These chapters examine two more parts of Made to Stick’s acronym SUCCES: S (Simple) and U (Unexpected). The idea behind “simple” is pretty straightforward: it’s easier to try and put across an idea in its core form—meaning weeding out both trivial and substantial components to get down to the simplest form—without sounding too simplistic or silly, like a sound bite. The technique of journalism’s inverted pyramid is suggested: tell the most important aspect first, then edit, then add details. In presenting the information, it’s easier to use techniques to make the simplest-form idea memorable. Examples include a newspaper editor who likes his paper reflect local issues only—motto “names, names, and names”—and a movie pitch describing a concept in terms of other films—“Speed is Die-Hard on a bus.” The concept in play here is memory schemas: playing with people’s pre-conceived ideas to help them to understand other topics and to reinforce an idea in their heads.

“Unexpected” also makes sense to have ideas stick because it is so integral in keeping an audience’s attention. In this case, you flip mental tendencies on their head: because people like to think in patterns, you break those patterns. Example: a flight attendant doing something different with the pre-takeoff safety announcement. It is important, however, to make sure that in keeping the unexpected unexpected, you stick to something relevant to your message. Random unexpected acts will come off as gimmicky. Mystery is appealing to people because they like trying to figure out what will happen next; if you provide a different conclusion than the one they come up with, they are forced to refine their thought process.

Between "simple" and "unexpected," the most recent ad campaign that came to mind for me was the new Old Spice commercials, although their old marketing operated strongly in this way as well. Both the old and new promote masculinity and a type of suaveness that will somewhat possess men who use their products. Both rely on interactivity as an unexpected quality: the old Old Spice campaign had a site with humorous masculinity-related quizzes and a phone hotline to call. The new campaign initially captured viewers with its unexpectedness within commercials ("I'm on a horse") and has since progressed to individualization via YouTube.