Enough already with the dancing.

It’s happening all over. Satisfied customers are spontaneously breaking into dance.

Open an interest-bearing checking account? Bust a move.

Buy a car online? Bust a move.

Bladder-control issue resolved? Bust a move.

Here at The Flatland, we’re currently working on a handful of campaigns. And yet, nary a soul is doing the mambo. “How can this be,” you ask? Two reasons. First, if everyone else is doing it, then it isn’t a creative solution—it’s merely derivative white noise. Second (and this is the important part), it’s just not believable.

In advertising, fiction is fine. Lies aren’t. Don’t promise unspeakable joy if you can’t deliver it.

You know why people danced in those classic iPod commercials? Because Apple was ultimately selling the joy of music. Your company’s new cholesterol-tracking app is no iPod. It might be good. It might even be great. But it absolutely won’t make anyone pop-and-lock.  

And yes, it really does matter. When you engage in a blatant overpromise, you forfeit any trustworthiness you had—or hope to have. Suddenly, you’re just another carpetbagger.

So, tell an attention-grabbing story. Make it funny. Make it sad. Heck, make it downright fantastical. But for God’s sake, don’t make anyone do the running man.