TRANSPORTED BY DAVID COPPERFIELD

ⓘ This post has been automatically translated from Spanish using DeepL API.

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Some time ago in Hong Kong we went to see a David Copperfield show, never imagining that we would be randomly chosen to be part of a group of 13 people who were teleported from the stage to the back of the auditorium, in the closing act and in front of thousands of people, among them, our children Santiago and Adriana.

After an extraordinary show of almost an hour and a half, they launched gigantic balloons to bounce through the audience, floating in the air from one hand to another. When the music stopped, I had one of them in my hands and Adri had another, who quickly passed it to Alex, my wife, since minors were not allowed to go up for the grand finale.

We were placed on chairs lined up in two rows, handed spotlights and construction helmets with lights on them. The big teleportation act began and in a few minutes, after curtains opened and closed around us a couple of times, when the whole audience could least imagine it, we were all thirteen people at the back of the auditorium with our spotlights and helmets, in total awe of what they had witnessed. We felt like rock stars, with thousands of people cheering for Copperfield and in total hilarity, cheering us on for having been part of an incredible sight.

When the show of the great visualizer of the century was over, we were taken to a small room. There a staff person arrived and told us that Copperfield would be arriving in a few minutes, which indeed happened. The guy is a spectacular showman, good looking and clearly in total control of his stage, with a great sense of humor, self-confidence and persuasive attitude. He told us that many people made a living from his show, many families and all of them, who invested heavily in each of his acts and were totally dependent on our support.

He told us, “Please consider answering the questions you are about to receive, with one of the following three versions.” And he continued after offering us an autographed photo of him in return. I could not believe it. However, the versions he proposed to us went something like this. First, that we were lifted with harnesses to the ceiling, covered by a kind of black sleeve that hid us from the public, where we found other cables and then passed backwards. The second that we said that by a series of mirrors placed in an incredible way, we had been moved from our chairs without any effort and without being seen. And finally, and he said it clearly, his favorite, that we should say that we had no idea how he had done it.

It was really impressive and a life lesson that I want to share today. Thousands and thousands of us go to these shows ready to believe and eager to be amazed, because we pay for the tickets. Likewise, at the front is a professional of visualization, special effects and make believe instruments, who understands our expectations and is willing to give us that amazement, with resources that seem like magic, that surprise and dilate all our pupils by the simple reaction to his skills, demonstrations and persuasion, his fantasy and imagination, as well as stage talent and entertainment calculated for every second that passes on stage.

It made it clear to me that we are often people who want to believe and want to be amazed. And as much in a Copperfield show as on television, in the movies or in the park. This is why we advertisers and marketers, those of us who build brands, as experts in the handling of images, sound and vision, can give them much of what they expect, understanding that we are the ones on stage. So the decision we must make is simple: we entertain or we bore. We seduce or we inform. We captivate or we promote.

No one turns on the television to be informed about a margarine, a cookie, a car or a three-blade razor, with all due respect to the margarine, the cookie, the car or the razor. Rather, they expect from us more entertainment and wonder, more delight and enjoyment, more surprise and humor, feelings and emotions. Is this too difficult to understand? Few go to the museum to get information, or few go to the Internet to fall asleep, or only a few open a magazine so that we can shout a promotion. So, as obvious as it is, we have to remember again that in advertising, we have to take brands to entertain and amaze, to connect and establish a relationship, to provoke an experience and make people love them more than the competition.

Copperfield gave us an extraordinary lesson that I wanted to share today in these paragraphs of the day. However, in closing, as to how he actually teleported Alexandra and I with eleven other people, I have only one answer: I have no idea!

ⓘ This post has been automatically translated from Spanish using DeepL API.

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