"Familiarity breeds..." "Yes, yes... I KNOW, FFS."

My art director, who was sitting across the desk from me, was finishing a phone call.

“Cheers… love you… bye,” he said, as he replaced the receiver.

Nothing remarkable about that, you might think. Except – as I was aware at the time – he hadn't been talking to his wife.

He'd been having a serious talk about his account with someone, whom he'd never met, at his bank.

A moment’s silence followed.

He looked at me staring back at him. Then, mentally rewinding his words, he realised what he’d just said. And to whom.

For a second, my jaw didn’t know whether to hang open in shock or clack up and down with hilarity. It then ungraciously opted to do the latter.

Familiar messages don't so much breed contempt as lose their impact or even meaning over time. Not only to those hearing them, but also – as was demonstrated so brilliantly that day – to those saying them.

Copy and VOs that consist of well-worn phrases may be smoothly delivered, sound slick and have a veneer of professionalism to them. But a less familiar use of words might be better remembered.

Just as odd, unexpected, ingenious or funny song lyrics stick in the mind and have an appeal of their own. Doing more than simply enabling a catchy tune to be sung by someone with an obliging larynx.

Overly familiar, if tuneful, declarations of  lurve for mah baybeh are guaranteed to get few neurons firing in the listener's head beyond those required to make a foot tap rhythmically.

At worst, a novel turn of phrase might not be quite so fluid to the ear as a cliché.  It might even jar a little.

But getting noticed and remembered are what it’s all about. Right, folks?

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NOTE: A thoroughly reconditioned Miller is now available for hire.
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