Advertising Technique: Dramatic Conflict

About Dramatic Conflict

You can use dramatic conflict to focus attention, to heighten interest in your message.

The essence of drama is conflict. And that conflict can be between:

Husband vs. wife.

Mom vs. her children.

Recent college grad vs. sexually aggressive boss.

Molly vs. insanity, a struggle with mental health.

Girl Scouts vs. nature.

Dog vs. mailman.

Teenager vs. her conscience.

Creative Director vs. client.

You get the idea. So just a couple of tips:

Create a hero. But barf on expected, cookie cutter characters. Think of unlikely heroes. Like kids or animals. Think of People with flaws and weaknesses. Like a grandfather with a speech impediment. Think of characters with unusual ways of thinking. Like the woman who believes UFOs visit regularly to steal our best automobiles.

Your hero should have a goal, an objective, something she really really really wants to achieve. Or has to accomplish to save the planet.

And you might need bad guys, bad creatures, bad luck, bad weather, bad relatives or bad aliens. Come to think of it, bad relatives can be almost identical to bad aliens. But don't use bad politicians or bad lawyers. There are enough of them already.

It's always nice to have a resolution to the conflict, you know, like a happy ending in the movies. But it's not necessary. Because dramatic conflict is essentially a way to engage viewers in your ad.

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