Lord Saatchi - tit

Can you spot Charlie?

One word equity - a concept so 'simple' he had to use three words. Basically in the new digital times, whether you're a digital blow-in or a natural, he thinks our attention span is so amoebic that we won't be able to remember what an ad is trying to communicate.

Hence his reduction ad absurdum, - distill a brand into one word and there you have it. There's 750,000 words out there including 'meh' (which probably sums up the nissan micra, or the whole nissan range, but hey).

Apple, he says, can be reduced to 'innovation' and google, 'search'. But what happens when a brand's perception collides? Ok volvo is 'safe' but its one word equity could just as well be 'boring'.

Heinz can be both 'nostalgic' and 'modern' depending on when your mammy first gave you it. And what happens if a load of brands are fighting for the one word? Surely Jaguar, Lexus and the Maybach all want to own 'luxury'.

By simplifying a brand to one word, he's also removed an emotional connection from the brand and there's nothing simple about how people feel. And judging from the ads M&C Saatchi are producing at the moment, maybe their one word equity is 'shite'.