Like everyone in advertising,

I wish I did the Dove campaign.

How could you not? The Campaign for Real Beauty is now in its 20th year, and is arguably one of the most influential campaigns in the history of modern advertising. Right up there with the Economist, Nike, Think Different and all that wonderful VW print which started the whole creative revolution in the 60s.

Dove's campaign put a 'why' into a brand the likes of which we had never seen.

They somehow married what they make (beauty products for every woman) with why they make it (to redefine the perception of beauty so that all women can feel beautiful). It was a seamless overlap of product and purpose.

And ever since Dove, agencies and clients have been desperately have trying to find a 'why' for their brand that resonates like Dove's did.

But what we didn't realize was that Dove was a unicorn.

Not just your average unicorn either. It was the valedictorian unicorn who crushed her SAT, captained the volleyball team, played lead trumpet in the band and sat with the lonely new unicorn in the cafeteria on her first day of school to make her feel better. Dove made the other unicorns look like horses with really pointy noses.

Dove had such an amazing 'why', CCOs and CMOs around the world thought that maybe they could do the same with their brands. But just like there is only one Michael Jordan, one Serena Williams, and one Taylor Swift, there is only one Dove.

Which is fantastic news.

Because it means we can get back to talking about what brands do, not why they do it. We can stop trying to find 'why's' (in many cases where they don't exist) and instead, start focusing on the 'what's' that are sitting there right in front of our noses, just waiting to be made into fantastic work.

Like the people from RISE tents who did this home-made 7 second video where they strapped one of their airNEST tents onto a flatbed trailer and drove it at 90KPH on the highway in a driving rain as a way of demonstrating how well made their tents are made.

I don't know what RISE believes in as a company, and I don't care.

What I do care about is that their tent keeps me dry when the shit hits the fan, as it always seems to do when I go camping. These 7 seconds tell me that it can handle the worst of Mother Nature's tantrums, which seem to be getting angrier and angrier of late.

Their 'why' may be something like: 'we exist to help people re-discover their wild selves' or 'we want to help people embrace the elements rather than fear them'. Which are not terrible reasons to exist, but when it comes to me giving you my money, those 'why's' don't hold a candle to "this tent will not leak during a monsoon."

I may like the 'why', but I buy the 'what'.

This ad for organ donation is a lovely piece of 'whatvertising'.

LiveOnNYC could have tried to find a more purposeful 'why' for this ad. They could have tried to go deeper, and more emotional with it. I can imagine the brainstorming session now. Someone says: "When I donate my organs, I live on in someone else's body."

Someone else adds: "Yeah, it's almost like you don't really die."

"Hey yeah!", says the CD, "It's like you become immortal."

The strategist jolts up from his chair, wild-eyed with excitement: "Wait a second, what if.... what if our 'why' was to create a world... where nobody dies?"

That could have happened. I would not be surprised if somewhere in the world, someone is working on that exact presentation right now. But instead, the agency for LiveOnNYC said "What do you need?" The client said: "Organs." And that was that. I heart New York without the heart.

A friend of mine has a better word for 'whats'.

He calls them 'physical benefits' - that is, what does your brand do better or faster or cheaper or easier than the alternatives in the category?

Here are ten in the tent category alone. 1. Lighter, 2. Stronger seams, 3. Won't leak, 4. Can handle 90 kph winds, 5. Unsnappable poles, 6. Takes minutes to set up and take down, 7. Sleeps four (six if you're very friendly), 8. Won't rip, 9. Sun resistant, 10. Mould resistant.

I don't know about you, but I think I could come up with something pretty good in about an hour on any one of those briefs. Which is the best thing about a good physical benefit: they're easy to write to.

The products don't even have to be better than the other guys.

To go back to that tent example, I bet there are a bunch of tents out there that keep you dry in torrential rain. But RISE tents went out and said it, and proved it, in a really compelling and original way. I would also bet my next paycheque (you, know, if I had one coming in) that they're selling these tents hand over fist.

Switching gears. Here's a physical benefit that is literally a physical benefit.

It's for LivRelief - a cream that eases joint pain - and I defy anyone to skip this ad on Youtube pre-roll, or thumb past it on their phone. How can you when it opens with a voice screaming: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

There are a bunch of pain relief ads out there that talk about how their products allow you to 'live every moment' or something equally insipid. Usually, these moments involve doing a Tik Tok dance with cute grandkids, a cannonball into a pool, or participating in a make believe tea party.

I get that those are nice things, but when my knees are screaming, I don't want to dance, swim or drink tea. I just want my knees to stop screaming.

If only there was a product that did th...