Hail ‘Caesar’! A Great Call to Action
Watching the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) production of Julius Caesar here in Washington, D.C. a couple months ago, I just thought, “That Shakespeare guy would have made some copywriter.” The power of persuasion he gives to Mark Antony’s famous speech can serve as a lesson for all of us in the art of underplaying, being clear in your message and then rising to a call to action.
So let’s take a look at that speech. (I once saw the great actor Sir Ian McKellen decipher the famous “Tomorrow” speech from Macbeth in a one-man show. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” he began, sitting on the front edge of the stage looking at the audience. “Is everyone with me so far?”)
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
Talk about powerful introductions. Get your audience’s attention.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.
In one sentence, he has told us all we need to know about Caesar to form a judgment. If he was a newsletter or product, I’m already liking it.
Okay, now what does Antony want us to do? We need a call to action.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
Okay, he wants me to mourn. I can do that.
Yeah, but will that alone sell? He needs to fire us up a bit.
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Tissues please. Take as long as you need.
From there, the citizens speak and we know where this is headed. Now Antony drives home his message with a special offer:
…here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet, ’tis his will:
Let but the commons hear this testament–
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—
Come on! Read it! Let’s hear the offer!
No, no, it’s too good.
It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
For, if you should, O, what would come of it!
Well, okay, if you insist.
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
And finally we get a last show of brilliance—This was the most unkindest cut of all—and the big push to buy:
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator… but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
By that time, the audience—let alone the citizens—is ready to scale that fourth wall and jump on Brutus and Cassius. It’s a masterful display of using language to inform, incite and ultimately move to act.
What took me back to this moment are the well-done marketing emails I now get from the STC. (Okay, that and an email this morning telling me that copywriting is our social media theme of the week.) Julius Caesar was a free production, and to distribute the much sought-after tickets, they held a lottery each day by email. So everyone had to register on the STC website to be part of the lottery. It’s a pretty effective strategy.
Very few of us have anything near Mr. Shakespeare’s ability to wordsmith. But there is at least a pattern there that we can follow to get a few more ears lent our way in the future.
**************************************************
We’re also very fortunate to have two excellent writers—
consultant Mark Everett Johnson and Chris Moffa
of Kiplinger—lead a Copywriting Workshop on Dec. 7
at the Marketing Conference in Miami Beach.
And if that isn’t enough, two more ace copywriters
—Robert Lerose (Thursday) and Bob Bly (Friday)—
will lead valuable sessions of their own.
You will be coming home a better writer and marketer!
Sign up soon, however. Both the early-bird price
and the great SIPA hotel rate end next week!
[text_ad use_post=”15018″]
