There are two components to every great marketing campaign. The first is a logical reason for people to buy your product or service. For example, there’s a very logical reason to fly on a discount airline — because you get from point A to point B for less money. There’s also a very logical reason to buy toothpaste with fluoride — because if you use it, you’ll have fewer cavities.

The “logic” approach is a great starting point for all marketers — if you can just figure out the logical reason people should buy your product, you can use it as a foundation to build the rest of your marketing campaign.

The next step is to figure out the emotional reason people will buy your product. That gets a little more complicated because there are different segments of your target market that will buy your product for different reasons. But if you can get inside the mind of your prospective customer and tap into that emotion, you’ve struck gold.

Which brings us to our point — there are hundreds of thousands of brilliant ad headlines that have been written over the past 100 years, but the headline “Will Work for Food” may be the greatest headline ever. Why? Because it does such a masterful job of talking to potential customers (or donors) on both a logical and an emotional way.

The logic is that the person holding the sign would benefit from your donation. But, as a potential donor, your question may be “How do I know this money will be put to good use?” or “Will this person use this money for drugs or alcohol?”

But “Will Work for Food” leaps over any logical question and gets straight to the emotional component of the request. In one short, simple headline, the person holding the sign is saying, “No, I won’t use your money for drugs. No, I won’t use your money for alcohol. I’ll use it for food. In fact, I’m in such desperate need, I’ll work for food.”

We’re not making light of the desperate nature of the people who hold these signs and who benefit from our generosity. (As you may know, the 60 Second Marketer team is actively engaged in charitable causes, most notably by helping A School Bell Rings build schools for poor children around the globe.) Our main point is that marketers can be inspired by campaigns that can be found in some of the most unusual places.

How about this — in addition to being inspired by the brilliance of the “Will Work for Food” headline, why don’t we agree that next time we see someone holding a “Will Work for Food” sign, we donate money to their cause and, better yet, guide them to a shelter where they can get some long-term help.

Deal?

It was 50 years ago that Mr. Clean was first introduced to the American public. Since then, he’s become an advertising icon any Brand Manager on the planet would like to have in their marketing toolkit.

Over time, Mr. Clean has continued to grow in popularity. A few years ago, in a sign that Mr. Clean was still top-of-mind in American consumer’s minds, he was “outed” by an influential blog which pointed out he wore an earring, tight clothes and was in excellent physical shape. But Mr. Clean came clean and, through a spokesperson, said that he wasn’t gay. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Here’s a quick quiz. See if you can match up the names of the advertising icons on the left to the appropriate dates of their launch on the right.

Tony the Tiger                    1944

Aunt Jemima                       1921

Jolly Green Giant                 1928

Betty Crocker                      1893

Smoky the Bear                   1951

The correct dates are outlined below. How many did you get correct? And what advertising icons are we missing? How about Mr. Peanut? Elsie the Cow? Or Dutch Boy?

Correct Dates: Tony the Tiger – 1951; Aunt Jemima – 1893; Jolly Green Giant – 1928; Betty Crocker – 1921; Smokey the Bear – 1944.