Here's a presentation the author made for the communications students at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi. Circa 2012. Uploaded here for the benefit of those who think before they start cracking ideas. All the thoughts expressed here are purely personal and are a result of the author's professional experience of working with some of India's leading advertising agencies as creative director. Some of the pictures used for reference are taken from google images and advertising blogs. I hope the creators of those images won't mind.

1. Presenting Advertising!
Getting to know advertising communication
through the film ‘Inception’.

2. COBB
What do you want from us?
SAITO
Inception.
SAITO
Is it possible?
ARTHUR
Of course not.

3. SAITO
If you can steal an idea from someone's mind,
why can't you plant one there instead?
ARTHUR
Okay, here's planting an idea:
I say to you, "Don't think about elephants."
(Saito nods)
What are you thinking about?
SAITO
Elephants.

4. ARTHUR
Right. But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you.
SAITO
You could plant it subconsciously-
ARTHUR
The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea.
True inspiration is impossible to fake.
COBB
No, it isn't.

5. It‟s true.

6. It‟s true.
And legal.

7. Let‟s look at
beauty products.

8. Who shows us confidence has anything to do
with the melanin content in the body one is born with?

9. Barbie’s not a doll.
It‟s a Trojan horse
created to alter
the perception
of beauty
right from childhood.

10. Who makes
a non-nutritional
but economical
eating out option
seem
desirable and happy?

11. Would you like some fries to go along
with this, Sir?
Supersize your meal?
(Pay extra to save?)
Who did you learn your maths from,
Galileo?

12. Child Insurance Plans.
Injecting fear through humour,
concern, and even threat
“Papa, are you a good father?”

13. Smart phones.
You are stupid
if you don‟t have one.

14. Health drinks for kids.
Mamma, are you listening?

15. Are you stupid enough to buy Diesel?

16. Advertising, to put it mildly,
is the art of helping people make decisions
they think are their own 

17. It‟s a talent
all of us are born with.

18. What else do you think you are doing
when you are trying to convince your friends
to go for a particular movie
out of all the options you guys have?

19. Or, telling your friend that she‟s
looking attractive.
Remember, it’s not the halter
neck that’s looking good on her.
She’s the one
who’s looking good in that.

20. Or worse, telling yourself that
she‟s looking attractive.
Why else do you think
you are with her?

21. Shift opinions. Get buy-ins.
Convince. Confuse. Corrupt.
We all do this at some level
in our daily conversations.

22. Those who practice this talent
in the context of brands, call it advertising.

23. It all starts with a client need
(problem/opportunity/threat/strength)...

24. SAITO
Fischer Morrow has the regulators in their pockets.
We're the last company standing between them
and total energy dominance and we can no longer compete.
Soon they'll control the energy supply of half the world.
They'll be able to blackmail governments, dictate policy.
In effect, they become a new superpower.

25. ... a possible solution of which is the
marketing objective...

26. SAITO
The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind.

27. ...that‟s articulated as
a communication objective
(which usually emerges out of some insider
information, insight about the subject)
through a dirty process called the brief

28. EAMES
That's where we come in.
How's Robert Fischer's relationship to his father?
SAITO
Rumor is the relationship is complicated.
COBB
We'll need more than rumour, Mr.Saito.
(Eames picks up a photo: a distinguished executive (68).)
EAMES
Can you get me access to him? Browning.
Fischer senior's righthand man.
Fischer junior's godfather.

29. The team keeps searching
and researching
for the elusive brief
till the precise stimulus (message) is cracked.
Usually it happens in a brainstorm session
in which „the desired action‟
needed from the subject
dictates the conversation.

30. COBB
The mark is Robert Fischer,
heir to the Australian energy conglomerate, Fischer Morrow.
Cobb opens a large presentation pad.
COBB (reads aloud)
"I WILL SPLIT UP MY FATHER'S EMPIRE."
Cobb turns to the team.
COBB
An idea Robert Fischer's conscious mind would never accept.
We have to plant it deep in his subconscious.
Now, the subconscious motivates through emotion, not reason,
so we have to translate the idea into an emotional concept.
ARTHUR
How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?

31. By writing a sales pitch for the subconscious.
A subliminal code.

32. COBB
That's what we have to figure out.
Robert and his father have a tense relationship.
Worse, even, than the gossip columns have suggested...
EAMES
Do you play on that?
Suggest breaking up his father's company
as a 'screw you' to the old man?
COBB
No. Positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time.
We yearn for people to be reconciled,
for catharsis. We need positive emotional logic.

33. EAMES
Try this...
"MY FATHER ACCEPTS THAT I WANT TO CREATE FOR MYSELF,
NOT FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS."
COBB
That might work.
ARTHUR
Might? We'll have to do better than that.
EAMES
Thanks for the contribution, Arthur.
ARTHUR
Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames.

34. A point about „specificity‟, here.
All communication design,
no matter how well crafted,
rests on some kind of a hunch (gut feel)

35. And thanks to the speed at which it can be
shared, rehashed and shared again on the internet
through millions of laptops and still more smart phones,
it‟s possible to create fluid communication
that‟s organic and changes as it spreads.

36. In fact, campaigns that rely upon
user generated content
literally go out of the agency‟s hands
the moment they are released.
Coming back to Specificity...

37. COBB
Inception's not about specificity.
When we get inside his head,
we're going to have to work with what we find.
Arthur shrugs, frustrated. And we-
EAMES
We could split the idea into emotional triggers.
COBB
How do you mean?

38. EAMES
On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father....
Say: "I WILL NOT FOLLOW IN MY FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS."
Next level down we've accessed his ambition and self-esteem.
We feed him: "I WILL CREATE SOMETHING MYSELF.“
Then, the bottom level, we bring out the emotional big guns...
COBB
"MY FATHER DOESN'T WANT ME TO BE HIM."
EAMES
That could do it.
ARTHUR
How do you produce these emotional triggers?

39. Get a convincing and trustworthy tone of voice.
And deliver the cleverly crafted simple logical argument
in a clear and concise manner.
The primary job of an art & copy team.

40. EAMES
I forge each emotional concept in the style and manner of Peter Browning,
a key figure in Fischer's emotional life.

41. A correct ad can be written in any language
the consumer understands.
But a good ad can only be written in the one
he believes in.

42. Thanks.