Staying in touch with the common man in a taxi to Cannes

In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ralph van Dijk says we need to pay attention to what our intended audiences have to say, a lesson reinforced by a taxi driver in Cannes.

ralph van dijk
I always talk to taxi drivers. They’re economic barometers, radio experts and occasionally, voiceover stars.

They also possess a rare but valuable commodity – they don’t give a flying Falcon about advertising (although one I met recently received rapturous applause on stage at Cannes this year – but more on that later).

They represent the typical consumers who accept the ads-for-entertainment trade-off, but certainly won’t go out of their way to understand obscure creative and absolutely resent any Waterhousian examples of insidious brandwashing. They’ll skip, swipe, cross-out and fast forward whenever possible. But if they can’t avoid the ads, they’d prefer you just got to the point in an interesting way.

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