Public Speaking: Creating a Commercial

The "Original Commercial" for an imaginary product is always fun. People have fun with the Commercial because they get to think of a product or service that would ease their lives. They then build a short sales presentation around it, usually making it funny.

I remember the lively commercial a single woman gave for what she called a "Creep Detector." The imaginary gadget was no bigger than a computer mouse. When run down the side of a prospective date, it revealed such character traits as "habitual lying," "fear of commitment" "dislike of his mother" and "impatience with children."

Another memorable product was the "Clapper Crapper" . . . a toilet whose seat went up and down with hand commands to accommodate gender differences. One clap up, two claps down. No more marital arguments over who failed to leave the toilet seat properly positioned.

Excerpted from "Get in Bed with Your Audience: And satisfy them every time." by Gary Michael . . .The Talk Doc mailto:talkdoc@ecentral.com

Tom Adds: You can use this technique as an involvement technique as Gary does above or simply make up a funny commercial customized to the group to which you are speaking and deliver it yourself.