Creative Advertising Copywriter UK Blog Archive
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Advertising - there's nothing new under the sun
Here's an interesting site (though for a professional copywriter a slightly depressing one). It shows great advertising ideas that have then been reproduced a few years later for another client by another agency.
http://www.joelapompe.net/
Now, no advertising copywriter or art director worth their salt would knowingly copy someone else's work. Rip off film scenes and the like, maybe, but not simply directly copy another ad. It's highly embarrassing for one thing.
But there they are, ad after ad, side by side, essentially the same idea running a few years apart. And the 'less original' one in many cases has been produced by highly respected agencies.
Occasionally, lookalikes get reported in the advertising trade press. Just this week, there was an angry letter in Campaign magazine about a recent commercial made from using recycled clips. The writer complained that she had created the exact same commercial fifteen years or so earlier, right down to the using the same line. There was the usual huffiness about how many awards it had won, how high profile it was and how 'flattered' she was that her idea 'recycled' (geddit?). The implication clearly being that someone had seen her ad and simply decided to copy it. But I'd be very surprised if someone, somewhere hadn't run the same idea even earlier.
All it really shows is that there's nothing new under the sun. There are thousands of agencies worldwide producing campaigns for tens of thousands of clients over decades and decades. All, generally, have to convey one of a limited number of messages - this product or service is easier / quicker / faster / cheaper / greener and so on. You're inevitably going to get the same ideas occurring over and over again, And no-one can possible follow what everyone else is doing all of the time. So lookalikes are a fact of life.
In fact someone, somewhere has probably already made this exact same point in their own blog...
Advertising haikus
One blog which is renowned in UK advertising circles is Scamp. As well as a lot of insider gossip, there are plenty of more general advertising nuggets to be found there.
A recent entry which caught my eye was about advertising haikus. You know, those little five syllable / seven syllable / five syllable poems.
Here are some of the best (ok, most cynical) ones, instantly recognisable to anyone who's ever worked in an ad agency:
I got a new brief;
It said: "Wanted. Big idea."
Thank God for YouTube.
Direct Marketing
I chose it for a living
Now I want to die
I am a planner
I am in love with my brain
And add no value
Are the ads working?
We cannot possibly tell
So let's just say yes
Account man asks why
The logo can't be bigger
Fuck off cock I sigh
I am an account
handler. I deal with dickheads
all day. Joy joy joy.
And here's the link:
http://scampblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/advertising-haiku.html
Advertising industry resolutions
Here's another insider rant after my own heart. Advertising industry resolutions for 2008. It's written from the American perspective, but as usual, plenty of it applies over here.
I particularly liked:
'We will refrain from making the volume of our ads ridiculously higher than the volume of the show.'
And:
'We will stop using great music over crappy spots.'
Amen to that. One of these mock resolutions puzzled me though:
'We will refrain from anything ambient that uses sewer grates. '
Clearly there are no depths to which the US advertising industry won't sink…
Anyway, here's the full post:
http://advertisingforpeanuts.blogspot.com/2008/01/2008-advertising-industry-resolutions.html
And if that doesn't put you of advertising over here and you need the odd bit of advertising copywriting, have a look at my main advertising copywriting page
What they say about advertising - part 1
Here are some sayings on advertising, with my take on them.
'The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.'
This one is by Bill Bernbach, founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach. This was the agency that helped to kick-start modern advertising back in the 1960s with their famous understated ads for the Volkswagen Beetle.
He made the cars best sellers by highlighting simple truths. Not just about obvious pluses like their reliability, but by making a virtue of the car's diminutive size and odd appearance.
People talk about telling lies in advertising, but the best approach is simply to highlight the truths about your product or service. Mislead your audience and you're likely to end up killing your brand stone dead.
'What you say is more important than how you say it.'
If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative'.
These two are both by David Ogilvy, one of the giants in the industry, and founder of the agency Ogilvy & Mather, still one of the biggest agencies in the world. And they're absolutely true. Saying the right thing is essential. As with the quote above, you need to make sure you choose the right message and be single-minded about saying it.
Trying to say too much at once is like throwing a load of tennis balls at someone - they're going to drop the lot. Throw one tennis ball and they're likely to catch it. Saying the wrong thing is like throwing a cannonball or a ball bearing at them - they're not likely to catch those either.
And to stretch the metaphor even further, throwing your tennis ball in a double loop with one hand while balancing on the other is unlikely to end in the intended person catching it. In other words, don't try to be clever for the sake of it. It's not creative, it's not art, and it's not going to sell.
More quotes next time.
What they say about advertising - part 2
Here are some more bons mots about advertising:
'Asked about the power of advertising in research surveys, most agree that it works, but not on them.'
This wry observation is by Eric Clarke, and it's painfully true. For people outside the business, advertising can be whatever you want it to be: intrusive, boring, the best thing on TV, wicked, you name it...but very few people are willing to admit that it affects them.
But it does work - in some cases brilliantly so. Remember those Smash Martian ads from way back? They propelled Smash from nowhere to being the best selling instant mash. This despite the fact that it was generally agreed that when it came to taste and price, their rivals beat them hands down.
'The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time'
That famous sage Anon apparently coined this one. Like the chocolate manufacturer mentioned in an earlier post who kept advertising during the war, even though their products were largely unavailable, it pays you to keep advertising.
'Advertising is the rattle of the stick inside the swill bucket.'
I rather like this somewhat jaundiced image, penned by George Orwell. Mind you, he was very much a man of his time, and the political insinuations of this saying (those nasty capitalists eh?) don't quite ring true today.
Nowadays, it's the consumer who is more cynical, albeit a more willing participant in the process. To me, advertising today is more like the melodious tones of the dinner gong, politely inviting our pleasurable participation.
'Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.'
I like this one, which was thought up by advertising author and guru Jerry Della Femina. Many years ago, when I was just starting out and trying to get my first job in the business, I had to go to the unemployment office to explain my efforts to find work. When asked why I should restrict my job search to advertising to the employment engineer (or whatever the grandiose job title was), I answered with this quote.
There was a long pause. The already Siberian employment office grew a couple of degrees chillier. Finally, she replied: 'That's all very well, Mr Wise. But having no money is not much fun is it?' Fortunately, I landed a job soon after, so the threat of having my dole money cut never materialised.
And you thought our ads weren't what they were...
You know how you see so few great ads any more? Well, that's not the view from across the pond. Here's what US ad geek Tom Tom writes in his blog: It's a short post, so I'll reproduce it in full:
European vs. US Advertising
I'm off to Europe for 2 weeks and it got me thinking about all the great ads we see here in the states that come from Europe. It makes me wonder if people on the other side of the pond feel the same way about US advertising. Maybe it's because we only see the good work that we assume it's a magically place of fairy dust and lollipops where all clients want is a simple visual solution with a high production budget. So what is it?
Hmmm. Bet they don't get sent all those DFS and PC World ads...
Becoming an advertising copywriter - part 1
As well, as appearing as a search query for my site, this is something I've been asked a few times over the years. So here's my answer.
One important point to bear in mind is that becoming an advertising copywriter is a lot different from becoming a general copywriter. This post looks at the former, particularly in regards to how it works in the UK.
Although a lot has changed since I first became an advertising copywriter about twenty years ago, a lot of what was true then still holds today.
Twenty years ago, when I started out, there was, I think, only one college in the UK offering courses in advertising copywriting, and that was Watford. Today lots do. So when I started, it was perfectly acceptable to simply have any kind of arts degree as your first step towards getting a job. That's arts with an 's', not art. My degree was in History. Others had English degrees. Plenty of other people didn't have a degree at all - if they were talented enough, they could still get hired.
That's because the essential prerequisite for getting a job in any half decent ad agency was to have a portfolio full of fantastic speculative ads. In those days that meant TV, press and posters. Nowadays, of course, you need to factor in all kinds of digital executions.
What you do is to get a portfolio together of prospective ads, hawk it round whoever will see you in the creative department, take their critique onboard, improve the portfolio, see the next person and so on until someone eventually offers you a position. This could take many months, or even longer.
Along the way, you might be offered placements. These last a few weeks or a couple of months and pay not so much peanuts as empty peanut husks. Debate has raged over the years about whether these placements are exploitative, and if so, how much.
Going round from agency to agency is hard work, but it gives you a good initial education in what agencies are looking for. In my next entry, I'll look at what it involves.
Becoming an advertising copywriter - part 2
The majority of all ads are created by two people - the copywriter and the art director. So the best way to be hired is to team up with someone.
When I was trying to get in to the business, if you were a copywriter, you teamed up with an art director. If you were an art director, you often teamed up with… another art director.
Huh?
It's because most people looking to get into ad agencies were from the art colleges and had trained as art directors. There were fewer people who considered themselves copywriters. You'd get two art directors who wanted to work together, they would toss a coin, and one of them would 'become' the copywriter.
Sheer madness.
I believe it still happens, though with the increase in the numbers of colleges offering copywriting courses, hopefully less than it did.
If you're reading this and you're a would-be advertising copywriter, then you're already one up on the unlucky tossers. If it's a copywriter you truly want to be, then you've presumably got a talent for writing, rather than simply coming up with ideas.
Ideas alone could and can get you a job in a high profile agency. But it's writing talent that will really help keep you there. And it's writing talent you need if you want to succeed in the wider copywriting world. You'll also get a lot more work - and have the potential to make a very good living - as a freelance copywriter.
For my next post, I'll look at what it takes to get that first job in an advertising agency.
Becoming an advertising copywriter - part 3
So you've got your art director partner. You've got some ideas for ads. And you've just got in to see a creative director or senior team at an ad agency.
And they've ripped your portfolio to shreds.
Take heart. And notes too. Because that way, you'll improve your portfolio that much sooner.
The one thing you shouldn't take is any criticism as gospel. The person giving the criticism is often right, but sometimes it simply reflects their own particular prejudices. Occasionally, they may simply be having a bad day, or just generally be an arsehole.
If they say they 'don't get' a particular ad, they're probably right and you need to change the ad or drop it altogether. If they simply say they don't like it, they may well be right, but they might not be.
The way to be sure about something is to get further opinions. A total of three different people should do it.
If three out of three people love your ad, you're home and dry. If two people love the ad and one hates it or doesn't understand it, it's worth keeping. There may be a slight change you could make to convince that the third person, or there may not. You can't please all the people all of the time.
If two hate the ad or don't get it. then drop it or change it. And if three out of three people don't like it…you should already have canned it or revamped it when you got to two out of two.
Now use the information to keep improving your portfolio, and eventually, assuming you've got the raw talent, you'll get hired.
In my next post, I'll look at how to choose and work with an art director partner.
Becoming an advertising copywriter - part 4
An essential part of becoming an advertising copywriter in the UK is to get an advertising copywriter. Most ads are created by a team of two, and, generally speaking, you're going to get your first job as a team - and often many subsequent jobs.
Just like a marriage, some teams don't stay together long, others can be together for twenty years or more. Many agencies have joint creative directors, who will have worked together for many years.
And just like a marriage, you need to define your roles, support each other, and provide some give and take.
In my experience, most writers can't draw for toffee. And most art directors can't spell. However, writers should be able to think visually and art directors verbally. Never think your role as an advertising copywriter is purely to write lines. Very often one or other of you will come up with the basic idea. Or maybe the art director will think of a line and the writer come up with the picture. It's then up to each of you to fulfil your roles, crafting the words and visuals to make the best ad possible.
If there's disagreement, the writer should have the final say on the line and the art director on the visual. If you come up with an ad that your partner doesn't rate, then listen to them. If you really, really think they're wrong, then you can always put the ad together and get a second opinion. But don't do it too often. If it happens more than very occasionally, you need to get a new partner.
D&AD Annuals...the look of 'The Book'
Every year, the Designers & Art Directors Association (aka D&AD) awards commendations, bronzes, silvers and occasional golds to the best pieces of work created in the previous year. The range encompasses advertising, illustration, photography, direct marketing and the rest, and the winners are showcased in a special annual. Getting in 'The Book' is generally regarded as the most coveted award in UK advertising.
One of the most interesting things about 'The Book' is what it's going to look like, as every year different designers are given their head and allowed to come up with the most radical idea they can think of for the cover.
Here's an interesting little piece detailing the process, and showing some of the best=known covers from the last forty odd years.
http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek/index.php?thoughtid=243
Most gratuitous use of cleavage in advertising
How do you sell tinned mushrooms? Well, here's one way:
http://bp1.blogger.com/__XCWUd8FFjQ/R-kl3EC2AkI/AAAAAAAADAw/qejUbeOjE6s/s1600-h/fungtastic.jpg
Even thirty or forty years ago, that would have raised a few eyebrows...
Never mind the advertising…just become a copywriter.
Earlier posts referred to the stratagems you need to get a job in an advertising agency. But employment in an ad agency is only one route into copywriting.
You could eschew the whole advertising agency apprentice route altogether. After all, there are plenty of brochures, sales letters, emails, websites, mailpieces, newsletters, catalogues, press releases and so on out there, and they all need writing. (You'll find some examples of mine under Examples of My Work)
If someone asks you at a party what you do, the normal follow-up question is: 'So what have you done that I'll have seen?' If you're an advertising copywriter, you may be able to mention something the questioner will know of. There's rather less kudos attached to an answer along the lines of, 'Well, have you read the latest widgets catalogue?', or 'Have you looked at any pet insurance websites lately?'
You might score more party points, but you still won't get famous as an advertising copywriter. The only famous ones are those who go on to do something else, like Salman Rushdie, Terry Gilliam or Fay Weldon. Otherwise, hardly anyone outside the industry will ever hear of you, however famous, good or awarded your ads are.
So don't worry about being the poor relation if you don't end up doing much in the way of regular advertising. You can get potentially just as much satisfaction from a well-crafted sales letter or an optimised website that proves to be equally attractive to search engines and customers. And you're likely to make more money than the average advertising copywriter too, if you're any good at it.
Some advertising copywriters, it's true, go on to do well as creative directors or start their own agencies. But many more crash and burn long before - those 'Faces to Watch' in Campaign, the leading industry magazine, are often nowhere to be seen in the industry a few years down the line.
Classic ads - Hamlet cigars
YouTube is a rich seam when it comes to unearthing classic TV and radio ads. Some of my favourites were the ones for Hamlet cigars. This classic campaign ran for many years until the complete ban on smoking advertising kicked in a few years ago.
If you're too young to remember them, they all involved situations where something would go subtly or dramatically wrong to someone. The music - Air on a G string - would start up, the unfortunate person would light up a Hamlet, and the mishap would be instantly forgotten.
The best ads were often the most understated ones - as in this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfzhiZ9ZCCw&feature=related
The dreaded agency Christmas card
Sorry to use the 'C' word in the depths of miserable January, but this is something I meant to post a couple of weeks ago and never got around to.
Advertising agencies generally try to make a bit of a splash with the agency Christmas card, what with them being creative and all. Here's a link to a piece showing how a couple of agencies that have really gone to town with all kinds of interactive and post modern whackery:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/blogs/showpost/a41e6cbe-f375-4ba7-a3c3-b3985c516403/
Me, I remember the days when agency Christmas cards were generally just that - pieces of card. I even managed, a long time ago now, to come up with the ideas for the agency Christmas card three years running - for three different agencies. Now if it's not web related and with all kinds of whistles and jingle bells on it, it doesn't stand a chance. Ah well.