Einstein On Advertising

Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy.

What most people don't know about Einstein is that in addition to uncovering the laws of relativity, the equivalency of mass and energy, and predicting that the speed of light was constant, he also said -- without knowing it -- the smartest thing ever said about advertising.

After his amazing successes as a young man, Einstein spent the rest of his life searching for what was called the "grand unified theory" -- a theory that would unify the four known forces of nature: gravity, electro-magnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Scientists believed -- and most still do -- that these four forces must be different manifestations of one underlying force.

Einstein worked for 40 years on this problem and failed in his attempts to uncover a grand unified theory. To date, no one has found it.

Near the end of his life he was being interviewed. The interviewer asked Einstein if he thought a grand unified theory would ever be found. He said, "The answer to this problem, when found, will be simple."

No matter how complex a marketing or advertising problem seems to be; no matter how much convoluted research has been done; no matter how many conflicting opinions there are; no matter how many "decks" have been written and Powerpoint presentations have been made, the correct answer, when found, is always simple.