The Truth

I've always been bad at lying.

They get caught immediately. It shows on my face. So, I'll be honest about what I'm thinking while writing this now. The column deadline is tight. And they expect this to be biweekly? How amazing are people who do weekly serializations? Right now, I'm writing this manuscript alone late at night, crying. Well, that's a bit of a lie. I'm not actually crying.

Anyway, the biggest enemy advertising should be wary of might also be "lies." Of course, the content itself isn't lying, but I often feel like it can come across as insincere to the audience.

"Well, it's advertising, right?"

"Ads are obviously only going to say good things,"

That kind of reaction. It's not exactly taking things at face value, but it's definitely a significant handicap, right? Well, advertising requires you to praise yourself, which is basically the same as saying "I'm the best, right?" or "I'm so cool!"... Even if the product itself is genuinely good, it can still sound somewhat insincere. Conversely, if an ad comes across as timid, like "This is nothing special, but...", you'd probably think, "What's wrong with them?" This might be the inherent fate of advertising.

But even with that handicap, we still want to convey a product's strengths, move people's hearts, and leave something behind through our ads. To do that, I think it's crucial to pursue "truth" in the ad's message. Not just facts, but something people can truly believe in or empathize with from the bottom of their hearts. That kind of truth, or truthfulness. When that's solidly embedded in the expression, people naturally want to share it with others, right? That's when it seems likely to gain buzz or spread easily on social media.

I once wrote in a copy, "Most dreams don't come true." It's not something you usually say in advertising, but I thought I wouldn't trust someone who casually said, "Your dreams will come true someday." I've lived quite a few years myself, and so far, I haven't experienced a dream coming true. I believe the positive response on social media came because there was no lie in that statement.

Compared to other media, the internet is a world of honesty. If you speak only in platitudes, people see right through you. And as things get shared and retweeted, you get not just positive opinions but negative ones too. That's precisely why you need a message strong enough to withstand a little criticism. Ultimately, the only way to never get caught lying is to not lie in the first place.

From my own experience, copy usually fails when you try too hard to make it sound good. It's more important to find the product's strengths than to hype it up. It's less about creating something and more about "finding the truth." That's why I question everything during the creative process.

Is this element really important?

Conversely, is it okay not to mention this?

Will this explanation really make it clear?

Will this copy move people?

I can't come up with a single good idea—is that okay?

Maybe I'm just not cut out for this job...

The more I think about it, the more I tend to get down on myself. But if your foundation isn't solid, you're bound to feel uneasy, right? So I try to be careful not to just swallow whole what people say, the rules, common sense, the basic assumptions, or all the circumstances.

Of course, no matter how much you think about it, there's no single right answer. But in the end, we just have to decide somewhere deep down that this is what we need to convey, and put it out there for the world to judge. So, we doubt, doubt, and doubt some more. To find something we can truly believe in. If we come to believe in it strongly that way, that feeling should be "the truth."

Man, I'm writing something unusually serious here. My true self just slipped out...