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Using smart, versatile products means you’re smart and versatile yourself. That simple notion has been a staple of advertising messaging for eons, and it works so well because it flatters both sides—giving the appearance of parity between buyer and seller, a mutual admiration that allows the brand to compliment the consumer without coming off as obsequious. To enliven this old standard, advertisers in recent years have taken the idea of “smart” into cartoonish territory—most notably in the Holiday Inn Express campaign from Fallon, where ordinary people displayed extraordinary intelligence (performing improbable feats for which they hadn’t trained but suddenly have innate skill) after staying at the hotel.

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