Effective advertising is audience-centered
John Foust
May 1, 2026
I look at ads from a lot of publications because there are lessons to be learned from all of them. Recently, I ran across two that were so interesting that I showed them to my wife.
For the first ad, I put my thumb over the logo, which revealed the products they sold, and asked her what they seemed to be selling. The headline read, “Visit our showroom.” The body copy — with vague bullet points like, “Locally owned and operated” and “Ask us about smart home technology” — was equally unhelpful. As a result, it was up to the photograph in the center to reveal what they sold. The picture showed a wall filled with samples, which looked like blobs of different colors.
Suellen took a quick glance and said, “Paint and carpet.”
Considering all the confusion in the ad, she made a good guess. But the correct products were blinds and shutters.
With such ineffective copy and a misleading photograph, the ad’s only hope of communicating something as basic as the advertiser’s line of work was the logo. And that was not going to do any selling all by itself.
The second ad put the words “dental services” out front for everyone to see, so at least it identified what the ad was about. The body copy listed various disease treatments, which could be uncomfortable reading for some people. Like the ad for blinds, a major issue with this ad was the photography; there were three pictures. The largest photo was a closeup view of a patient, mouth open wide and a dentist’s hands reaching inside with a mirror and another dental tool. If a reader was nervous about dentist appointments — and there are a lot of those folks around — this photo could be a complete turn-off. Another prominent photo featured a machine that looked like a filing cabinet and was described as an “innovative way to treat gum disease.” The third and smallest photo was a headshot of a person with a big smile. Suellen’s comment was, “We don’t know if it’s the dentist, a patient or someone who works in the office because there’s no name or title.”
These two ads call attention to the importance of information. The ad for blinds doesn’t have enough information to appeal to anyone. And the dentist’s ad has so much of the wrong kind of information that it turns people away. The underlying cause in both cases is a lack of audience centeredness. The advertisers miss their audiences’ interests and concerns by a mile.
The purpose of advertising, as defined from the beginning of the profession, is “to sell.” This means that everything about an ad campaign, from inception to execution, is to put the advertiser’s best foot forward. In other words, learn about the audience, then present product features and benefits in a way that makes readers say, “Hey, I can see myself doing business with that company.”
When you center your attention on the audience, it’s difficult to go wrong. © Copyright 2026 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training DVDs to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com
