True crime, toolkits and the Big Ideal

Rory Sutherland and John Shaw

At first glance, an ad campaign and a homicide investigation share little in common. In this article, however, Rory Sutherland shows how the strategies used in the first 48 hours of a murder investigation could help advertisers, particularly in the form of pursuing rapid, subconscious reactions, consulting collective knowledge, and defining a problem in the right way at the very beginning of an operation.

True crime, toolkits and the Big Ideal

Rory SutherlandOgilvyOne London and Ogilvy Group UK

John ShawOgilvy UK and EMEA

What do a homicide investigation and an ad campaign have in common? Rory Sutherland explains

Buried almost unnoticed in the cultural treasury brought to these shores by the beneficence of Murdoch père et fils lies a great number of 24-hour factual and educational channels – among them several entirely dedicated to the subject of True Life Crime. Of these I can particularly commend Crime & Investigation, Serial Killers' Biography Network and Discovery Stabbings +1.

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