Many copywriters, sales people, marketers and designers forget that they are competing for increasingly desensitized ears and eyeballs.

While some marketers and sales people acknowledge they are competing with each other for scarce attention, their response is usually to dial up the volume. The designer will add flash animation to his display ad. The copywriter will throw juicy adjectives and exclamation points into his copy. The sales person will create an artificial sense of urgency.

They forget that they are competing for increasingly desensitized ears and eyeballs. The graphic designer's ad is but one of six on a person’s screen. The sales person's pitch is but one of eight a prospect has heard today. The copywriter forgets that the law of diminishing returns applies to punctuation, especially exclamation points. Faced with this assault of noise, people tune out. Moreover, they selectively tune out the loud and become more welcoming of the quiet.

Quiet is the new loud—where loud means effective and inspiring.

That’s why you actually take the time to read the Ketel One ads. That’s why Google, with plain text , has become the king of online advertising. That’s why your Mac—the actual machine and the operating software—provides a welcome visual reprieve.