It’s a movie line I’ve remembered since I first heard it. Very early in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Professor Jones tells his inquisitive class of college students, “Archaeology is the search for fact… not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, philosophy class is right down the hall.” I’ve always thought it also to be a simple but great descriptor of the business of advertising and public relations.
We are in the business of discovering and delivering “truth.” The truth about a brand … the truth about an organization, a product or service … and the truth about the benefits they provide their customer. Finding that truth, a truth that really matters to the market, is the hard part.
In the final part of that same quote from Indiana Jones he states, “Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library. Research. Reading.” That’s where good advertising and public relations begins also. With research and reading. Learning about the market, the prevailing attitudes, new technologies, about the competition’s brand image and products, understanding distribution issues, etc. It’s only through that kind of curious “archeology” can the proper “truth” about a brand be developed.
The next time you’ve finished posting those pictures of your crazy office party and logged off your Facebook account, do a quick web search on “truth theories.” You’ll find that truth has been a favorite topic of philosophers for centuries, spawning The Correspondence Theory, The Semantic Theory, The Deflationary Theory, The Coherence Theory, and The Pragmatic Theory. Trying to read and completely understand any of them will give us agency types throbbing headaches.
For us, the simple words of the French novelist Flaubert may be more fitting, “There is no truth. There is only perception.”
When faced with a branding or advertising problem, do your archeology. Take the time and effort to unearth the facts. Then you’ll be prepared to discover the “truth” and ultimately, affect perception.
That’s my truth.