The Structure of Voice

Persistence does pay off.

I came across this blog the other day entitled Ad Structure. The purpose of this blog is to analyze advertising, brands, communications, and marketing strategies towards…wait for it…Colombians/ Latin Americans!

Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly like mine, but it’s pretty close. Although it doesn’t talk about Asian Pacific Americans, the writer did decide to focus on a specific marketing niche – the Latin American community – and just like me, he is a part of the community from which he intends to speak of. While looking at advertising from the planner’s perspective, the blog still touches upon a number of topics from the creative to the cultural. Since both of us are speaking on a topic that is very personal to us, I wanted to see how he managed to create a "blogging" voice that was true to his intents and origins.

I decided to first look at those posts that demonstrated his approach to speaking about cultural issues within advertising.While contemplating the complexity of human beings, he states:

"The second one, was some sort of an analogy to trees, in where there are a central being and from it many ramifications grow. Those ramifications are the equivalents to the layers, and in each of these branches one part of the being is been developed. Those are the visible parts of the being, but is in the roots where the tree finds its meaning."

A number of different factors, I believed, influenced the type of voice with which the writer, Daniel Mejia, chose to convey his sense of character.

First, I found it interesting that he chose to write his blog in English despite the fact that his native language is Spanish and Portuguese. This probably accounts for the few grammatical errors and minor incorrect word usage [incorrect tense, singular/plural, lack of subject, etc.]. However, his decision was driven by the fact that the planning community's, what he calls the "plannosphere," universal language is English. As an aspiring creative for an ad agency, it says a lot about his desire to remain professional by choosing to write in the language of his chosen career. However, language barrier aside, he still spoke quite eloquently on his subjects of interest. He had a very good vocabulary, using such words as “ramifications,” “equivalents,” “sync-effects,” which does much to demonstrate his knowledge of professional jargon.

Secondly, in the statement above, he was trying to explain something as ambiguous as the human psyche. Therefore, some of the writing techniques that he uses are appropriate for trying to explicate such complicated concepts. For example, he greatly employs the use of metaphors and analogies in order for the reader to have something easy and everyday to relate to. He tells the story about the deep roots of a tree. He also describes the human mind as Onion layers, Principle a theory that explain how a person is not only what you see or assume he is, there are many more things beneath that surface.”

His statements are comprised of long, complex sentences which are useful for expanding on explanations and providing examples. He also uses a number of rhetorical questions.

“So why we keep trying to define us by only one of our many faces? I know that the most simple things are the most complex ones (intriguing, right?)”

However, his writing style is not only exclusive to cultural posts. When writing posts that critique actual advertisements, such as this random truck ad for Cadbury Chocolate (because trucks have nothing to do with chocolate), he still uses rhetorical questions,

“You all know that I didn´t like the gorilla spot, so what can I say about “Trucks”?

And, he again tells stories, personal anecdotes, in order for the reader to have something ordinary to relate to,

“Perhaps that´s every kid fantasy come true (come on, who didn´t made races with toy trucks when was little… I totally can relate to that).”

"But in the end I must confess I really enjoyed this one, that I have watched it like ten times, that I can´t get the song out of my head and because of that every time I remember the ad, that it´s a shame that you can´t find a Cadbury chocolate here in Colombia."

Although his voice doesn’t necessarily stand out, he remains a likeable and consistent character across the span of his topics and posts. Regardless of what he writes about, his posts are easy to read, professional yet personal, appropriate to the topic, and relatable to the ordinary person.

Who wouldn’t want to read a post titled “Shut up and just have fun?” Will do, Daniel Mejia. Will do.