“It’s not going to happen overnight. You got to keep pushing. And then it happens.”
– Joe Sedelmaier, Advertising legend behind “Where’s The Beef?” in a recent Advertising Age Opinion page story
The story ran under the headline “Why The Execution Of An Idea Is More Important Than The Idea Itself.” What does that mean? Well, let’s just say that “fluffy bun” was the idea, and “Where’s The Beef?” was the execution.
The DailyDiff (with apologies for an unplanned two-week hiatus) has long held that ideas are not only the currency of Difference Makers but that ideas are the currency of commerce. That philosophy holds. There is danger, however, in getting so married to the idea — to the concept — that not enough attention is given to the execution of the idea.
Think Mitt Romney. Had his idea about how important it would be to point out that 47% of Americans in 2012 were net recipients of government been given some time to percolate and evolve, it might have been the reason he became president, instead of the reason he didn’t.
Joe Sedelmaier had previously found Clara Peller, and knew he wanted her for Wendy’s “fluffy bun” ad. Clara couldn’t say the whole line that Joe asked her to recite — so, instead we got this. (P. S. If I run the video link twice, it’s a strong encouragement to click on it….just sayin’…)
The idea is still in there. It is, after all a big bun. A “big, fluffy bun,” in fact.
But the execution took it from an ad that sold hamburgers to an ad that changed the profession of advertising for a time. To an ad that made a difference. Clara was gone just three years after “Where’s The Beef” debuted in 1984 — so we can only imagine where the campaign could have ultimately taken us. Think of the ideas we could come up with out of that brainstorming-with-a-couple-cocktails session!
Yes, ideas are the currency of commerce. But, it’s not enough that we know the currency. Learning how to spend it, to invest it, to deploy it — the execution of the idea —that’s where the Difference gets made.
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