Keep It Complicated, Stupid

Dear Friend,

At the age of 23, after recovering from a very lengthy illness, Frenchmen Henri Matisse gave up his career as a lawyer to get into painting.

Over the next 62 years, Matisse went on to paint some of the most famous and well-known works of his time, including "The Joy of Life", which is considered one of the most important works of twentieth century art.

In fact, Pablo Picasso himself once said, "All things considered, there is only Matisse".

Matisse himself once said "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

There's a valuable copywriting lesson in Matisse's words here, and the lesson makes you look beyond the old business adage which says "Keep it simple, stupid."

Here's what I mean.  "Keep it simple, stupid" basically means what it says.  It's a blunt reminder that you don't need to get out-of-control and make things any more complicated than you need to -- that keeping things "simple" is the best way to lay things out.

But in copywriting, sometimes...

You want to make things comlicated.

To be more specific, what you really want to do is take complex and convoluted ideas and concepts and make them ridiculously easy to understand, and make the "no brainer" stuff, exhaustingly involved.

For instance, if you're talking about a necktie, you want to talk about how the "silk fabric is woven from the same Chinese silkworms the authorities had banned because when women wore gowns weaved from this material, the emperors guards became simply mesmerized and wound up neglecting their stately duties.

Two tailors from a little village in the Yhangtzee province, smuggled a box full of these worms to the Greek island of Cypress, and today..."

You see what I mean now, right?

And if you're talking about something HUGELY complicated like a new heart procedure, or how some kind of new cure works, you'll want to make its description ridiculously simple -- like maybe comparing it to "how a reliable set of fuel injectors steadily and precisely feed fuel into the engine of your car once you place your key into the ignition and start it up."

See, just like Matisse said about art, copywriting is also not what you see, but what you make others see.

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

P.S. Want to know how to make the simple complicated, and the complicated simple in your sales pitch?  It's simple, just go here to find out immediately: http://www.KingOfCopy.com/consulting

Any comments?

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!

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