Quick Study When you need to capture your prospects' attention in the blink of an eye, remember: less is more.

I'm always confounded by how many ads make the reader workto appreciate their sales messages. Without naming names, everymorning, one of the nation's most prestigious business-orientednewspapers is filled with big, serious-minded, aestheticallypleasing ads from stellar companies whose messages are, to becharitable, oblique. You might call this "advertisinghaiku," using headline words and phrases that requirecontemplation and interpretation. My guess is they more oftenelicit indifference. These companies could take a lesson incommunication from ads like the one shown here. It's one thatmakes its sales points so deftly that you, the typically apatheticpasserby, don't have time to be indifferent. It snares you in ananosecond.

Created for Home Diagnostics Inc., a maker of blood glucosemonitors for diabetics, the ad gets an A+ for its compelling,quick-as-a-wink presentation of benefits. The company's adagency, Mason Selkowitz Marketing Inc. in Fairport, New York, chosefingertip icons with two-word captions to convey the message at thespeed of light. It's an ad you might say passes the billboardtest: Like outdoor advertising that must make its point to a set ofeyes traveling past at 60-plus mph, the ad for TrueTrack monitorsregisters in an instant.

The ad "headlines" with three fingertips, each makinga key sales point in image and caption. The first, with a microdotof red, depicts "less blood"; the second smilinglydepicts "less pain"; and the third, "lesscost." To the diabetic, these are key issues when it comes tochoosing a testing system for use two or three times daily.TrueTrack's niche in the monitor market is as a co-brander,making units for large retailers like Walgreens and CVS that selldiabetic supplies.