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Sleight-of-hand and
misdirection —all in a
day’s work.
I
t’s getting harder and harder
to keep the focus of people on
what you want them to see and
away from what you don’t. In
the age of global 24/7 ubiquitous
branding and marketing, constant
exposure not only allows new ways
to constantly engage consumers’
attention, it also quickly exposes the
flaws and slips of both personalities
and brands as well as quickly
tiring them on any novelty. It’s
time advertisers, brand managers,
publicists, and media practitioners
learn a thing or two from the
centuries old craft of illusionists.
No one else knows better how
to keep people focused on what
60
adobo magazine | July - August 2016
they want while performing sleightof-hands. No one else knows the
careful balance between credibility
and fantasy or between revelation
and secrecy that is necessary for
entertaining audiences. And no
illusionist is better at keeping
audiences beguiled than David
Copperfield—a name synonymous
with his trademark combination
of humor, drama, astounding
theatricality, and disarming
charisma. Copperfield is famous
for such spectacles as making New
York’s Statue of Liberty disappear
and walking right through China’s
Great Wall and has sold over four
billion US dollars worth of tickets
to his various shows worldwide—a
staggering 600 shows a year.
At the 2016 Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity—
the preeminent creative awards
in the world held at the French
Riviera—Copperfield wowed an
audience used to the most creative
spectacles as he delivered a uniquely
didactic presentation titled “Making
Magic: The Art of Illusion in Modern
Brand Narrative” that was studded
with magic tricks and peppered
with laughter at the Debussy
Theatre for the second conference
on the first day of the Lions Live
seminars. True to its name, Lions
Live is available publicly and globally
through real-time video streaming.
Joining Copperfield was
Kenneth Hertz, founding partner
of entertainment marketing and
strategy consulting firm memBrain
that represents Intel, McDonald’s,
Hasbro, Logitech, and Keds and
senior partner at Los Angeles
law firm of Hertz Lichtenstein
& Young LLP that represents