London buses are emblazoned with ads for bland, movie blockbusters, perfumes and fashion labels, but one of these ads got me thinking - it deserved admiration. From an unlikely source, the west end show ‘Mamma Mia!’, it simply stated “Somewhere in the crowd there’s you”. At first glance this seems fairly unexceptional - it’s just a line from an ABBA song, isn’t it? 

It’s more than that, it’s actually deceptively clever - the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts and it’s brilliance sings out.

Used in this context, that particular line from that particular song plants a thought in our minds. It suggests and pre-supposes that:

a) There is a crowd that have enjoyed or are enjoying this show (as of 2007, 30 million people worldwide had seen ‘Mamma Mia!’); and
b) You are either among that crowd already (and by using ‘you’ they are addressing everyone on London’s crowded streets); or,
c) If you haven’t already seen the show, you will feel you are missing out on something, something which the in-crowd (of millions) have already experienced.

The question of ‘how to attract even more people to see this already popular show’ is answered with the very clever choice of these words which suggest that despite the phenomenal success - somewhere in the crowd is YOU!

Applauded by Justin Morgan