EVER HAD A CLIENT or even a manager repeatedly delaying jobs by insisting on last-minute changes? Then you may want to consider this strategy employed by advertising artists known as The Hairy Arm Tactic. According to the origin myth, graphic artist Joe had a client who was forever insisting on “stupid changes.” Then something odd started happening: each time the client was presented with a newly photographed layout, he’d encounter the image of Joe’s arm at one edge, partly obscuring the ad. The client would yell: ‘What the hell is that hairy arm doing in there?’” Joe would apologize for the slip-up. And then, as the client was stalking away, muttering, “You gotta watch these guys like a hawk,” Joe would call out: ‘When I remove the arm, can we go into production?’ And the client, content to have made his mark, would agree. Picky repair customer? Custom frame design? We see great potential for this in an optical.
