Pay Attention To Attention


French chemical engineer, George Claude, was disappointed when he experimented with neon gas without the use of a filament and got a neon light.


A marketer noticed this peculiarly colored light and quickly realized that it could be used to catch people’s attention walking down the street. He used the light to pioneer the beginning of what we now call, “light advertising”.

Starting at a Paris hair salon, he arranged the display of a neon light ad for “Cinzano” in 1912. As planned, it intrigued the town and light advertising spread like wild fire. For the following decades, light advertising techniques traveled all across European cities and then transferred on to the states. We recognize them with the artificial beauty associated with Las Vegas.

Vegas advertisers can thank Claude’s mistake. The massive amounts of economic power it still has today is directly correlated from their early and aggressive use of neon lights. In fact, the whole awe-inspiring, flashy culture of Vegas is built from how these neon lights attracted tourists.

What does this tell us about a marketer’s mind? A marketer has a keen eye for things that catch attention. Anything that captures the eyes, hearts and minds of people is like persuasive foreplay for the marketer.

It’s the first interaction that taps into the access to continue another person’s stream of focus. In today’s world, mastering this skill has become more valuable than ever before being that it’s harder to capture attention and harder to keep it.


The average attention span is 8.25 seconds according to Inventors have a keen eye on how to make things function. Marketers have a keen eye on how to make things fascinating.

Together, these skills create a beautiful blend of alluring, captivating and mysterious brightness. Almost one similar to a neon light.