Once we know something, it becomes hard to imagine what it feels like not to know it.
More quotesThe image already shows the product removing the nuisance. Then a line of copy explains that the product removes the nuisance. A voiceover repeats the line. Finally, a slogan translates it for anybody who survived. This is called clarity because “creative panic expressed through duplication” sounds poor in the debrief. Each addition is individually defensible. Together they turn a moment of recognition into compulsory revision.
Goldman’s advice leaves one manageable inference for the audience. The image can complete the headline; two objects can make the comparison; a familiar problem can vanish without a narrator announcing its departure. That brief act of completion matters because the conclusion feels discovered rather than delivered. It carries a flicker of ownership. Too large a gap produces only confusion, especially when it depends on specialist knowledge or an obscure cultural reference. Too small a gap turns the audience into a witness to somebody else’s thinking. The useful space is often the final inch: enough cue to make the connection fair, enough restraint to let another mind finish it. Different audiences will need different inches. Familiar customers may catch a product reference that leaves newcomers stranded; insiders may mistake their own fluency for universal knowledge. The first response worth hearing is what somebody thought happened before the intended meaning is revealed. When reviewers add one more explanation “just in case”, the work rarely becomes clearer. It becomes impossible to participate in.