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# Kelford Labs Daily: Committee meeting advertising
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/kelford-labs-daily-committee-meeting-advertising/
- Published: 2023-12-01T11:24:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-27T17:22:52.000Z
- Description: When everyone gets their way, the customer doesn’t.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, advertising, clarity, focus, messaging, customers, books

*“Many commercials and many advertisements look like the minutes of a committee.”*

— David Ogilvy, *Ogilvy on Advertising*

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**And isn’t that the truth?**

When I worked in advertising agencies, before starting my own strategy firm, this “committee effect” would be the most frustrating thing I’d encounter.

This person needs this specific thing in the ad. This other person needs this other specific thing. The fact that they contradict or distract from each other is somehow less important than the fact that each person gets their way.

It’s always in someone’s interests to have *their thing* in the ad, but it’s seemingly in no one’s interest to have the ad *work*.

**If it were, people would be clamoring to remove things, not add them.**

The *fewer* things in our ads, the better they’ll work.

The *fewer* people we target, the more that’ll see it.

The *fewer* things we ask people to do, the more that’ll do it.

Don’t let your ads look like the minutes of a committee.

Make them look like the most important thing to your organization is your *customer*.

**Because when everyone inside our organization gets their way—and gets their say—the customer *doesn’t*.**

🧠

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