The ancient Greeks understood psychology a lot better than they understood science.
Hippocrates, the father of the Hippocratic Oath, believed that our information-gathering and decision-making processes are determined by an imbalance of 4 bodily fluids – red blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm – two of which have never existed in the form that Hippocrates theorized.
But the four basic temperaments that Hippocrates associated with these four fluids have lived on to be verified, codified, dignified and personified by screenwriters and novelists and social scientists* around the world. Hippocrates called these temperaments Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.
More than 400 years ago, Shakespeare depicted the full range of human behaviors and character types by embracing the original theories of Hippocrates. The National Library of Medicine has an interesting online exhibit about it.
We see these four basic temperaments in ourselves, our family, our friends, and all the most interesting characters in every form of story-telling:
The Wizard of Oz
Lion (sanguine) Scarecrow (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) and Tin Man (phlegmatic)
Archie Comics
Archie (sanguine) Veronica (choleric) Betty (melancholic) and Jughead (phlegmatic)
I Love Lucy
Ricky (sanguine) Lucy (choleric) Fred (melancholic) Ethel (phlegmatic)
Gilligan’s Island
Gilligan (sanguine) the Skipper (choleric) the Professor (melancholic) Mr. Howell (phlegmatic)
Star Trek
Captain Kirk (sanguine) Spock (choleric) Scotty (melancholic) Bones (phlegmatic)
Magnum P.I.
T.C. (sanguine) Tom (choleric) Higgins (melancholic), and Rick (phlegmatic)
Friends
Phoebe and Joey (sanguine) Monica (choleric) Ross (melancholic) Rachel and Chandler (phlegmatic)
Seinfeld
Kramer (sanguine) Elaine (choleric) George (melancholic) Jerry (phlegmatic)
Frasier
Roz (sanguine) Frasier (choleric) Niles (melancholic) Daphne (phlegmatic)
The Golden Girls
Blanche (sanguine) Sophia (choleric) Dorothy (melancholic) Rose (phlegmatic)
Sex and The City
Samantha (sanguine) Miranda (choleric) Charlotte (melancholic) Carrie (phlegmatic)
Schitt’s Creek
Moira (sanguine) Johnny (choleric) David (melancholic) Alexis (phlegmatic)
Desperate Housewives
Susan (sanguine) Gabrielle (choleric) Bree (melancholic) Lynette (phlegmatic)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Kimmy (Sanguine) Jacqueline (Choleric) Titus (Melancholic) Lillian (Phlegmatic)
Big Bang Theory
Howard (sanguine) Sheldon (choleric) Raj (melancholic) Leonard (phlegmatic)
The Office
Michael (sanguine) Dwight (choleric) Pam (melancholic) Jim (phlegmatic)
Game of Thrones
Arya (sanguine) Sansa (choleric) Jon (melancholic) Bran (phlegmatic)
Entertainment is the only currency with which you can purchase the time and attention of a too-busy public.
An understanding of the predictable frictions between these four temperaments – and their deep and abiding need for one another – is the basis of every form of long-term entertainment. The novelists who win the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes know this. The screenwriters of all the hit TV series know this. And the ad writers who make a difference know this.
When you become intrigued with an interesting fictional character, you spend time with them, whether they are in a book, or a TV series, or in an ad campaign.
Most ad writing is transactional: “Give us money, and this is what we’ll give you in return.”
Transactional ads are about short-term “harvesting” but they work less and less well the more continuously you use them.
Relational ads are about long-term “customer bonding” and they work better and better the longer you use them.
Do you want your company to be the one that customers think of immediately and feel the best about? Create a long-term ad campaign that is 2/3 relational customer-bonding ads and 1/3 transactional sales-activation ads. These are the ad campaigns that create consistent year-over-year growth.
Think of it as seedtime and harvest.
Seedtime and harvest.
Roy H. Williams
*You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or DiSC, or the Enneagram, or the Four Colors. Each of those 21st-century assessment tools has its roots in the 2,400-year-old observations of Hippocrates.
