**FURRY FRIENDS**

In my J452 class, we are reading “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It is about how to make ideas “stick.” The first chapter is about making your idea simple. A good idea is way harder to make stick if it’s complicated. However, it’s not just about saying something in a simple sentence. Heath and Heath point out that there are compact messages that are lies (e.g. the earth is flat), messages that are irrelevant (e.g. corn is yellow) and messages that are ill-advised (e.g. drink vodka every hour). Messages have to have a core, in addition to being compact. Simple = core + compact.

One example in the book included Southwest Airlines being THE low-faire airline. They do not approve any change unless it conforms with the idea of them being THE low-faire airline (e.g. not supplying chicken ceaser salad on the flight because it would raise the fiare).

My favorite example was the idea of decision paralysis. An eample of this is the study conducted where they surveyed college students, giving one oviously more attractive answer, then giving two attractive answers. When there were two attractive answers to choose from, twice as many students - 40 percent - chose the unattractive answer: decision paralysis.

Another example, or really it’s more of an analogy, is that a simple message is like a proverb. In the book it says, “proverbs are the Holy Grail of simplicity.” Proverbs are not advertised or purposfully spread about, they just do spread because they are so catchy and so simple.

When you think about it, every great advertising campain is based on getting across one key simple message. If you (eat, drink, do, use) this you’ll (get, be like) this: If you drink pepsi, you’ll be cool; if you use trojan condoms, you’ll get girls; if you drink budwieser, you’ll be more manly.