PRIVATE VIEW: Robert Campbell, the joint executive creative director at Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.(Editorial)

Look at these two ads. One is for AOL8.0. The other for O2. On paper, they'd be pretty similar. Both made it through copious rounds of research. The storyboards for both looked pretty buttoned down at the pre-production. The production budgets were in the same ballpark.

The words of the voiceovers are similar. And each commercial uses a strong, simple and slightly poetic MVO. The music for both is based around a simple theme on piano.

And ultimately, both commercials are advertising a pretty similar sort of brand and product. Both attempt to make the intangible tangible.

So why are the commercials so different? Why is one so pedestrian, the other so inspiring? One has voodoo. One don't.

Warning. What you are about to read may cause panic in some marketing departments. Not to mention advertising agencies.

Ultimately, what a good advertising practitioner sells his client is something that might best be described as voodoo. Voodoo is a heady concoction of talent, experience, intellect, contacts, reputation, confidence, instinct, magic and random luck. You can't legislate for voodoo. You can't weigh it or measure it. Not every advertising person can deliver it. Not every client can buy it. And consumers aren't very good at spotting it in research groups.

Voodoo is an instinct for doing what feels right. And sometimes what feels wrong. It's beauty. It's timing. It's sexiness. It's emotion. It's wit, charm and impact. It's good taste. It can be bad taste. It's not being scared to provoke. It's getting rhythm and pace just so in a restricted time space. Weaving sound and vision together. It's being able to say exactly what you want to say on behalf of a brand but, as John Hegarty would say, doing it with style. Voodoo is a rare commodity.