements; stories that have been told by others. Stories originally based on pop culture, taken, retold, and sent back to define pop culture. 

It is hard to live life Fully Invested. Where and how and when do we Fully Invest ourselves in what and why? A Mini will do 141 mph, but not without sacrificing fuel economy Life needs balance, and that has a lot to do with us.

How did David do it? Only figuratively could he have stood face-to-face with his challenge. Literally, it would be more correct to say that he stood face-to-knee or face-to-waist with Goliath.

I am flooded with questions.

Am I involved enough? 

Will my work be good enough?

Even if it is good, will it be what people are looking for?

Am I spreading myself too thin?

Do I have enough balance in my life, am I well rounded?

And the questions go on. 

Then words of wisdom: Keep calm and carry on.

It is nice to remind myself of a few basic facts. 1)Happily, life is not just a sad story. 2) Sadly, it isn’t always a happy story. 3) Life has a lot of balance that comes standard. 

Finding the balance in life is one of the biggest Goliaths that we face. Honestly, that is my favorite part of life: it is an adventure. 

Advertising is seen as clutter. It is seen as annoying. It is everything people dislike about capitalism. 

To me, advertising is overlooked. 

Today, in the four pieces of advertising I can see from where I am sitting, I have learned the secret to David’s victory over Goliath...