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Anybody here remember a certain pseudo-inspirational poster of yesteryear? It read: “They said it couldn't be done. So we didn't even try.”

I thought of this too late, while midway through my makeover of this ad from State Street Global Advisors for its Financial Select Sector exchange-traded fund (ETF).

At first it seemed easy enough to improve. But as I dove deeper into the complexities of these funds' advantages and disadvantages, I could see why those who came up with this ad might have decided, “They said it couldn't be done. So we didn't even try.”

First of all, the ad makers got tangled up in the demands of the visual metaphor being used in State Street's ad series.

Brand advertisers and agencies love visual metaphors that help engrave the name and selling proposition on a consumer's mind. And it must be admitted that it sometimes does work, though it's an expensive process. Geico is reported to have spent $400 million promoting its lovable little Australian gecko, but the gamble seems to have paid off very well.

However, as I have found it necessary to point out so many times before, this kind of brand-image advertising makes sense only in influencing consumer choice among similar commodity brands. When it's misused to avoid and prevent the dissemination of needed, desired product information and persuasion, the results can be miserable — in more ways than one.

Here the brand-image metaphor chosen at the outset was the spider web. Why? Well, the acronym for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt is SPDR. So some big brain said, “Hey, that's it! SPDR sounds just like ‘spider.’ So we'll use a spider-web motif in all of our advertising and promotional designs.”

Far too often this approach conceals rather than reveals valuable information. A prime example is the series of case history ads that Xerox has been running for years to sell its copiers. Each ad displays an oversize object like baby shoes to symbolize the featured company's story, but the real benefit is buried. Nearly four years ago in this column I showed how Xerox could have used that costly advertising space to present its sensational interactive Office Document Assessment Center (The Makeover Maven, June 2003). You log on, enter how much paper your company is using, and instantly get an estimate of how much Xerox technology could save you.

In the case of this ETF ad, fully a third of the ad space is consumed with a large, bewildering visual variation on the spider-web theme.

We see a percent sign constructed out of spider webbing, with a few spiders crawling around inside the web and one dropping all the way down to the logo below.

But what does it mean? Percent of what? The ad never says, and I wasn't able to figure it out.

The percent sign is swimming in a sea of green on which is printed a number of lines of text in white ink.

Next comes what I must presume to be the headline, although it's really too small to serve that purpose: “Weave More Financial Power Into Your Portfolio.”

Aha! So that explains the percent sign constructed out of spider webbing. Here's how to weave together lots of percentage gains?

Next comes the typographically unreadable body copy, which in the line of duty I finally managed to read anyway:

“Discover the Flexible Strength of the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF.

“The Financial SPDR is comprised of the 89 financial components of the S&P 500.

“Like all Select Sector SPDRs it combines the diversity of mutual funds, the all-day tradability of stocks and the tracking of an index.

“To improve the financial power of your investments, visit www.sectorspdrs.com, or call 1-800-THE AMEX. And start weaving a stronger portfolio today.”

And how does this SPDR “improve the financial power of my investments”? It doesn't say. And the Web site doesn't help. “Weaving power into your portfolio” is referred to several times but the claim is never backed up.

At the very top is a line of small print which I was unable to decipher even with a magnifying glass. And down below are four obligatory logos and legal gingerbread copy in type that is rightly small enough for setting forth prescription drug side effects.

Admittedly, it would have been hard to explain the advantages of this SPDR exchange-traded fund within the confines of this artistic layout. And as I found out, it's not easy to explain the benefits at all. That may be why the copywriter “didn't even try.”

So how could this advertising space have been put to better use to get the advertiser in touch with a greater number of interested prospects?

First I struggled to keep all the existing elements and add some clarity and persuasion. I found that “it couldn't be done, so I didn't even try.”

Instead I decided to throw out the spider with the web and start from scratch with an all-copy reader ad. I can hear my long-copy-hating readers groaning already. But how would you get readers of this ad in The Wall Street Journal to say, “Hmm, a financial spider, eh? I've never fully understood those things, but now it sounds interesting. I'll call them up or go to their Web site.”

But I found that identifying the main appeal of ETFs is tricky and not easily encapsulated in a few words.

So I looked for the basic human instincts that could fuel response. I call them the ultimate benefits — things like envy, greed, fear and possessiveness — the emotions our primitive ancestors experienced and which still reside within us.

The one that seemed most applicable was the herd instinct: I want to do what the others in the herd are doing. I want to enjoy what they are enjoying. I want to read the No. 1 bestseller. See the No. 1 movie. I don't want to miss out.

Well, investors plunked $12 billion into ETFs last year. What did they know that you don't? Aren't you afraid you're going to miss out on something good?

That's how I arrived at my makeover headline, “Why ETFs are such a big hit with investors today.” (“If they're that popular, there must be a reason. I've got to learn more.”)

Then, with considerable struggle, I boiled down the essential benefits of this extremely tricky instrument while staying this side of the law. It couldn't and doesn't tell the whole story, but hopefully enough to make a likely prospect want to visit the Web site and learn more.

Different points are made to appeal to different investor needs and interests.

I kept the legal gingerbread and some of the logos.

And I kept the whole ad as simple, clear and accessible as possible. No spider webs. Not even any green color because it would have served no useful purpose.

And now it's time to “Name That Gain.” Which of these two approaches would be more likely to push ETF buying up beyond $1 billion this year?

Find more Makeover Maven columns at http://directmag.com/opinions-columnists/makeovermaven/.

THOMAS L. COLLINS (thomas.l.collins@verizon.net) has been a direct marketing copywriter, admaker, agency creative director and co-author of four books on marketing. He is currently an independent creative and marketing consultant based in Portland, OR.