UNDERSTANDING THE COPYWRITER:

A GUIDE FOR THE ADVERTISING STUDENT

Thesis for the Degree of M. A.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
DONALD STUART KREGER
1972 '
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 ABSTRACT

UNDERSTANDING THE COPYWRITER:

A GUIDE FOR THE ADVERTISING STUDENT

BY

Donald Stuart Kreger

The copywriter's job is eagerly sought because of

the desire for financial reward, challenge, and recognition.

But what i§_the copywriter? A useful description is that he

is a communicator, dealing in fact, whose purpose is to in!

form and persuade. He is a writer with an understanding of

human motivation, as well as a versatile salesman of pro-

ducts and ideas.

The purpose of this thesis is to give the advertis-

ing student a more intensive analysis of the copywriter than

is generally found in texts on copywriting. The student will

hopefully gain greater insight into the copywriter's person-

ality and professional life. The paper is intended to com-

plement the number of how-to books on copywriting that are

available on library shelves.

The creative person is identified as original, flex-

ible, open-minded, and free from restraints. He is a doer

 Donald Stuart Kreger

rather than a dreamer. The ideal copywriter possesses all

of these traits, plus such specific characteristics as in-

nate writing ability, imagination, a liking and understand—

ing of people, empathy, curiosity, enthusiasm, flexibility,

resilience, a visual sense, and the ability to think logi-

cally.

Most advertising professionals agree that a college

education is a necessity to provide the writer with a broad

liberal background. It also whets his appetite for further

knowledge. The copywriter with natural writing ability can

develop his skills with practice and on-the-job training.

He must also go out and seek new experiences in life, lis-

ten to people and observe their actions, be constantly re-

ceptive to new impressions. Above all, he must genuinely

like peOple.

In developing creative ideas, the copywriter needs

to know about the consumer, the consumer's problems or dis-

satisfactions, the client's product or service, and compet—

itive products or services. He must be involved in and be-

lieve in the product to do an effective writing job. In

approaching the creative solution to a problem, the writer

seeks to establish new and meaningful relationships between

things. The basic steps in the creative process are defin—

ing the problem, accumulating data, digesting the information,

deve10ping alternative solutions, letting the unconscious

 Donald Stuart Kreger

mind take over, and the birth of the idea. Imagination must

be disciplined, however, and relate to the problem at hand

rather than operate unrestrained.

While there are opposing views on the need for writ-

ing rules, most creative people feel that products are so

similar today that the writer needs great latitude in arriv-

ing at creative solutions. The major characteristics of

good contemporary copywriting are the dramatization of facts,

frankness and honesty, freshness and originality, conversa—

tional language, emotional impact, clarity, conciseness and

simplicity.

Most advertising agencies use the writer/art direc-

tor team approach to creative work. This functions best in

an atmosphere of mutual respect and creative freedom. A par-

ticularly successful collaboration of this kind was the Avis

"We try harder" campaign.

The copywriter must satisfy his employer, his client,

government agencies, and his own individual conscience in the

performance of his job. If he evaluates his ethical stand-

ards and refuses to compromise his values, he will be able to

exercise good judgment in whatever situation might arise.

Finally, the copywriter of the future will have to be

even more knowledgeable, imaginative, and empathetic to com-

municate with the consumer in an increasingly competitive en-

vironment. He will also need to be especially patient and

sensitive to people in order to function effectively in a

more restrictive working climate.

 UNDERSTANDING THE COPYWRITER:

A GUIDE FOR THE ADVERTISING STUDENT

BY

Donald Stuart Kreger

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

College of Communication Arts

Department of Advertising

1972
 Accepted by the faculty of the Department of

Advertising, College of Communication Arts, Michigan

State University, in partial fulfillment of the require-

ments for the Master of Arts degree.

ADELE 4‘74uL1.
lirector o Thesi-

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT S

Although a copywriter is influenced by many people

in the course of his advertising career, the people who

usually have the greatest impact (both pro and con) are

his supervisors. There have been four such superiors in

my 11 years in agencies who have helped shape my creative

thinking and my writing talents, such as they were:

Dean Pennington of Gardner Advertising Company, St. Louis;

Fred Czufin of Gardner Advertising Company, New York; Jim

Jordan of Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn, New York;

and Jack Griffin of BBDO, Minneapolis.

On the academic side, I wish to thank Dr. John D.

Simpkins of Michigan State University for his guidance in

organizing the thesis, giving it focus, and keeping it

geared to advertising students. His objectivity, analytical

ability and scholarship have been invaluable.

iii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF PLATES O O O O O O O C C C O I 0
- vi

INTRODU CT ION O O O O O O O O O O C O O 0 . l

Chapter

I. THE COPYWRITER AS A PERSON . . . . 7

The Creative Personality

Qualities of the Ideal Copywriter
Writing Ability
Imagination
Liking and Understanding of People
Curiosity
Enthusiasm
Flexibility
Resilience
Visual Sense
Logical Thinking
Other Traits
Summary

II. THE MAKING OF THE COPYWRITER . . . 32

How College Can Help

Learning on the Job
Improving Through Practice
Life as an Educational Process
Summary

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IDEAS . 43

Knowledge: The First Step

The Need for Belief
Viewpoints on Creativity
The Importance of Discipline
Summary

iv
 Page

IV. THE WRITING OF ADVERTISING COPY . . . . . . 57

Copywriting Rules: Pro and Con

Characteristics of Good Copywriting
Frankness and Honesty
A Strong Central Idea
Originality and Freshness
A Personal, Conversational Style
Colloquial Language
Emotional Impact
Clarity, Conciseness, Simplicity
Summary

V. THE COPYWRITER ON THE JOB . . . . . . . . . 81

The Team System of Working

The Avis Campaign: A Case History

VI. THE COPYWRITER'S CONSCIENCE . . . . . . . . 97

EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE COPYWRITER . . . . . . . . . lOl

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
 LIST OF PLATES

PLATE Page

I. Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars.

So why go with us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

II. When you're only No. 2, you try

harder. Or else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

III. Avis needs you. You don't need

Avis. Avis never forget this . . . . . . . . 91

IV. If you find a cigarette butt in an

Avis car, complain. It's for our
own good 0 O O O C O C C O O I O O O O O O O O 9 2

V. Who do you think of first when you

think of rent a cars? Certainly
not Avis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

VI. If you have a complaint, call the

president of Avis. His number is
CH 8-9150 0 O O O O O O O O I O O O O 0 O O O 94

VII. Avis is only No. 2. But we don't

want your sympathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

VIII. If Avis is out of cars, we'll get

you one from our competition . . . . . . . . . 96

vi
 INTRODUCT ION

Some years ago, the Campbell Ewald agency advertised

for a copywriter. They wanted

. . . a man who can make advertising interesting

. . . The type of writer who worries, every time he gets
an assignment, about how he is going to make his ad
stand out from the sea of ads that will surround his . . .
who sits down and starts to wrestle with his facts and
his intuition and his imagination . . . When he comes
out, in an hour or a day or a week, he's wringing wet.
But he's got an idea. A good idea. A smart, different
dramatic, interesting idea and, boy, does he feel
good . . .

Despite the fact that the ad ran only once in two

publications, it drew a total of 400 replies.

Clearly, the author of the ad was himself demonstrat-

ing the art of copywriting. But the pull of the ad (assum-

ing that jobs were not particularly scarce that year) does

indicate something of the unique character of the copywriter's

job, as well as its rather magnetic appeal.

Why is the copywriter's job so attractive? There is,

of course, the lure of making big money and living the good

life. There is the challenge and glamour of advertising, so

eloquently capsulized in the Campbell Ewald ad. There is the

lJudith Dolgins, "Because He Loves the Feel of Words,"

Printers' Ink, June 14, 1963, p. 18.

l
opportunity for recognition and status; the stimulus of

competiting for success both in the marketplace and in

one's career; the pride of authorship; the fun of working

with exciting people; the variety of work assignments;

the possibility of travel. That these rewards may not all

be forthcoming does not diminish the desire to attain them.

Thus, the copywriter's job is eagerly sought. And, once

attained, is preciously held. "It's a frightening, horri-

bly fast-paced, often demoralizing workday," confesses one

professional, "and I wouldn't trade it for the world."2

Granting the appeal of the copywriter's job, we

still need to know just what the copywriter is, How does

he differ from other professional creative writers and how

is he the same? Arriving at an answer is not simple be-

cause there is a good deal of overlapping between the copy-

writer and his fellow writers. But we shall make an attempt.

Former agency creative director Hanley Norins char-

acterizes the copywriter as a communicator. He bases his

rationale on the fact that the copywriter must communicate

within the tight restrictions of time and space, and to

many kinds of audiences--to consumers, to his colleagues and

to his clients.3

2Charles Michael Boland, Careers and Opportunities

in Advertising (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1964),
p. 72.

3Hanley Norins, The Compleat Copywriter (New York:

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966), pp. 1-8}
 The problem with this definition is that it doesn't

go far enough. The copywriter is indeed a communicator.

But so is the newspaper reporter, editorialist, columnist,

novelist, essayist, playwright and poet. We must then con-

sider that the copywriter is a special kind_of communicator

and proceed from there.

Like the writer of fiction, the copywriter uses

language--with all of its power and beauty--for effective

communication. But the copywriter's world is rooted in

fact, not make-believe. And his major purpose is not to

amuse, divert or entertain (although he may well do this

in the course of his writing). His purpose is to inform,

to motivate, to persuade.

It is this concept of the copywriter as persuader

that moves us closer to an understanding of his role. The

newspaper reporter deals basically in information, as does

the magazine article writer. The essayist is largely con-

cerned with the descriptive arts. And while the editoria-

list and columnist may be interested in persuading readers,

they are primarily concerned with substantive public issues

rather than private commercial gain.

Because the copywriter's persuasion is directed

largely toward the profit motive, we can also say that he

is a salesman. As creative director Jeremy Gury puts it:

A copywriter is, first of all, a writer in the

fullest sense of the word, with a sensitive understand-
ing of human emotions and psychological motivations; he
 is, at the same time, a versatile salesman who knows
how to apply all the arts of persuasion to the prob-
lems of selling in an intensely competitive world.

Copywriter Shirley Milton calls the copywriter "a

combination of hard-headed businessman looking at his own

product and at the competition's, and of a magician weav-

ing a selling spell around a commodity."5 His job, she

continues, is to "create a fundamentally sound selling

idea, then to write the words . . . that will communicate

the selling idea to the potential customer, in terms of

what will motivate her (or him) to buy."6

If we may settle on this definition of the copy-

writer, we may then proceed to the major purpose of this

study: to gain some insight into the nature of the copy-

writer, both as a person and as a creative writer. Al-

though there are a substantial number of texts and articles

dealing with advertising copywriting, they are primarily

concerned with rules and techniques: how to write tele-

vision commercials, how to write headlines, how to write

retail ads, and so forth. This paper is not concerned with

the broad strokes of the copywriting field. Instead, it

4Boland, Careers, p. 73.

5Shirley F. Milton, What You Should Know About Ad-

vertising Cowariting (New York: Oceana Publications, Inc.,
1969), p. 6.
6
Ibid.
focuses on whg_and what_the ideal copywriter is, the 252:

ESEE he goes through in order to do his job, and how we

can identify his writing when we see it.

It is hoped that this study will provide the ad-

vertising student with a more intensive analysis of the

copywriter than is found in most books on copywriting.

The intention is to complement the existing literature by

giving the student a greater understanding and apprecia-

tion of the advertising copywriter's personality and abil—

ities. The student may then be better able to measure his

own talents, interests and aspirations by the model pre-

sented in the study.

This report is organized into six major sections

or chapters. The first chapter is concerned with a syn-

thesis of the ideal copywriter's personality--those qual-

ities deemed essential or helpful to the successful prac-

titioner. The second chapter deals with how the copy-

writer is developed and nurtured through education, obser-

vation and experience. The third chapter discusses the

nature of the creative process, and the fourth chapter

attempts to identify those qualities which characterize

effective advertising copy. The fifth chapter is devoted

to how the agency copywriter works, using the example of

a successful advertising campaign. The sixth chapter dis-

cusses the question of personal ethics and conscience with-

in the pressures and restraints of the copywriter's job.

And, finally, the epilogue takes a speculative look at

the copywriter of the future.

The material for this study has been drawn pri-

marily from published books and articles on copywriting,

advertising and creativity. Quotations are used exten-

sively-—from advertising executives, copywriters, uni-

versity professors and other authors--because they demon-

strate the wide diversity of thought on a range of topics

associated with the copywriter's personality and writing

skills. I

Limitations: Although the present author is an

11—year agency veteran--as a copywriter and associate

creative director--he will try to maintain as much impar-

tiality as possible in presenting the material. Every

writer, of course, is exercising some degree of subjec-

tivity in his selection and organization of material.

This paper is no exception. It should be further pointed

out that this study primarily discusses the advertising

agency copywriter, since most of the published materials

and observations are by agency-oriented people. The study

is also mainly concerned with consumer rather than indus-

trial or other specialized forms of copywriting. This is

because consumer advertising presents the copywriter with

his greatest competitive challenge (especially in the

packaged goods field), and will better demonstrate to stu-

dents those elements which comprise effective advertising

copy.
 CHAPTER I

THE COPYWRITER AS A PERSON

The Creative Personality

Creativity, we learn, shows up in early child-

hood. We identify the creative child as

. . . original, independent, flexible, open-

minded, imaginative, inquisitive. He 'plays with
ideas', doesn't settle for obvious answers to prob-
lems. Ordinary people trust hard facts; creative
types are intuitive--they look beyond facts to what
might be.1

According to psychologists, the creative person

is characterized by his

. . . high level of intelligence, his openness

to experience, his freedom from restraints, his
aesthetic sensitivity, his cognitive flexibility,
his independence in thought and action, and his
strivings for solutions to the more difficult prob-
lems he sets for himself.2

Industrial psychologist Jesse S. Nirenberg has

listed what he believes are the characteristics of the

"Creative Kids," Changing Times, July, 1963,

p. 37.
2
C. H. Sandage and Vernon Fryburger, Advertising
Theory angPractice (Homewood, 111.: Richard D. Irwin,
Inc., 1967), p. 313.
successful advertising person. They seem particularly

relevant to the creative copywriter:

1. The ability to see relations between various

parts, so they can be combined into new wholes (ab-
stract thinking).
2. The tendency to view situations in large-per—
spectives or wholes rather than a part.at a time.
3. The emotional freedom to try new arrangements
or combinations. He (the advertising man) must be
unafraid to be different.
4. Understanding human behavior.
5. Verbal Fluency.
6. Judgment of design (more important for the
art director).
7. Drive to create (the creative man must have
both the creative resources and the will to create).

Another list of qualities inherent in creative

people is provided by a special issue of the Kaiser Alum-

inum News. Based on a broad spectrum of resources, the

Kaiser list includes:

1. Inherited sensitivity. Children reflecting

their parents' musical, literary, artistic or scien-
tific talents.
2. Early training. Creativity can be nurtured
in a creative famIIy environment.
3. Liberal education. Creativity is fostered by
a questioning attitude instilled by teachers and
courses of study.
4. Asymmetrical ways of thought. The creative
person finds an original kind of order in disorder.
_ 5. Personal courage. The creative person is not
afraid of failure. He has a good opinion of himself.
6. Sustained curiosit . Capacity for childlike
wonder. The creative person never stops asking ques-
tions.
7. Not time-bound. The creative person does not
work by the clock. Time lacks a social meaning.

3S. Watson Dunn, Advertising Copy and Communica-

tion (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1956), p. 16.
 8. Dedication. An unswerving desire to do some-
thing. ProbIéms cannot remain unsolved or feelings
uneXpressed.
9. Willingness to work. Perhaps no one in society
works harder. The creaEIVe person is constantly look-
ing for solutions;4 .

Don Tennant, former creative director of the Leo

Burnett agency, thinks of creative people as degrgj people

who "go ahead and do what other people simply daydream

about. They are the people who have learned that the key

to being creative is to act. The so-called 'creative per-

son' stands out in a crowd not so much for what he has done,

but because of what others do not do."5

Qualities of the Ideal Copywriter

The c0pywriter, of course, is more than just a

creative person. He is a particular Eifl§.°f creative per-

son, possessing a distinctive set of characteristics to

some extent and in some combination. What follows in this

chapter is a composite portrait of the ideal copywriter by

advertising professionals and academicians.

A good copy man, writes veteran copywriter Hal

Stebbins, must be "a humanist, a realist, a bell-ringer

all in one . . . He must be sensitive and sensible. He

‘Uohn 8. Wright, Daniel 8. Warner, and Willis L.

Winter, Jr., Instructor's Manual to Accompany Advertisigg,
3d ed. (New York: McGraw—Hill Book Company, 1971), p. 55.

ESSandage and Fryburger, Advertising Theory, p. 303.

 10

must have a sense of imagery harnessed to a sense of

practicality."6

Authors Burton and Kreer elaborate further on

the contrasting qualities of the copywriter:

He's a realist--yet imaginative. He's an en-

thusiast--yet coldly practical. He's a business-
man-—yet something of an artist. He likes and knows
people, but he would just as soon not have them
around when he writes . . . He's an individualist--
but he writes for the masses. He may have formal
education--but his strength is in his knowledge of
simple human relations. He's likely to be sensitive--
but he must fight for his ideas . . . He's varied, 7
many-sided, yet he's guided by one impulse--to sell.

ProfessOr George Timothy Clarke believes that a

copywriter must be

. . . courageous, to be himself; inventive, to

find the new; flexible, to adapt to better techniques;
sensible, to know when he's wrong; thoughtful, to ex-
plore all possibilities; imaginative, to see beyond
the commonplace. The copywriter must know and under-
stand people and what makes them tick . . . The copy-
writer must have patience, inspiration, and a sense
of sales. He must be disturbed by an insatiable
curiosity and be willing to satisfy it by digging out
meaningful details . . . He must think clearly . . .
set down his thoughts logically for others to follow
. . . He often thinks daringly, is not fearful that
his fresh ideas . . . must_be subdued just because
they are different.8

'6Hal Stebbins, Copy Capsules (New York: McGraw-

Hill Book Company, 1957), p. 15.

'7Philip Ward Burton and G. Bowman Kreer, Adver-

tising Copywriting (London: Prentice-Hall International,
1962)! p- 10.

8‘George Timothy Clarke, Copywriting: Theory and

Technique (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), p. 8.
 11

To determine the qualities that make up a good

copywriter, Elbrun Rochford French surveyed 126 profes-

sional copywriters and received a total of 642 charac-

teristics. The most frequently mentioned were:

Talent and skill 34.1%

Vivid, creative imagination 22.2
Selling ability 20.6
Curiosity 19.0
Understanding of people 17.3
Interest in and liking for people 17.3
Intelligence, brains 16.5
Understanding business 14.3
Enthusiasm 13.5
Visual sense 13.5
Ability to organize work 10.3
Enjoyment of writing 10.3
Deep love of writing 9.5
Sense of humor 7.1
Patience 7.1

Other qualities brought out in the survey were

hard—working, gregarious, an ear for speech and language,

ability to survive criticism, inquisitiveness, self-

discipline, a logical and analytical mind, self-confidence,

tenacity, pride in work, good taste, and an insight into

people's behavior.9

In another and larger survey, Professor S. Watson

Dunn asked 410 copywriters in agencies, retail stores,

newspapers, and radio and TV stations what qualities seemed

to be most important for copywriters. As might be expected,

creative ability was mentioned most (86%), followed by

9Elbrun Rochford French, ed., The Copywriter's

Guide (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), pp. 441-446.
 12

getting along with others (63.6%), selling ability (57.9%),

and the ability to take criticism (29%).10 The high rank

of getting along with others probably reflects the close

working relationships the copywriter has with colleagues,

clients and others involved in the creating of advertising.

From this broad perspective of the copywriter, we

now move to a close-up view of certain key traits.

Writing Ability

"Being able to write," says writer Don Rivers, "is

a gift you're born with. It can be polished, directed and

disciplined; but no amount of cramming or tutoring can

make a writer out of you if the original spark is not

there."11

The viewpoint is shared by some of advertising's

veteran creative men. "Creative talent typically shows

up early in life," writes James R. Adams. "People who can

write reveal their capacities while in grade school . . .

People who are truly creative are creating." 12 Charles

Brower, former chairman of Batten, Barton, Durstine &

Osborn, agrees that good writers are writing in the

10Dunn, Advertising Copy, p. 17.

11Don Rivers, Your Career in Advertising (New York:

E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1947), p.731.

12James R. Adams, Sparksggff My Anvil from Thirty

Years in Advertising (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958Y,
p. 39.
 13

elementary grades. "You cannot learn creative writing

any more than you can learn to have measles," he says.

"Either you have it or you don't."13

"A good copywriter," says agency head Draper

Daniels, "begins with an ability to write, a respect

for writing, and a liking for writing." Although Daniels

feels that you cannot be a good copywriter unless you can

write well, writing ability itself is no guarantee of suc-

cess. Too many other qualities are necessary.14 Agency

creative director Walter O'Meara believes that if a person

has natural writing ability, you can make a copywriter out

of him.15 What O'Meara cannot say, of course, is how gggd

a copywriter that individual may become.

Former agency copy chief Charles Whittier relates

the ability to write to the ability to think. The ability

to write, he says, presupposes the ability to think and ex-

press thoughts in a way that makes them clear, vivid, in-

teresting, convincing and persuasive. The ability to think

includes the individual's awareness of when he is thinking,

and the self-discipline to make himself think.16

3Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 11.

l41bid.
15"Clarke, Copywriting, pp. 215-217.
1 . . . . .
6Charles L. Whittier, Creative Advertising (New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955), pp. 42-46.
 l4

Imagination

Imagination may be defined as the mental synthesis

of new ideas from elements experienced separately. "With-

out imagination," says Walter O'Meara, "you have essays,

dissertations and arguments. With it, you have copy that

sells."17

Professor George Burton Hotchkiss lists imagina-

tion (or vision, as he called it) as one of the three in-

born qualities he believes a copywriter must have (the

other two being common sense and sincerity). He describes

vision as the ability to see beneath the surface, to per-

ceive relationships not apparent to the casual eye. This

capacity, says Hotchkiss, grows through use and feeds on

facts--knowledge of people and products, history, science

and literature.18

For many products these days, notes one observer

of the advertising scene, the gply difference between com-

petitive brands is the advertising. Now, for the first~

time in the agency business, he says, a premium is being

placed on imagination.19 Thus, a course for businessmen

becomes "a wonderful two years' trip at full pay"; a

17Clarke, Copywriting, pp. 215-217.

18George Burton Hotchkiss, Advertising Copy, 3d.

ed. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1 1 PP- - .
19
Robert Glatzer, The New Advertising: The Great
Campaigns from Avis to Volkswagon (New York: ’The CitadeI
Press, 1970) I p. 100
 15

cardiogram is a "telegram from the heart"; and a car re-

jected by quality control becomes "a lemon."20

The ideal copywriter should possess a bent for

metaphor, a talent for association. His mind should al—

ways be open, receptive to inspiration. In fact, adver-

tising has been characterized as a "what if" business.

"What if," for example, "we conjured up the aroma of

freshly brewed coffee by recreating on television the

rhythmic sound of coffee percolating?" This is what must

have occurred to the Maxwell House copywriter when he

created that TV commercial in the late 1950's.21

Burton and Kreer warn the writer, however, that

his imagination must be earth-bound and willing to hold

itself to the limitations of the product, the market and

the budget. What is really needed, they say, is practical

imagination.22 Professor Hotchkiss labels this quality

common sense. The writer may have his head in the clouds,

but his feet must-be anchored firmly in the ground.23

20Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 10.

21Bernard Ryan, Jr., So You Want to Go inpgAdver-

tising (New York: Harper & Brothers, 19617, p. 45.
22
Burton and.Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, pp.
l3-16.
23
Hotchkiss, Advertising Copy, pp. 16—20.
 16

Liking and Understanding of People

"The difference in writers," says veteran writer

Walter Wier, "is essentially a difference in human under-

standing--a difference in the strength of the desire to

want and understand other human beings and to communicate

with them."24

Former copywriter and agency head George Gribbin

agrees. "I think central to the good writing of adver-

tising," he said in an interview, "is a person who has

developed an understanding of people, an insight into

them, a sympathy toward them." 25 Gribbin further observed

that "a good writer can never be a snob; a snob sets him-

self apart from people rather than being one of them.

That's suicidal for a writer."26

"People," writes copywriter Rena Nelson, "are a

copywriter's special field of knowledge." Like the great-

est salesmen, the greatest copywriters like and understand

people. These writers have a special sense of what makes

24Walter Wier, On the_Writing of Advertisements

(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966), p. 123.
25
Denis Higgins, The Art of Writing Advertising:
Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George
Gribbin, David Ogilvy and Rosser Reeves. (Chicago, Ad-
verti§ing Publications, Inc., 1965), p. 51.
26
Ibid., p. 69.
 17

people tick--what makes them laugh, cry and dream. They

have a keen discernment of basic human needs and desires.27

Agency creative director Nadeen Peterson discussed

this aspect of the copywriter's personality in a speech to

the American Association of Advertising Agencies:

For me, copy derives its ability to persuade from

two separate and distinct sources. One is everything
that makes up the message and the other is everything
that makes up the receiver of the message. To be
effective . . . it is not enough just to know how to
write the copy in a clever or witty or concise manner.
You have to understand the peggon you're talking to
and write it 59 him (or her).

A knowledge of human behavior, then, is considered

essential to the competent and successful copywriter. He

must be something of an amateur psychologist, with a dash

29
of anthropologist and sociologist thrown in. Charles

Whittier suggests, however, that you can't understand peo-

ple unless you like them and they like you.30

"What it comes down to," says Draper Daniels, "is

a true understanding of people--their hopes, fears and

27John J. P. Odell and Rena L. Nelson, ed., To

Market, To Market: A.Book on Advertising andtMarketng
by Experts in the Profession (Highland Park, IIIf: Al
Collins Publishers, Inc., 1965), pp. 48-49.

8Nadeen Peterson, "Persuasion—-COPY: Candor and

Conscience"(paper from the 1972 annual meeting of the
American Association of Advertising Agencies, March 18,
1972).

29Boland, Careers, p. 75.

30Whittier, Creative Advertising, pp. 42-46.

 18

frustrations, and what makes them do things. Some of

this is instinctive, some can be acquired simply by grow-

ing older with one's eyes, heart and pores open."31

Central to an understanding of other human beings

is our ability to empathize with them, to project ourselves

into their roles. "Who could be more unperceptive," says

copywriter Shirley Polykoff, "than the writer who talks

about the average person, meaning everybody but himself.

Isn't it true that, for the most part, what appeals to me

appeals to you?"32

Empathy is difficult for the writer to cultivate

because products, appeals and audiences vary so much. Yet,

the versatile copywriter must try to empathize with every-

one. "He not only has to imagine how the stuff is going

to look," says copywriter Harry Hartwick, "but how it will

be received."33

Describing his approach to creating an ad, Leo

Burnett explained that he tries "to get a picture in my

mind of the kind of people they are . . . how they use

this product, and . . . what it is that actually motivates

31Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 11.

32"Think It Out Square, Then Say It With Flair,"

Broadcasting, December 4, 1967, p. 48.
33
Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 11.
 l9

them to buy something . . ."34 To be able to get this

mental picture that Burnett is describing is to possess

empathy.

Curiosity

"Learn to look at things," says famed copywriter

Bernice Fitzgibbon ("Nobody but nobody undersells Gimbels"),

"as if you had never seen it before in your life . . . I

believe that the one common denominator among the success-

ful copywriters has been this sense of wonder-~this holy

curiosity.”35

Leo Burnett has also taken note of this quality.

"It seems to me," he has written, "that a great many peo-

ple would be better writers if they didn't think that their

functions began and ended behind a typewriter. Curiosity

about life in all its aspects . . . is still the secret of

great advertising people.36

In some respects, the good copywriter is like the

good newspaper reporter--ferreting out information to sat-

isfy his desire for facts. The curious copywriter wants

34Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 43.

35Willard A. Pleuthner, 460 Secrets of Advertising

Experts (New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1961), p. 82.

36Leo Burnett, Keep Listening to that Small Wee

Voice (American Association of Advertising Agencies, i962),
p. 18.
 20

to know what things are made of, how they work, what makes

people buy, what makes them notice an ad, what makes them

read it.

The copywriter, says Hanley Norins, should be dili-

gent in his own field and a supreme dilettante in all others.

The wider his range of interests, the more and better tools

he has to do his job.37

Enthusiasm

"When something really excites me," says copywriter

Judy Blumenthal, "I know it's right. But the idea has to

work in all directions. It has to make sense with the pro-

duct, not just by itself. Most of all, it has to be ex-

citing."38

This capacity to become enthusiastic, to view each

new assignment as a challenge can have an inspirational ef-

fect on the copywriter. The God of the writer's moment,

says Hanley Norins, is the subject he's writing about. It

completely absorbs him, carries him along on a wave, and

pushes him so intensely into solving problems that he has

neither time nor inclination for negative thoughts.39

37Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 9.

38"Portrait of a Copywriter," Marketing/Communica-

tions, March 12, 1965, p. 26.
39
Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 11.
 21

It is not surprising, then, that some of advertis-

ing's outstanding writers approach their work in this spir-

it of excitement. William Bernbach is described by one of

his colleagues at Doyle Dane Bernbach as having "an abso-

lutely childlike enthusiasm for something great." 40 And

former agency head George Gribbin thinks that a writer

should be "joyous, and an optimist, rather than a cynic.

Anything that implies rejection of life is wrong for a

writer, and cynicism is a rejection of life.41

Flexibility

This trait, says Hanley Norins, takes the longest

to cultivate. It grows as the writer himself matures.

Flexibility is not be be considered as indecisiveness, but

rather as open-mindedness. "The wings of an airplane are

built to 'give' so they won't snap," writes Norins. "Copy-

writers, too, are supposed to move through a lot of turbu-

lence." Adds account supervisor Dave Cleary: "Have convic-

tions, but don't be rigid."42

Norins feels that the copywriter should be flexible

in the true spirit of the scientist. He quotes author

Rudolph Flesch to the effect that what we need "is an attitude

40Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 17.

41Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 69.

42Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 12.

 22

of distrust toward our own ideas." As soon as we have an

idea, we should immediately try to disprove it.43

Charles Whittier also reminds the writer to keep

an open mind and to judge ideas on their merits rather

than on their source. You can't think of everything your—

self, Whittier points out, so seek ideas from other people.

If a good idea is offered you, grab it.44

Resilience

There once was a writer named Bryant,

Whose actions were often defyant,
You'd pencil his stuff,
He'd fly in a huff,
And stick out his tongue at the clyent.45

"If you're hypersensitive," advises writer Jerome

Cowle, "you'd better stay away from advertising copywrit-

46
ing." The copywriter, Cowle continues, must be able to

survive pressure and operate efficiently no matter how

great the stress. He must have the resilience to bounce

back from rejection and start over with renewed enthusiasm.47

43Ibid.

44Whittier, Creative Advertising, pp. 42-46.

45Rivers, Your Career, p. 33.

46Jerome M. Cowle, How to Make Big Money as an Ad-

vertisipg Copywriter (West Nyack, New York: Parker Pub-
liSHing Company, Inc., 1966), p. 35.
47
Ibid., p. 36.
 23

Copywriter Sidney Olson describes resilience as "the abil-

ity not to die inwardly when your little flower is trampled

on."48

BBDO president Tom Dillon discussed the need for

the copywriter to be both sensitive and thick-skinned:

The greatest difficulty a writer must face lies

in the fact that his work is going to be changed and
worked over by others . . . The writer who is unable
to accommodate himself to the reality of writing
somebody else's message . . . and not over his own
signature . . . gets shaken out of the agency field
quickly.

A copywriter . . . in order to be a good one . . .

must be sensitive to people and people's reactions . . .
yet he must be thick skinned when it comes to criticism
of his work. The combination of a thick skin in respect
to his own problems . . . and a sensitivity in respect
to the problems of others is an unlikely combination . . .
which is why it's relatively difficult to find the good
copywriter. 9

Burton and Kreer agree that the writer just can't

afford to be a prima donna. He must learn to appreciate

justified criticism, and make the best of unjustified crit-

icism, too. He must give gracefully when he is overruled

and not let it bother him. A sense of humor, they add, is

a great help in adjusting to criticism.50

The copywriter of today must work within a frame—

work of restraints, restrictions and requirements. His work,

48French, Copywriter's Guide, p. 443.

49Boland, Careers, pp. 74-75.

50Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, pp. 13-16.

 24

in Tom Dillon's words, must "pass through a sieve of in-

spection by client and agency attorneys, product techni-

cians, consumer testing panels, network acceptance com-

mittees and other checks and balances.”51 His copy is

reviewed by account executives, agency plans boards and

various client levels. "Suggestions" and "improvements"

may come at any time from any quarter. Ads and commer-

cials may undergo research and be overhauled or killed

altogether. And budgets may be cut, rendering ideas im-

practical or impossible.

Is it any wonder, then, that the copywriter must be

resilient, durable and especially patient--patient to come

up with ideas and patient to start over again should his

ideas be thrown out.

Visual Sense

"A copywriter needs to think graphically," says

Shirley Milton. "Visualization shares with the headline

the task of capturing the attention of the potential con-

sumer. It is natural, then, that the copywriter who will

write the headline must also think about the visualization."52

51Statement by Tom Dillon in behalf of the joint ANA-

AAAA Committee before the Federal Trade Commission, October 22,
1971.

52Mi1ton, What You Should Know, p. 49.

 25

The copywriter should also be able to think of the

ad as a ghplg, not just in terms of the copy he will write.

He should be able to "see" the finished ad in his mind's

eye, and thereby manage to evaluate its total impact on the

reader. Many ads today derive their major thrust from a

close integration of words and pictures. So the writer's

responsibility is to the ad in its entirety, not just to

the copy. For example, after the first landing on the moon,

Volkswagon ran an ad showing the moon lander with the single

copy line: "It's ugly but it gets you there." Here was a

concept in which the picture and the words depended totally

on each other.

The advent of television has demanded that the copy-

writer learn to think visually. "Copy has long since lost

the meaning of written words," says Bob Forman, former BBDO

creative head. "Copy is anything that acts as a selling

message. A minute of film with no words at all is copy in

a TV commercial."53

Logical Thinking

The copywriter must think clearly, says Professor

George Timothy Clarke, and set down his thoughts clearly

for others to follow.54 He must be able to take a complicated

53"The Copywriter--From Word Mechanic to Total Commun-

icator," ponsor, June 29, 1964, p. 28.

54Clarke, Copywriting, p. 8.
 26

problem, strip it away to its essentials, discard whatever

is superfluous, and then present it in logical, step-by-step

fashion to other people.55

It takes judgment (usually developed through exper-

ience) to be able to sort through information and decide

what is useful and important, and penetration to be able to

cut through to the heart of the problem and recognize the

56
major factors necessary to its solution. With the ability

to think logically, the copywriter is able to present his

message from start to finish without getting sidetracked.57

Other Traits

Charles Whittier believes that the copywriter should

maintain a questioning attitude, midway between skepticism

and gullibility. The writer should want to know all the de-

tails and see proof before accepting things at face value.

Whittier also feels the copywriter should be something of a

sentimentalist rather than too much of a sophisticate. This

58
will allow him to empathize more with his audiences.

Draper Daniels looks for a natural sales sense in

the copywriter--a commercial instinct that leads the writer

55Ryan, So You Want, p. 45.

56Whittier, Creative Advertising, pp. 42-46.

57Ibid.
58
Whittier, Creative Advertising, pp. 42-46.
 27

straight to the buyer's line of least sales resistance.

If the copywriter does not possess this ability naturally,

he will need to acquire it through experience.59

Burton and Kreer view the ideal c0pywriter as a

perfectionist, checking facts, polishing words, making his

copy a piece of careful, coordinated work. He does the

very best he can to write as well as he possibly can. The

authors also feel that the writer should possess a diver-

sified knowledge which enables him to write on a variety

60
of subjects.

Professionalism is the key word to writer and author

Clyde Bedell. "If you write copy," he says, "you should

know your business. The dilettante may think an ad is good

or bad. The professional usually knows it's good or bad--

and why. And, equally important, he can tell you.“61 To

be a professional, Bedell asserts, you must master the body

of knowledge in the field, keep up with the evolving truth

the field develops, and work with a sense of obligation to

the professional body and the public.62

Copywriter Tom Murphy believes that the advertising

writer must be very much aware of what things cost, what

59Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 11.

6°ibid., pp. 13—16.

61Clyde Bedell, How To Write Advertising That Sells
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1952), p. 7.
62
Ibid.
 28

company makes what products, current advertising campaigns

and techniques, and so forth.63 Murphy also lists initia-

tiyg_and desire as important characteristics for the copy-

writer. The writer must use every hour on the job produc-

tively and not always wait to be led. And (given the tal-

ent), he must have the desire to do the best possible job

in order to succeed.64

Agency head Mary Wells Lawrence talks about the

three things she seeks in a writer: "Talent, which we take

for granted; people who have a good deal of just plain com-

mon intelligence; and also people who are humble enough to

appreciate all the help they can get from other people."

The extra she looks for is that a person combine "talent

and taste with an ability to take information and use it."

Mrs. Lawrence also confesses a liking for people who are

"hungry for money" because "it does give you a certain

drive."65

Summary

This chapter has identified and discussed some two

dozen attributes of the ideal copywriter, based on the

63Tom Murphy, "Advertising Copywriting," Writer's

Digest, January, 1971, pp. 32-33.

64Ibid.
65Don Grant, "If It Isn't Terribly Well Done, I'm a
Little Miserable," Advertising Age, April 5, 1971, pp. 1,
57, 58.
 29

observations and writings of advertising professionals

and academicians.

Many of these qualities are closely related, if

not identical. A writer who is flexible, for example,

will certainly be resilient in the face of criticism.

A writer with imagination will undoubtedly possess a

visual sense. A sentimentalist will almost necessarily

have some degree of empathy. And a writer who is curious

will most likely maintain a questioning attitude.

It should be remembered, too, that this is an idggl

portrait, not an average or typical one. We can say with

some certainty that the outstanding advertising copywriters

have an acute imagination and use it in their work. But

dull and pedestrian copy is being written by professional

copywriters with little imagination or creative spark.

Like any other form of writing--novels, poetry, drama--

there is good and bad copywriting, brilliant and hack

copywriters.

Besides imagination, most successful copywriters

exhibit a sense of empathy, a logical mind and the ability

to visualize the "whole" of a creative entity. Resilience

is a quality of almost purely practical import. The copy-

writer cannot function in a vacuum. He must write for his

clients. And if he cannot take criticism and bend his will

to others, he will not be able to operate effectively. Cur-

iosity can also be considered an applied characteristic.

".
 30

The outstanding copywriter may not be curious all the time.

But when he needs information, he will investigate his sub-

ject thoroughly from all angles and with great tenacity.

By the time a student reaches college age, the

chances are that he will either have exhibited some affin-

ity for writing or not. But whether this writing ability

can be directed and shaped will depend on factors discussed

in the next chapter, dealing With education, experience and

writing practice.

In essence then, the outstanding copywriter seems

to combine within himself an early liking and talent for

writing, a mind that is at once imaginative and logical,

and a genuine affection for people. All the rest appears

to be subordinate or capable of cultivation.

Perhaps the best single summary of what it takes

to write advertising copy was given by copy chief Leonard

Loveridge:

It takes a heart more than a brain. If you can't

feel, you can't write . . .

It takes knowing that sincerity, more than excite-

ment or cleverness makes an ad go over, and it takes
work to give your ads a likable personality . . .

It takes the maturity to accept whatever life

throws at you and still feel good about it .~. .

It takes knowing that whatever you're.selling isn't

going to revolutionize anybody's life. And people
wouldn't be taken in by any such hogwash anyway . . .
You were hired to.sell merchandise, not your soul. You
know that if you can convince peOple that your product
is going to make their lives a little better or pleas-
anter, you've done your job . . .
 31

You like yourself enough to like other people.

You don't take things too seriously, including your
product. You're willing to admit it's fallible . . .
Nobody expects--or wants--you to be perfect.

You're able to sympathize with people because

you're smart enough to know you're not much different.
You may have been to school a few more years than the
parking attendant, but he may know things you'll never
learn. He could probably tell you that what it takes
to be a copywriter is mainly just being a human being.66

66Leonard Y. Loveridge, "What It Takes To Write

Copy," Printers' Ink, May 27, 1966, p. 66.
 CHAPTER II

THE MAKING OF THE COPYWRITER

"A person is born with a certain capacity for

learning," says creative head Don Tennant, "with certain

latent talents and abilities, and with a certain potential

emotional and intellectual capacity. But from birth on . . .

how these capacities and talents are directed, trained, en-

couraged and shaped determine how they will be expressed--

as a plumber, an artist, a diplomat, or a copywriter."1

Advertising director Karyl Van identifies several

factors that are important to the copywriter's development.

"Family environment is one. The desire to write, which is

nurtured by advanced education is another . . . a broad

knowledge or background which increases the person's ability

to have ideas . . . is a third factor that develops the copy-

writer after he is born."2

How College Can Help

"What education cannot do," said one college presi-

dent, "is prepare men and women for specific jobs. All it

1-Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 12.

2Ibid.
32
 33

can do is train their minds so that they can adjust them-

selves to any job."3 David Ogilvy agrees that a college

education seldom teaches people to write well. But it

extends their general education for four years and gives

them a more diversified background of knowledge.4

This seems to be the prevailing view today among

advertising executives: that a college education is a

necessity because it develops the writer's background,

stimulates his desire for further knowledge, and gives him

the tools to seek it out.5

In addition to specific advertising courses, the

student interested in copywriting as a career will probably

benefit from coursework in journalism, communication, English,

marketing, sociology, psychology, consumer behavior, econ-

omics, history, literature, drama, music, art, philOSOphy

and anthropology.

Another value of college is that it provides the

student with the opportunity to expand his social frontiers

and become involved with other people. This concept is ex-

plored further in the last part of this chapter.

3Ibido I p. 21.

41bid., p. 19.
5Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, pp.
19-21.
 34

Learning on the Job

The copywriting staffs of most large advertising

agencies are a heterogeneous collection of educational

backgrounds and job histories. There are English grad-

uates, music graduates, people from industry and the arts.

There are former engineers, jewelers, chemists, architects

and secretaries. David Ogilvy himself did not come to

copywriting until he was 39, following a checkered career

as a researcher and door-to-door salesman, among other jobs.

"I wouldn't go for too many routinized men in my

copy department," says William Bernbach. "I pull 'em in

from all over the lot. I think it tends to give them a

fresh point of view, an outside point of view. And what

there is to know about advertising, we teach them later."6

"The best kind of training for a copywriter," agrees

Rosser Reeves, former chairman of the Ted Bates agency, "is

to work in a big advertising agency under people who know

what they are doing."7

In Professor Dunn's survey of 410 copywriters--dis-

cussed earlier in this paper--the writers were asked what

kind of experience was most helpful to a copywriter.

6Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 12.

7Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 98.

 35

On-the-job training came first (79%), followed by selling

experience (39.7%), advertising courses (37.9%) and psy-

chology courses (24.3%).8

Improving Through Practice

"No amount of practice will make a c0pywriter out

of anyone who doesn't have the talent," says James R.

Adams, "but all the talent in the world won't make a copy-

writer without practice."9 i

Draper Daniels agrees. "A copywriter needs to be

born with certain natural abilities, but he needs to work

hard to develop them to the full in order to become a

really good copywriter."10

In the French survey of 126 copywriters cited ear-

lier, the respondents were asked how copywriters could in-

crease their skills. Practice came first (47.6%), reading

books was next (40.5%), watching and listening to people

was third (23.8%), and studying ads was fourth (23%).11

Clearly, for the writer with inherent ability, there is

no better way to improve than to keep writing.

8Dunn, Advertising Copy, p. 20.

9
Adams, Sparks, p. 79.

10Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 11.

11French, Copywriter's Guide, p. 418.

 36

"Most of the fine writers in every field," says

writer Victor Schwab, "including copywriting, have one

thing in common. They worked hard and wrote much. Their

tireless industry produced a quantity of acceptably good

work. And out of their practice and experience came

flashes of exceptional work, shot through with insight

and effectiveness."12

Life as an Educational Process

"The dedicated creative person," writes Walter

Wier, "can at no time afford the luxury of living only his

own life, of cozily insulating himself within the fuzzy

cocoon of his own point of view." As he moves among people,

the creative person reacts in an "incoming" rather than an

"outgoing" way. "His mental and emotional pores are con-

stantly open, absorbing the eminations of others, storing

up within his secret self the stuff and dreams of all man-

kind."13
One best prepares himself for communication, says

Wier, "by learning to love and genuinely loving all the

countless other human beings with whom he inhabits the

earth."14

12Victor O. Schwab, How To Write a Good Advertise-

ment (New York: Harper and Row, 1962i, p. 220.

l3Wier, Advertisements, p. 35.

l41bid., p. 39.
 37

What the writer needs, Hal Stebbins believes, is

"Observation, Retention, and Selection. You have to ob-

serve and remember. You have to read and retain."15 You

simply take what you have seen, read, heard and remember,

he says,"and then you add yourself. And it is precisely

because you add yourself that it is so important to culti-

vate resources within yourself; to keep regenerating the

only battery that regenerates and perpetuates itself--

the human mind; to store in your subconscious storehouse

memories and images that will step out of the wings when-

ever they get their clue from you."16

Art director William Taubin advises creative peo-

ple to soak up everything they see, everything they hear--

to become a sponge of experience rather than a sponger.

"Your best ideas," he says, "will come from life around

you. From people's faces in the subway. From the news-

papers. From wonderful books you read. From things you

observe in the movies and in plays."17

"You will find that something which moved you

deeply ten or twenty years ago," he continues, "will sud-

denly pop into your mind to provide the ideal solution to

15Stebbins, Capsules, pp. 8-9.

16Ibid., p. 5.
l7Pleuthner, 460 Secrets, p. 232.
 38

a current problem. It must come from deep inside you . .

and then the ad will come to life for other people."18

Be observant, urges creative man Charles Anthony

Wainwright. Listen to the language of the cab driver and

the counterman, the conversation of neighbors; listen to

kids talking at play; be attentive to phrases overheard

in busses and stores. By listening and observing, you

can find out what people think. The writer's job, he

says, is to reach people. And to reach people, you must

understand their likes and dislikes, the way they talk,

and the way they think.19

Wainwright feels that the copywriter must make

a conscious effort to break his habits and routines. He

must look for new people and new ideas every day of his

life. He must begin to read books, magazines, newspapers,

even product labels.20 "Life is grist for the creative

advertising man," says James R. Adams. "Wherever he goes

and whatever he does, he should keep his eyes and ears

open. "21

Writer Aesop Glim defines this receptiveness to

new impressions as "wide-mindedness." In the course of

18Ibid., p. 233.
19Charles Anthony Wainwright, The Television Copy-
writer (New York: Hastings House, 1966), pp. 68—70.

20Ibid.
21Adams, Sparks, p. 49.
 39

time, he says, the copywriter will have occasion to draw

upon almost everything he knows. And the more he has to

draw upon, the richer his copy. The writer must not con-

fine his readings to his own narrow interests, or his ob-

servations only to those people he finds most congenial.

Most of the products and services he will deal with cut

across all lines of social strata, geography, and educa-

tion. He should therefore go out and observe people's

home life, business life, travel and play. He should

visit automobile showrooms, hardware stores, paint stores,

laundromats, wherever goods are sold and services performed.22

The copywriter's education never stops for a minute,

says copywriter Shirley Milton. "They are always 'in the

marketplace,‘ always listening, testing, curious about what

is new. They are always critical of products, of perfor-

mance, measuring promise against actual use, and critical,

too, of themselves."23

"There is no new art show," she continues, "no new

gadget that is unimportant to a good copywriter. Who knows

24
where the next bright idea will come from?" As David

Ogilvy puts it, a good writer cannot write good ads until

22Aesop Glim, Copy--The Core ofAdvertising) 2d

rev. ed.;(New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 6),
pp. 25-26.

23Milton, What You Should Know, p. 6.

24
Ibid.
 40

he has "immersed himself in the marts of trade" and has

"studied the realities of salesmanship."25

Agency head Dick Lord advises writers to "Be hep.

Know what's going on around you in the world and all the

little worlds within it. I've never met a good copywriter

who was a dull person."26 And Bernice Fitzgibbon sees a

concrete benefit--the development of taste--resulting from

this eXpansion of the writer's vistas. "The person who

gets ahead," she observes, "makes a steady day-to-day ef-

fort to understand what is beyond him. He keeps looking

at things, and listening to things . . . that at first

don't appeal to him. Eventually, his tastes change and

he catches up with what lies beyond him."27

Summary

This chapter takes a wide-angle view of the fac-

tors that help shape the advertising copywriter. Cer-

tainly one of the major requirements of the copywriter's

job is versatility: the ability to write on a wide range

of topics. A college education not only provides the stu-

dent with a broad general background, but also gives him

the opportunity of seeking out information. It gets him

into the research habit.

25
Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, p. 11.
26
Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 106.
27Pleuthner, 460 Secrets, p. 83.
 41

The copywriter never knows when he will need to

call upon his storehouse of knowledge. The principles

he studied in psychology or consumer behavior may serve

him later in developing a creative approach for a new

product. His readings in literature or drama may help

provide the setting or situation for a television commer-

cial. His grounding in marketing or economics may give

him a better understanding of the client's distribution

problems. His education is always there, ready to be

used.

Working in an advertising agency or in the adver-

tising department of a company is obviously the fastest

way to learn the advertising business and develop writing

skills. But any kind of selling exPerience--working in a

retail store, a gas station, a supermarket—-gives the stu-

dent another kind of liberal education. The copywriter

who must sell clothing or gasolene or canned peas through

his writing is infinitely better prepared to write if he

understands first-hand what goes on where these items are

sold: how the salespeople function, how the customers

react, and the give-and—take of making a sale.

Reading books and magazines; studying ads and

television commercials; attending plays, concerts, films,

art shows and exhibits all contribute to the writer's

general education, and better enable him to do his job.

From the student's reading comes a greater awareness of

 42

storytelling ability, structure and the use of language.

From current advertising comes the development of judg-

ment in evaluating ads and commercials for interest value

and communication. From drama, art and music come new

styles and techniques which can be adapted for advertis-

ing layouts, and television and radio commercials.

Finally, the copywriter can derive most of his

executional ideas from a conscientious study of human

behavior. How much more realistic and believable will

be his radio and TV commercials if they are rooted in a

study of people. It is this "shock of recognition."

based on astute observation, that has made many advertis-

ing campaigns come to life for readers and viewers. The

observant copywriter will pick up conversation--from chil—

dren at play, from truck drivers in a cafe--that can later

be recalled when a new approach is needed for that peanut

butter or anti-acid account.

The making of the copywriter is a complex and on-

going process. But the key to the process is initiative.

The writer must shake off his inertia, break out of his

comfortable routine, go out into the world and accumulate

some experiences.
 CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IDEAS

Knowledge: The First Step

Discussing the creating of advertising, William

Bernbach boiled it down to this: "You must be as simple,

and as swift, and as penetrating as possible. And it

must stem from knowledge. And you must relate that know-

ledge to the consumer's needs."1

Copywriter Shirley Polykoff put it another way:

"We feel we not only have to know everything there is to

know about the product, but everything there is to know

about the people we want to sell it to."2

Knowledge, then, is the vital first step in the copy-

writer's pursuit of creativity. Citing the number of prepa-

tory stages that Michaelangelo went through before putting

chisel to marble, motivational researcher Dr. Ernest Dicter

concludes that

Creativity was based, in his case, and probably is

in all cases on the systematic, logical, and step-by-
step accumulation of facts . . . It is our conviction

lHiggins, Art of Writing, p. 17.

2
"Think It Out Square," p. 48.

43
 44

that true creativity cannot exist without this fac—

tual foundatign. Insight and genius need something
to work with.

BBDO President Tom Dillon defined the three steps

that must preceed the development of creative work.4 The

first step, he said, is to identify the prime prospect for

your advertising message--that group of individuals to

whom the advertising should be directed. These are usually

the high frequency buyers who make the brand decision.

The copywriter needs to know how many of these

heavy users there are among total customers, and what per-

centage of the product they consume. (The heavy user, for

example, may constitute only one-third of tptgl_prospects

but consume two-thirds of the product.)

Information is needed on how the prime prospect

differs from the average prospect by age, income, family

size, race, ethnic origin, occupation, life style and

other factors. The writer needs to know where the prime

prospect lives, how and when he uses the product, and so

forth.

The second step is to determine the prime pros-

pect's problem: what he likes and dislikes about the

product category, the client's product, or competitive

3John S. Wright, Daniel S. Warner, and Willis L.

Winter, Jr., Advertising (New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1971), p. 366.
4
Statement by Tom Dillon before the FTC.
 45

products. These problems are both tangible (stains that

won't come out of clothes) and intangible (taste, psycho-

logical attitudes). Interviews with consumers can help

to uncover latent problems, since most peOple have some

dissatisfactions with almost everything: scent, size,

shape, feel, ingredients, effectiveness, etc. The impor-

tance of uncovering consumer problems is underscored by

creative director Nadeen Paterson. "You have to sympathize

with the reader," she says, "gplyg a problem for him and

then you can sell your prOSpect."5

The third step is to examine the product or ser-

vice in the light of what has been learned about the prime

prospect and his problems in the decision process. This

usually requires the creative man to personally involve

himself in every detail of the product: performance, pack-

aging, ingredients, and how it compares with the competi-

tion.

This need of the c0pywriter to know and understand

his product or service is well documented by some of the

outstanding creative people in advertising. "I try to

drench myself in the product," says former Doyle Dane

Bernbach c0py chief Phyllis Robinson, "and then--by free

association--just let go . . ."6 C0pywriters Ron Rosenfeld

5 D

Peterson, "PersuaSion."

6"Comments of a Copy Chief," Advertising Age, J91Y 15'

1968' pp. 47-480
 46

(a DDB alumnus) and Rena Nelson agree. "Basically, copy

comes out of the product," says Mrs. Nelson. "Stay with

the product. End with the product. It is the 'hero' of

the piece."7 Rosenfeld advises writers not only to in-

volve themselves with the product but to ggpg about it.

"So many ads are unconvincing," he says, because they

lack this excitement."8

Both Phyllis Robinson and Ron Rosenfeld developed

their creative philosophies under creative genius William

Bernbach, who is particularly intense on relating crea-

tivity to the product. "Your cleverness, your provocative-

ness, your imagination and inventiveness must stem from

your knowledge of the product," he says.9 This is why the

copywriter must know his product inside out before he

starts work. "You've got to get steeped in it. You've got

to get saturated with it," insists Bernbach.lo

Leo Burnett looks for the "inherent drama" he be-

lieves is in every product--that special something that:

makes people continue to buy the product. The writer's job

is to discover that special something and capture it in

7Odell and Nelson, To Market, pp. 48-49.

8"The Creative Life of a Doyle Dane Copywriter,"

Marketing/Communications, July 23, 1965, p. 67.

9Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 17.

10John S. Wright and Daniel S. Warner, ed., Speaking

of Advertising (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.,
1963), p. 313.
 47

the advertising.11 It takes a good deal of digging, of

course, to come up with that elusive something. And this

may be why copywriter Janet Munro claims that "three-

fourths research and one-fourth talent maketh the great

. "12
copywriter.

The Need for Belief

Can the copywriter do his most effective work with-

out some personal commitment to his subject? David Ogilvy

thinks not. "Good copy," he feels, "can't be written just

for a living. You've got to believe in the product."13

William Bernbach asserts that belief in the pro-

duct's worth transcends even writing skills. "What you

believe is going to come across even if you don't have the

skills your competition has," he says. "Now, if you can

combine skill with a deep belief, you're way ahead of the

game."14

Discussing what makes copy and commercials dull,

Leo Burnett senses that "the writer really doesn't know

what he is writing about and has no personal conviction

11Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 44.

12Merrill De Voe, Effective Advertising Copy (New

York: The MacMillan Company, 1956), P. 88.

l3Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 86.

14
Ibid., p. 24.
 48

about it. As a result, he writes all around it, over it,

under it, and never does succeed in making contact with

the busy flesh—and—blood people to whom his words should

be addressed." No writer will ever really succeed, Burnett

believes, until he knows how to reduce his subject to its

simplest terms, "until he develops some sincere convictions

about it; and until he musters the courage to feel and act

like a human being when a blank piece of paper stares him

in the face."15

Researcher Alfred Politz argues that the advertis—

ing man, if he believes that a product has a right to be

on the market, has an obligation to find an approach "which

makes the product look good and thereby interesting." "If

a product has features worth paying money for," he continues,

"it must have features worth paying attention to." 16 It is

the writer's task to find out what these features are and to

present them with conviction to his audience.

"I do not believe," says Walter Wier, "that one can

be a cynic and communicate effectively. Full communication

occurs when belief follows in what is said, and belief im-

plies faith and trust in the person communicating."17

15Burton and Kreer, Advertising Copywriting, pp. 5-6.

16Wright and Warner, Speaking, p. 246.

l7Wier, Advertisements.
 49

Viewpoints on Creativity

"Our species is the only creative species," writes

author John Steinbeck, "and it has only one creative in-

strument: the individual mind and spirit of man."18 But

what i5 creativity?

Dr. Gary Steiner, in The People Look at Television,

describes it as "the ability to produce and implement new

and better solutions to any kind of problem."19 Leo Burnett

believes that the real key to creativity "is the art of es-

tablishing new and meaningful relationships between previously

unrelated things in a manner that is relevant, believable and

in good taste."20

Most conceptual definitions of creativity would in-

clude the joining together of two or more elements to form

a new unity with some meaning or purpose. These elements

may seem irrelevant. But when they are joined (say, to form

an advertising message), the recipient of the message will

become interested because he is hearing and experiencing

this new unity for the first time. The copywriter who con-

cocted "Alka Seltzer on the Rocks" as a cooling aid to summer

18Albert C. Book and Norman D. Cary, The Television

Commercial: Creativity and Craftsmanship (New York: Decker
Communications, 1970?) p. 2.
19
Ibid 0

20Burnett, Keep Listening, p. 9.

 50

stomach upsets was joining an alcoholic drink concept to

proprietary medicine. The result was a bright, fresh

idea.

The creative copywriter is expected to have the

kind of mind that is able to see new relationships in old

concepts, to see new ways of presenting familiar products.

"If your idea is good," says copywriter Ed Graham, who

wrote the famous Bert and Harry Piel campaign, "it has to

be different from any idea ever done. That will be its

biggest advantage. And it will also be its biggest draw-

back. Old ideas . . . have something to be measured

against."21

Unlike many other creative writers, however, the

copywriter can't sit around and wait for inspiration to

strike (although it may strike whether he is sitting around

or not). He must be creative on demand, usually within a

specified framework of time. He must put the creative pro-

cess to work.

"What you do," says famed advertising writer James

Webb Young, "is take the different bits of materials which

you have gathered and feel them all over, as it were, with

the tentacles of the mind. You take one fact, turn it

this way and that, look at it in different lights, and feel

21Joyce, "Idea," p. 108.

 51

for the meaning of it. You bring two facts together and

see how they fit."22

Hal Stebbins views creativity as a dual process:

"You build up by imagination. You tear down by analysis.

You sift and sort. You select and reject."23

A number of writers have outlined steps in the

process of getting ideas.24 If we were to put together

a composite list, it would include most of these stages:

Orientation or Definition: This first step is

concerned with defining the problem and understanding

its nature. Without agreement on what the problem is,

there is no way to judge whether the ideas produced

will solve it.

Preparation or Accumulation: This next step in-

volves the gathering of raw materials--the information

that is needed to solve the problem. Facts are assem-

bled, data is sifted and analyzed.

22James Webb Young, A Technique for Producing Ideas

(Chicago: Advertising Publications, 1949). PP. 42-43.
23
Stebbins, Capsules, p. 10.

24In addition to James Webb Young, see Alex Osborn,

Applied Imagination (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1963); Harold Rugg, Imagination (New York: Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc., 1963i; Paul Smith, ed. Creativity: An
examination of the Creative Process (New York: Hastings
House Publishers, 1959); and Rudolph Flesch, The Art of
Clear Thinking (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.,
1951). See also Sandage and Fryburger, Theory and Practice,
pp. 312-313; and Joyce, "Idea," p. 110.
 52

Digestion or Cerebration: You ponder on the prob-

lem. Your mind ranges over alternative solutions. You

work over the material mentally, weigh all conceivable

elements in all conceivable combinations.

Incubation or Gestation: Your subconscious mind

now takes over the problem. As James R. Adams says,

"A creative man's best work is done when he isn't

supposed to be working at all."25

Illumination or Elation: This is the birth of

the idea, the solution of the problem-~what Harold

Rugg calls "the flash of insight."26

Alex Osborn tells us that the process of creativity

is necessarily "a stop-and-go, catch-as-catch-can operation,

one that can never be exact enough to rate as scientific."27

Hal Stebbins agrees that each creative person must find the

method that works best for him (such as taking a walk). He

believes that copy is written in the head, not on the type-

writer, and that putting it on paper is just a detail. The

writer should be so full of what he wants to say that he has

to write it just to get rid of it."28

25Adams, Sparks, p. 50.

26Rugg, Imagination, pp. 11-19.

27Osborn, Applied Imagination, p. 115.

28Stebbins, Capsules, pp. 11-12.

 53

Copywriter Shirley Milton considers creative think-

ing a skill that must be cultivated intensively and con—

sistently:

All creative thinking is basically a manipulation

of memories, a re-arrangement of fragments of memory.
It has been said that man cannot create anything ab-
solutely new. All his experiences are based on mem-
ories, impressions of experiences, his own or vicar-
ious experiences that he has studied, or read, or
heard about, or seen depicted in pictures or in films.29

She lists the three major supports on which a

writer's output largely depends: First, wideness of educa-

tion (learning experience and its continuance); Second, con-

tinued experiences of the world about the writer, and a will-

ingness to have strong impressions of these experiences; And

third, the ability to make use of all the techniques for get-

ting ideas.30

The Importance of Discipline

"All great craftsmen discipline their creative work,"

says David Ogilvy.31 William Bernbach agrees. "It's not

hard for anybody to get ideas," he says. "The important

thing is to recognize when the idea is good. You must have

imagination, you must have inventiveness, but it must be

disciplined. Everything you write, everything on a page,

29Milton, What You Should Know, p. 43.

3°Ibid., p. 44.
31De Voe, Copy, p. 88.
 54

every word, every graphic symbol . . . should further the

message you're trying to convey . . . You measure the suc-

cess of any work of art by how well it's achieved its pur-

pose."32

Bernbach also insists that one cannot be creative

until he has crystalized into a single purpose, a single

theme what he wants to tell the reader. "For merely to

let your imagination run riot," he says, is npt being

creative . . . The creative person has harnessed his imag-

ination. He has disciplined it so that every thought,

every idea, every word he puts down . . . makes more vivid,

more believable, more persuasive the original theme."33

The waste baskets in the Doyle Dane Bernbach copy

department, says former copy chief David Reider, "are full

of ideas that are fresh, new and exciting." But they don't

reach the client, he continues, because they won't sell.34

Creativity has always meant selling," says Bernbach. "The

primary responsibility of truly creative people is not just

to exercise creative freedom, but to know what is good crea-

tive work and what is merely pretentious acrobatics."35

32Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 17.

33 Wright and Warner, Speaking, p. 313.

34"Total Communicator," p. 28.

35Wright and Warner, Speaking, p. 318.

 55

Researcher Alfred Politz argues that too many ad-

vertising people confuse imagination with creativeness.

Imagination, he says, is a fundamental requirement of ad-

vertising professionals. Creativeness is the advanced

form of imagination. It is used purposively by abiding to

rigid rules and meeting practical conditions. Imagination,

Politz continues, needs the discipline of organization, se—

lection and constructiveness. Like Bernbach, he believes

that creativeness is the opposite of pure freedom of imag-

ination.36

Finally, Rosser Reeves puts the matter in practical

terms: "The art of advertising," he says, "is getting a

message into the heads of most people at the lowest possible

cost . . . We should subordinate our own creative impulses

to that one over-all objective."37

Summary

This chapter is concerned with the process that the

copywriter must go through before he is ready to sit down

at his typewriter and put words to paper. The process is

a very deliberate and systematic one. In essence, the

writer must prime his creative pump with facts. He must

learn everything there is to know about the object (the

consumer) and the subject (the product) of his creativity.

361bid., p. 245.
37Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 108.
 56

The amount of information and research available

to the copywriter will, of course, vary with the nature

of his subject matter, the funds set aside for gathering

data, and the time allotted to get the job done. But the

writer must make a determined effort to absorb everything

he can get hold of that might provide him with working

material for his imagination.

There is no one foolproof method of getting ideas

once the writer has done his homework. The human mind is

a strange and wonderful mechanism and we are far from solv-

ing all its mysteries. But we SEE say that out of the in-

formation we feed into it—-mixed with all of our life mem-

ories and experiences—-will come the insights we need to

solve our creative problems. We must have the training

and discipline, however, to recognize when our solutions

are workable. And, in this endeavor, experience is the

best teacher.

The process of gathering information is one that

can be learned by doing. And given the gift of a creative

mind, the copywriter can even cultivate his creative re—

sources with diligent practice and application. For the

copywriter, unlike many other creative writers, must force

his creativity to function under pressure. And the sooner

he begins training himself to do this, from his earliest

years, the better prepared he will be for the stringent

demands of a copywriting career.

 CHAPTER IV

THE WRITING OF ADVERTISING COPY

In the preceeding chapters, we have examined the

qualities of the ideal copywriter (imagination, under-

standing of people, etc.); the important factors that

influence his development (education, writing practice,

observation, etc.); and the processes by which he gets

his ideas (knowledge-seeking, free association, etc.).

Now we are ready to relate the ideal copywriter

to the pp£k_he produces--to characterize the outstanding

copywriter by the quality of his writing. The best of

contemporary copy can be analyzed for common points of

excellence. And that is the major purpose of this chap-

ter: to describe the ideal copywriter by writing ability

instead of by personality factors.

Before we can do this, however, we must first

ask: to what extent (if at all) can rules of good copy-

writing can be formulated to insure success? A good place

to begin is with a historical perspective.

Cgpywriting Rules: Pro and Con

In one of the earliest books on advertising (Good

Advertising in 1896), Charles Austin Bates argued that

57
 58

advertising is news, and that to be effective, it must be

presented in news fashion. Copywriter John Kennedy in

1904 developed the thesis that advertising is "salesman—

ship in print," and that to make people buy, you must give

them a "reason-why."l

Claude Hopkins, the reigning genius at the Lord

and Thomas agency from 1907 to 1924, developed reason-why

copy for such clients as Schlitz (bottles "Washed in live

steam"), Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice ("Grains that are

shot from guns"), and Palmolive Soap ("Keep that school-

girl complexion"). Hopkins was fond of coining such pro-

nouncements as "all advertising disasters are due to rash-

ness," "people do not buy from clowns," and "the brilliant

writer has no place in advertising."2

The most famous rule-maker in contemporary adver-

tising is undoubtedly David Ogilvy. And the staunchest

foe of copywriting rules is probably William Bernbach.

Content is more important than form, says Ogilvy.3 To

which Bernbach replies that execution can become content.

It can become just as important as what you say.4

lDolgins, "Feel of Words," p. 126.

2Ibid., p. 127.
3
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising_Man
(New York: Atheneum, 1964), p. 93.

4Dolgins, "Feel of Words," p. 118.

 59

Himself a former researcher, Ogilvy claims that

all of his ideas about what constitutes good copy derive

from research, not personal opinion.5 He insists that

all major ads and commercials be tested before they run,

and he recognizes that one value of research lies in de-

fending proposed campaigns to the client. "It's hard for

clients to argue with research," he says. "They all use

it in their own business." 6 Most of his research is con-

cerned with the testing of copy lines.

Ogilvy's copywriting rules are legion: Humorous

copy doesn't sell. Include the brand name in the head-

line. Inject maximum news in the headline. Use testi-

monials. Use women or babies to attract women. Use men

to attract men.7

"Research,' counters Bernbach, "has created a

lot of advertising technicians who know all the rules."

They can tell you that babies and dogs will attract
more readers. They can tell you that body copy should
be broken up for easier reading. They can tell you all
the right things and give you fact after fact. They're
the scientists of advertising. But there's one rub:
advertising is fundamentally persuasion3 and persuasion
happens to be not a science but an art.

5Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 79.

6Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 88.

7Ogilvy, Confessions, pp. 89-128.

8Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 17.

 60

"All I want," he says, "is for the idea to convey

memorably (and because it's memorable, it must be fresh

and original) the advantages of our product. Now if break-

ing every rule in the world is going to achieve that, I

want those rules broken." 9 Art director William Taubin

(who once worked for Bernbach) agrees: "Don't hesitate

to break the rules. If everyone heads east, then you go

west."10

Hanley Norins observes that the writer should know

the rules, but be suspicious of them. He quotes account

supervisor Dave Cleary's warning that "rules have a way of

turning into ruts."ll

Author Leo Bogart notes that the so-called text-

book rules of advertising (i.e., keep the headline short,

have one dominant illustration) are being constantly vio-

lated by copywriters with great ideas. All these rules,

he says, vanish into the air when we look at individual

campaigns. The great idea that captures the public's fancy

never comes by the book and never comes from looking at what

worked so well in the past.12

9Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 20.

10
Pleuthner, 460 Secrets, p. 233.

llNorins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 14.

12Leo Bogart, Strategy in Advertising (New York:

Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1967), p. 81.
 61

William Bernbach makes the point that businesses

and products are so similar today that advertising needs

imaginative and original craftsmen who can "take that sell-

ing proposition, and through the magic of their artistry,

get people to see it, get people to remember it." 13 The

writer must make the consumer Eggi something about the pro-

duct. Everybody is saying that he is the best, Bernbach

observes. "What counts is the artistry with which you say

it so that people will believe it."14

Returning to the content of advertising, Bernbach

takes the position that it is simply not enough to say all

the right things. You can have all the right things in

your ad, all the important copy points. But if no one is

made to stop and pay attention, you've wasted your money.15

"Things have to be said that motivate people," Bernbach

concludes. "The difference is the art."16

Will Shelton, former agency head, believes that

creativity is a blend of art and science. The copywriter's

first job, he says

. . . is to provide mind-openers--interesting new

thoughts, persuasive new facts,ifresh new concepts.
What we in the business call advertising ideas. His

13Wright and Warner, Speaking, p. 313.

14Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 18.

15Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 14.

l6Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 17.

 62

second job is to lodge these ideas deeply and firmly

into the prospect's mind. This calls for clear com-
munication. As mind-opening is an art, and communi-
cating a precision skill, the best advertising is a
happy combination of art and science, idea and execu-
tion, theme and technique. Often there are many dif-
ferent, possible answers to the two questions of what
to say and how to say it But always . . . both ques-
tions must be answered.17

Characteristics of Good Copywriting

If the copywriter's task could be boiled down to

just a few words, those words might well be: to make the

facts come alive. As creative director Pat Gallagher puts

it: "Anyone can state facts about a product, and maybe

even state them clearly." But the copywriter, he continues,

must state his facts so compellingly and so dramatically

that his writing equals or betters the content of the maga-

zine or TV program that carries the advertising. "The

point of view," says Gallagher, "must be expressed in a way

that gives 'voltage' to the idea behind the statement of

the facts."18

Copywriters Charles Ewell and Paul Margulies of

Doyle Dane Bernbach had the task of communicating the fact

that every Volkswagon gets many coats of paint. Under a

photograph of a steel VW chasis, they wrote the headline:

"After we paint the car we paint the paint."

l7Boland, Careers, p. 74.

18Ibid., p. 73.
 63

You should see what we do to a Volkswagon even

before we paint it.
We bathe it in steam, we bathe it in alkali, we
bathe it in phosphate. And then we bathe it in a
neutralizing solution.
If it got any cleaner, there wouldn't be much
left to paint.
Then we dunk the whole thing into a vat of slate
gray primer until every square inch of metal is covered
inside and out.
Only one domestic car maker does this. And his cars
sell for 3 or 4 times as much as a Volkswagon.
(We think the best way to make an economy car is
expensively.)
After the dunking, we bake it and sand it by hand.
Then we paint it.
Then we bake it again, and sand it by hand.
Then we paint it again.
And sand it again by hand.
So after 3 times, you'd think we wouldn't bother
to paint it again and sand it again. Right?
Wrong.

What gave "voltage" to the facts in this Volkswagon ad

was a vivid way of describing three coats of paint ("paint-

ing the paint"); Plenty of detail (bathing in steam, alkali,

phosphate, etc.); and repetition ("Then we bake it again,"

etc.). The ending of the ad ("you'd think we wouldn't

bother to paint it again") allowed the reader to answer the

question and participate in the ad. It also provided a mem-

orable finish.

Television also offers outstanding examples of drama-

tizing the facts: A chimpanzee operating a Xerox machine to

show how easy it is; a woman giving herself a permanent in

an expensive evening gown to point out that it makes no mess;

shaving a peach to prove the Remington Electric Shaver shaves

 64

close without irritation; and subjecting Johns-Mansville

roof shingles to the prop wash of a DC—6 to demonstrate

wind-resistance.19

Besides bringing facts to life, the best of con-

temporary copywriting has a number of other important

attributes in common:

Frankness and Honesty

Most students of today's advertising scene would

probably agree that copy (and advertising generally) is

much less pretentious than ever before. Advertising for

Volkswagon and Volvo, to pick two outstanding examples,

seems to reflect the recognition that consumers want basic

information but are not making life and death decisions.

Most good contemporary advertising appears to take an honest

View of the client's product--its shortcomings as well as

its advantages. The enlightened advertiser makes little

effort to hide his product's limitations and even antici-

pates objections. He reasons that his claims will be more

believable by an honest recitation of his product's dis-

advantages. These disadvantages, of course, are never

really terribly damaging, and are ultimately turned into

pluses for the advertiser. Despite Professor Clarke's

19Norins, Compleat Cgpywriter, p. 154.

 65

caution that the copywriter must not be deprecatory to

his product, Volkswagon has made ugliness an affectionate

symbol of the car's practicality and continuing value.

"I think the best copywriters respect the reader,"

says copywriter Judy Blumenthal. "The reader recognizes

and reacts in a reciprocal way . . . I dislike ads that

take me for a fool as a consumer . . . the 'newest,‘ the

'greatest,‘ the 'best'--any kind of generality, unless

20
you can really prove it true." "The cardinal sin of

advertising," warns James R. Adams, "is boastfulness.”21

And one of David Ogilvy's more uncontested rules is:

Avoid superlatives, generalizations and platitudes.22

Lest contemporary advertising men delude them—

selves into thinking they invented honesty, we must go

back to the 19th century and read the work of c0pywriter

John E. Powers for the John Wanamaker store in Phila-

delphia. Powers had a fetish for clean layouts and pithy

sentences (which came to be known as "Powerisms.") He

was also reputed to be a fanatic for honesty. Then he

asked one of the Wanamaker managers what items should be

featured in the next day's newspaper, the manager replied:

"Well, we have a lot of rotten gossamers and things we

20"Portrait," p. 26.

21Adams, Sparks, p. 85.

22Ogilvy, Confessions, p. 108.

 66

want to get rid of." The salesman was shocked to find in

the next day's Wanamaker ad: "We have a lot of rotten

gossamers and things we want to get rid of."23

A Strong Central Idea

This is absolutely essential for good advertising,

says copywriter Shirley Milton. She claims it adds vital-

24
ity, believability, interest and memorability. David

Ogilvy goes so far as to say that a compaign will be sec-

ond rate unless it is built around a central theme.25

And James R. Adams believes that an ad should make only

one key, compelling point, and that all other ideas should

be subordinate.26

As early as the 1880's, Nathaniel Fowler was ad-

vancing "The Fowler Idea" of putting one main concept into

an ad and hammering away at it. Fowler was an arch foe of

whimsy and humor in advertising and contributed the first

important book to the profession, Building Business, in

1892.27 His views on advertising were personified over a

half-century later by Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates agency.

23Dolgins, "Feel of Words," p. 122.

24Milton, What You Should Know, p. 47.

25Ogilvy, Confessions, p. 95.

26Adams, Sparks, p. 83.

27Dolgins, "Feel of Words," p. 122.

 67

Reeves was also a bitter foe of humor in advertising and

a strong believer in finding the "unique selling proposi-

tion" for a product. Once the key selling idea was arrived

at, always out of some product advantage, ("M & M candies

.melt in your mouth, not your hands"), Reeves hammered away

at it for years to the tune of millions of dollars.

Supersalesman Albert Lasker, head of the Lord and

Thomas agency during the early part of the present century,

had three basic advertising principles: (1) Develop a

central sales idea, (2) Having a central sales idea, give

it news, and (3) Having a central sales idea, make it sing.

Lasker believed that any advertising man could develop a

central theme and give it news, but that only a skilled

master could make it sing.28 Most of the singing was done

by copywriter Claude Hopkins, whose slogans for Schlitz,

Puffed Rice and Palmolive Soap were quoted above in this

chapter.29

No matter what their creative philosophy, most ad-

vertising men would agree on the need for a strong central

selling idea, particularly in view of the increasing num-

ber of competitive products with similar performance cap-

abilities. The reader is reminded of William Bernbach's

28De Voe, Copy, pp. 88-89.

29See the section on Advertising Rules: Pro and
Con in this chapter.
 68

observation earlier in this paper that you cannot be crea-

tive unless you have crystalized into a single purpose,

a single theme what you want you tell your audience.30

Originality and Freshness

"I think the most important thing in advertising,"

says Bernbach, "is to be original and fresh."31 "Unless

you say things freshly, unless you say them originally,

unless you say them with imagination, you bore people.

And the most expensive thing . . . is boring people."32

David Ogilvy agrees: "You can't bore people into buying.

You can only interest them."33

Bernbach notes that it's a knowing world today

with informed consumers and a great many good products

with similar characteristics competing for the same

group of customers. And though it takes hard work to

present one's story memorably, it pays off in results.

"Just be sure," he cautions, "that your advertising is

saying something with substance, something that will

30See the section on The Need for Discipline in

Chapter III.
31
Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 12.

32William Bernbach, "Creativity in Advertising,"

The International Advertiser, Fall, 1971, p. 21.
33
Ogilvy, Confessions, p. 97.
 69

inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you are say-

ing it like it's never been said before."34

"Your impact with the consumer," he continues,

"will be in direct proportion to the originality of your

presentation. A unique selling proposition is no longer

enough. Without a unique selling talent, it may die."35

Bernice Fitzgibbon reminds copywriters that "no

ad is ever sought out and read by anybody except the per-

son who wrote it or the one who paid for it." 36 And she

has coined this motto for herself: "When I am dead, let

only this be said. 'Her sins were scarlet but her ads

were read.'"37

Why does there seem to be so little advertising

that is fresh and daring? Leo Bogart suggests that "ad—

vertising plans are made by businessmen, they involve

large sums of money, and there is a strong conservative

resistance to the offbeat."38

Another reason is that it is difficult for fresh

ideas to survive the gamut of scrutiny and review at var-

ious agency and client levels. "Suggestions" and "improve-

ments" may turn offbeat ideas into very ordinary ones.

34Bernbach, "Creativity," p. 22.

3522;93

36Pleuthner, 460 Secrets, p. 82. .

37l2i9-

38Bogart, Strategy, p. 81.

 70

Still a third reason is the "curse of copycatting."

What better way to insure against misfire than to copy a

successful campaign. The problem with imitative advertis-

ing is that an idea may become so overly familiar that it

begins to generate ridicule or even resentment. This

follow-the-leader trend also tends to eliminate differences

between products and may only confuse the consumer.

Despite all the obstacles, however, there does seem

to be a definite groundswell toward fresh, bright copy.

Some examples:

For Pakn-it underwear: "Man does not shrink after

washing. Nor should his T-shirt."

For Volvo: "Break the new car habit."

Forguaker Oats: "Does it make sense to jump out

of a warm bed and into a cold cereal?"

For Ronzoni Spaghetti Sauce: "The government

makes you say 'Flavored with Meat' when you don't

put in enough meat to say 'Meat.'"

For Air Jamaica: Photograph of a girl in a bikini.

"Defrost in 3 hours."

For the Peace ngps: "Make America a better place.

Leave the country."

For El Al Airlines: "We don't take off until every-

thing is Kosher."

For Shell: A man furtively empties an auto ashtray

onto the street. "What have you done to your coun-

try lately?"
 71

For Modess Napkins: "You buy a grapefruit more

intelligently than you buy a sanitary napkin."

For Mobil: A driver sits behind the wheel of

his car. “The most dangerous defect in today's

cars."

A Personal, Conversational Style

"Don't try to write," says Hal Stebbins. "Just

try to say something." 39 His point, of course, is that

copy should sound like conversation, not "writing."

James R. Adams advances the same argument. "A lot of

people may buy a given product," he says, "but they do

it one by one." He advises the copywriter to conjure

up another person and talk directly to him or her.40

The key words here are "another person" (instead of peo-

ple) and "talk" (instead of write).

Creative director Nadeen Peterson has concluded

that copy represents the writer's personality. She points

out that Shirley Polykoff's Clairol copy ("Is it true that

blondes have more fun?", "If I have one life to live, let

me live it as a blonde") sounds exactly like Shirley

Polykoff. "It is warm and understanding and she embraces

your problems with a nice motherly hug and tells you

39Stebbins, Capsules, p. 15.

4°Adams, Sparks, p. 81.

 72

everything will be all right . . . She understands the

soul and psyche of a woman with a headful of mousecolored

hair."41

Copywriter Stan Burkoff advises the writer to

"persuade through his typewriter the way he'd try to per-

suade in conversation. He should clarify the subject mat—

ter quickly. He should state his product benefit quickly.

He should try to use conversational language. And his

claims should be meaningful."42

Finally, Hal Stebbins believes that "copy is some-

thing you can study; but something you can't copy. Use

your own imagination. Draw on your own creative resources.

43
It may be wonderful. It may be terrible. But it is you."

To quote Emerson: "Every mind is different; and the more it

is unfolded the more pronounced is that difference."44

Colloquial Language

"Copy must live," says Nadeen Peterson. "It must

be alive . . . It must complement the product the way the

two parts of a marriage complement one another."45

41Peterson, "Persuasion."

42Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 52.

43Stebbins, Capsules, p. 5.

44Ibid., p. 6.
45 l

Peterson, "PersuaSion."
 73

Copywriter Judy Blumenthal agrees that "the language of

an ad is important. I feel very strongly about how it

sounds. The copy should be a pleasure to read."46

Most copywriters would undoubtedly support David

Ogilvy's rule of using the same colloquial language that

customers use every day.47 Says Hanley Norins: "The

copywriter must speak with the voice and listen with the

ear of the audience. He must be tuned into the vibra-

tions of the multitude and find the means of expression

which is of common interest to all."48

If you talk people's language, observes copy-

writer Tom Murphy, by inference you understand them.

And if you dpn;2_understand your audience, how can you

create a desire in them for the product? Murphy feels

that the copywriter should be able to write for people

of all ages, from children to over-65's. 49 And while

he subscribes to the use of colloquial language, he also

believes that the writer must be able to write literate

sentences. He must know the rules of grammar, even if

he breaks them to convey a thought more clearly.50

46"Portrait," p. 25.

47Ogilvy, Confessions, p. 112.

48Norins, Compleat Copywriter, p. 15.

49Murphy, "Copywriting," pp. 32-33.

soIbid.
 74

Former agency head George Gribbin notes that one

of the marks of the good writer is that he avoids cliches,

not only in his writing but in his speech as well.51 And

copywriter Shirley Milton urges writers to use language

that is "appropriate, current, fast-moving; simple, honest

and specific."52

Emotional Impact

The view in 1923 among a great many advertising

people was that if you appeal to reason in your advertis-

ing, you appeal to about 4% of the human race.53 This may

be an exaggeration, but the point remains that emotion can

be a powerful asset in the hands of the creative copy-

writer. "Not to use tender feelings among people," says

former DDB copy chief Phyllis Robinson, "not to see peo-

ple's hopes and cares, is abdicating your responsibility."54

Copywriter Judy Blumenthal agrees. "If an ad

doesn't reach people's feelings, it isn't communicating.

It's a zero. So the first thing I do is try to find out

how pe0ple Eggi_about the product. And then I decide how

I want to make people feel about it. This is the seed of

51Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 69.

52Milton, What You Should Know, p. 39.

53Dolgins, "Feel of Words," p. 128.

54"C0py Chief," pp. 47-48.

 75

55
the ad. Everything else grows with it." In addition

to emotional impact, of course, an ad must have real meat

to it. The best ads, she concludes, have both emotion

and the facts.56

The following ad for the Better Vision Institute,

written by Leon Meadow of Doyle Dane Bernbach, is a par-

ticularly fine example of combining information with emo-

tional impact. The photograph shows a boy of about 12,

wearing a baseball cap and fielder's glove, racing out

into the street after a fly ball as a car bears down on

him. The headline, chilling in its matter-of-factness,

reads: "The car will probably kill the boy."

The man in the car is a careful, responsible

driver. In explaining the accident, he will say,
"The boy ran out from the sidewalk. I saw him too
late. I have good eyes." He has--as far as he can
tell. He passed a routine vision test when he first
got his driver's license. He can still see fine
straight ahead. But a professional eye examination
will show that, without becoming aware of it, he has
lost some of his side vision. In an accident like
this, that can be the tragic difference. At best,
driving is dangerous enough. All of us owe it to
all of us to make sure we're seeing as clearly and
completely as we can.

It seems appropriate to repeat what William

Bernbach said in the section dealing with copywriting

55"Portrait," p. 25.

56Ibid., p. 26
 76

rules. "Businesses are similar, products are similar.

What's left is my ability to make the consumer feel some-

thing. Execution is content."57

Clarity, Conciseness, Simplicity

These are three of the most important words in the

copywriter's lexicon. Hanley Norins observes that the com-

municator (copywriter) must be clear in his pgn_mind what

he wants to accomplish before he can make himself clear to

others. Norins quotes Professor Wendell Johnson that "the

degree to which there is communication depends upon the de-

gree to which the words represent the same thing for the

receiver or reader as they do for the sender or writer.

And the degree to which they do is an index to the clarity

of the communication or written statement."58

"It takes a lot of nerve," says James R. Adams,

"to expect a reader to do his own thinking when he reads

your advertisement. You should do it for him. If you give

him hurdles to cross . . . he has every reason to desert

you. After all, he is doing you a favor by reading your

advertisement."59

57Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 18.

58Norins, Compleat Cgpywriter, p. 15.

59
Adams, Sparks, p. 80.
 77

The copywriter would be well advised to check the

clarity of his writing. And one way to do this is to read

it aloud to make sure that everything follow logically,

and that it tells the reader what he should do and why it

makes sense for him to do it.60

Students frequently want to know how long a sen-

tence and how long an ad should be for maximum clarity

and readability. It is difficult to generalize because

the length of copy really depends on the audience to whom

the ad is addressed, the importance and complexity of the

subject to the audience, and such practical considerations

as the amount of space available to the writer. But we

can say that all copy--no matter how long or short--shou1d

be concise. That is, it should contain no unnecessary

words, sentences or paragraphs. The writer should make

every word support the central idea and delete every word

that doesn't. He should say just enough to make his point

and then conclude. He should resist any temptation to add

those few extra words or that one extra sentence. "Com-

pression," says James R. Adams, "is the great art in adver-

. . . . "61
tis1ng copywriting.

60Irwin C. Roll, "Say It Simple," Printers' Ink,

61
Adams, Sparks, p. 75.
 78

Adams also makes the case for simplicity in adver-

tising copywriting. "The capacity of the average reader

to misunderstand," he says, "is almost beyond comprehen-

sion."62 And he reminds us that "nowhere else does it

cost as much to be misunderstood as in advertising."63

Short sentences are important to readability.

But too many short sentences can become monotonous, es-

pecially in long copy. So sentences of varying length

seem to be the best solution in writing for a general.

audience.64 Simplicity applies not only to sentence

length, of course, but to the writer's choice of words

as well. An unfamiliar word can stop the reader's flow

of thought. So plain, simple language should be the

writer's stock-in-trade.65

One of the supreme examples of clarity, concise-

ness and simplicity is the much-admired campaign for

Talon zippers. The subject admittedly is not complex.

But the category of zippers is also not a very high-

interest one either. It took a creative copywriter to

inject freshness and memorability into the subject. In

the following Talon ad, written by Bob Veder of Delehanty,

62Adams, Sparks, p. 80.

63Ibid.
64
Wright, Warner and Winter, Advertising, p. 400.

651bid., pp. 397-398.

 79

Kurnit and Geller, the photograph is of an embarrassed-

looking businessman walking down the steps of a public

building holding a briefcase in front of his pants. The

headline: "A prominent New York stockbroker just went

public."

It's bad enough when the market takes a sudden

plunge.

But when your trouser zipper goes down, you lose

another kind of security.

For your own good, look for the Talon Zephyr

nylon zipper next time you buy yourself a suit or a
pair of slacks.

The Zephyr zipper is designed not to snag or jam.

And a little device called Memory Lock will make sure
your zipper stays up.

So all you'll have to worry about going down are

your stocks.

In 82 words, we have a strong central idea; convey—

ing facts in a fresh and original way; written in conver-

sational, colloquial language; and with human understanding

and a sense of humor.

Summary

This chapter shifts focus from the personality of

the ideal copywriter to the key qualities of his writing.

Most contemporary copywriters do not feel bound by rules,

but rather let the objectives of the message and the need

to generate attention and interest dictate the creative

 80

approach. The best advertising seems to be a blend of

strategy and execution: finding the right thing to say

and then saying it in a way that motivates people to action.

Good copywriting has a number of common character-

istics. It takes bare facts and presents them dramatically

and memorably. It is devoid of pretense and treats readers

as intelligent human beings. It is built around a strong

central idea and expresses that idea in a fresh and original

way. The selling story is so organized that it is simple,

clear and understandable. And the language is conversational,

colloquial, and appropriate to the audience being addressed.

The copywriter also appeals to people's feelings when it is

a natural and integral part of his subject matter.

 CHAPTER V

THE COPYWRITER ON THE JOB

Up to this point, we have spoken of the copywriter

rather abstractly. That is, we have discussed who he is,

how he thinks, and what characterizes his writing. But we

have not considered his working methods on the job or his

relationships with other creative people. That is one of

the aims of this chapter.

The latter part of the chapter is really a syn-

thesis or summation of what has gone before. By means of

a case history, we can observe how the highly gifted copy-

writer approaches a creative advertising problem, and the

quality of both concept and copy that results from a close

working relationship. Our example is the famed Avis cam-

paign of the early 1960's. This case study will also link

the characteristics of good copywriting to an outstanding

and successful copywriter, Paula Green.

The Team System of Working

In one of his most quoted passages, Leo Burnett

observed that "after all the meetings are over, the phones

have stopped ringing, and the vocalizing has died down,

81
 82

somebody finally has to get out an ad, often after hours.

Somebody has to stare at a blank piece of paper. Probably

nothing was ever more bleak. This is probably the very

height of loneliness . . . ."1

Creative man James R. Adams also noted that "crea-

tive advertising is a lonesome type of endeavor, and for

that reason, it is doubly difficult to put forth the ef-

fort necessary to succeed in it."2

This description of the copywriter is still un-

doubtedly true in a great many, if not most, instances. In

the early and mid—1960's, however, in such advertising agen-

cies as Doyle Dane Bernbach, Jack Tinker and Carl Ally, a

new kind of working relationship began to develop. Instead

of the writer preparing the copy and then giving it to an

artist to make a layout, the writer sat down with the art

director from the outset to plan an ad or a campaign. Of-

ten, the copywriter suggested a Visual way to express the

idea..And the art director, in turn, frequently contributed

a concept or a bright headline. Writer Faith Popcorn des-

cribes her relationship with art director Stuart Pittman:

"When Stuart and I met, he was an art director and I was a

lBoland, Careers, p. 63.

2Adams, Sparks, p. 43.

 83

c0pywriter. Now we believe there's no such thing as an

art director and a copywriter . . . we're both writers

and art directors."3

This team spirit is echoed by writer Joy Golden

and art director Stuart Rosenwasser:

gpy; You have to have a relationship where you

can go 'yech.‘ I mean, I'll do 15 headlines
and he'll 'yech' every one of them. And
then he'll sit down and do one and I'll say
'yech' too.

Stuart: The thing is to be able to communicate. I

like to feel I'm involved. I don't like
working with writers who go into their office
and write and then come back and show you.

Joy: The reason we work so well together is we

cross lines without stepping on each others
toes.4

One reason why the writer/art director team system

came about was that more and more great advertising concepts

consisted of a single powerful idea that fused art and copy.

This was particularly true of such outstandingly written and

visualized campaigns as Marlboro, Alka Seltzer and Benson

and Hedges. Now, in the early 1970's, the team system is

the accepted manner of working in both large and small agen-

cies.

3"Mateswapping and Forced Marriages Among Creative

Teams," Marketing/Communications, September, 1970, p. 33.

4
Ibid.. pp. 32-33.
 84

The Avis Campaign: A Case History

In 1962, the president of Avis rent a cars, Robert

Townsend, paid a visit to Doyle Dane Bernbach. He told the

agency: "I have one million to spend, and I need five mil-

lion worth of impact."% The agency said they would take the

account if Townsend would agree to run the campaign without

changes. Bernbach also asked for 90 days to prepare the

advertising.5

The creative team of copywriter Paula Green and art

director Helmut Krone were assigned to the account. Krone

was well-established at the agency, having been the art dir_

rector on the award—winning Volkswagon campaign. Mrs. Green

was lesser known, although she had been at Doyle Kane Bern-

bach since 1956.6

The Green/Krone team immediately considered the Avis

problem. It was certainly not the largest of the car rental

agencies (Hertz owned that distinction). It was certainly

not the best in terms of service. And it was certainly not

the most profitable (in fact, it had been losing money). On

the other hand, Townsend had the authority to make the key

decisions at the company, and could be relied on to back the

advertising.

5Glatzer, New Advertising, pp. 63-65.

6Julius J. Spector, "Paula Green on the Doyle Dane

Way,“ Marketing/Communication, May, 1969, p. 39.

7Glatzer, New Advertising, pp. 63-65.

 85

The campaign that emerged from the Green/Krone col-

laboration has been called one of the most important and un-

usual campaigns of the 1960's. It drew shocked comments

from other agencies and advertisers as being derogatory to

the client. But Bernbach knew that what the campaign was

really saying was not just that "Avis is only number two,"

but that "Avis tries harder" than its competitors. For ex-

ecutives renting cars, it became something of a fad to rent

from second-place Avis instead of the leader, Hertz. In

turn, Townsend made good on his promise to upgrade his com-

pany, his cars, and his service. The "we try harder" slogan

became a much—imitated phrase, and was printed on millions

of buttons all around the world.

The success of the Avis campaign (from a 3.2 million

loss in 1962 to a 3.0 million profit in 1964) was not just a

triumph of advertising. It was a total effort on the part

of Avis management, Avis employees and the advertising agency.

The "We try harder" promotion inspired Avis sales people to

exert themselves in providing excellence of service. And

good service, in turn, fed the advertising and gave it cred-

ibility. It was a classic case of agency-client collabora-

tion.

One factor that made the Avis campaign possible was

the creative freedom given Paula Green and Helmut Krone to

experiment with new ideas and dare to break the rules. This

has always been the case at Doyle Dane Bernbach since its
 86

founding in the late 1940's. Says former creative director

Bob Gage: "This isn't a place where you're §£22.t° create

great stuff. It's demanded of you."8

The creative environment that Gage describes has

been possible only because the agency's creative head,

William Bernbach, believes in the supremacy of individualism.

Every writer and art director is allowed to develop in his “M

own way and express his own brand of creative thought. Says

creative director Bob Levinson of Bernbach: "He's a genius

at letting people be themselves.“9

91:31.21: 4
Bernbach himself stresses the importance of culti-

5
vating talent. "You have to care for your people," he says,

"let them grow."10 The agency has not imposed a rigid defini-

tion of talent on its creative people. "We have rather

searched," says Bernbach, "for what is outstanding . . . You

have to find out what their talent is and nurture that, be-

cause that's a natural thing."11

Paula Green may come as close as anyone can to the

ideal copywriter described in the first chapter of this

paper. And the ads she wrote for Avis are prime examples

of the characteristics of good copy discussed in the

8Glatzer, New Advertising, p. 17.

91bid., p. 18.
loIbid.
ll Higgins, Art of Writing, p. 19.
 87

preceeding chapter. She follows no set formula in her ap-

proach to an advertising concept. Her philosophy is simply

"to come to grips with the product and the problem, then to

give it a new feeling." 12 The fact that her work seems so

obvious to people after it has been done is a tribute to her

ability to find the simplest solution to a creative problem.

What happens when two highly creative people like -hfle

Paula Green and Helmut Krone collaborate on an advertising

campaign? Mrs. Green describes the process:

We sit in a closed room and beat each other to

death . . . You sit head to head and wrestle with it . . .

You arrive at a concept. And by arriving at a con-

cept, it really means you've arrived at an ad . . .

Usually headline and a visual idea . . . happens to-

gether, and the art director will scribble it down . . .
We'll take a hard look at it and come back to it the
next day and make sure we like it as well.13

Discussing what makes good copywriters and good copy,

Mrs. Green echoes some of the same points brought out in ear-

lier chapters. She believes that the writer needs the abil-

ity to put himself "in the other guys shoes," which is an—

other way of saying empathy.14 And she holds the view--as

do almost all creative copywriters—-that the essentials of

effective copywriting are clarity, simplicity, compelling

language, and a sense of the dramatic.

12"Paula Green," p. 40.

l
31bid., p. 42.
l4Ibid.
 88

She is particularly hard on pretentiousness ("I hate

writers who say 'Look at me, aren't I clever?'"), 15 and

equally demanding of herself ("The important thing to me is

that I'm proud of it. And I'm proud of it when it suits

me.")16

Above all, Paula Green believes that advertising

c0py must be fresh and original, but rooted in the objectives

of the advertising. "You search for freshness," she says,

"but you never sacrifice what you have to say for the sake

of doing something novel."l7

15Ibid., p. 46.
151616., p. 43.
17 Ibid.
 89

PLATE I

Avis is only No.2

in rent 21 cars.
So why go with us?

We try harder.
(When you‘re not the biggest.
you have to.)
We just can’t afl‘ord dirt} ash-
trays. 0r half-empty gas tanlts. 0r
worn wipers.()r unwashed tars.
Or low tires. ()r anything less than
seat-adjusters that adjust. Heaters that heat.
Defrost-
ers that defrost.
Obviously, the thing we try hardest for is just
to he
nice.To start you out right with a new car. like
a lively.
super-torque Ford, and a pleasant smile. To let
you know.
say,where you can get a good,hot pastralni
sandwich
in Duluth.
Why?
Because we can’t afford to take you for
granted.
Go with us next time.
The line at our counter is shorter.
 90

PLATE II

When you’re only No.2,

you try harder.
Or else.

Little fish have to keep moving all of

J the time'l‘he higones naerstop picking
on them.
3‘, Axis knows all about the problems of
little fish.
We're only No.2 in rent a cars.We’d he
................ swallowed up if we didn’t try harder.
There‘b no rest for us.
W‘s-e always emptying ashtrays. Making sure gas tanks
are full hehre we rent our cars. Seeing that the batteries
are full (1' life. Checking our windshield wipers.
And the cars we rent out can't be anything less than
lively new super-torque Fords.
Andsincewe’re not the Hgfishyou won't feel Iikea
sardine when you come to our counter.
W’re not jammed with automers.
 91

PLATE III

Avis needs you.

You don’t need Avis.
Avis never forgets this.
We‘re still a little hungry.
We‘re only No.2 in rent .1 cars.
Customers aren't a dime a dozen
to us.
Sometimes. \\ hen business is too
good. they get the short end and aren't
treated like customers anymore.
Wouldn‘t you like the nm el experience of walking
up to a counter and not feel you're bothering somebody ?
Try it.
Come to the Avis counter and rent a new, |i\ ely super-
torque Ford. Avis is only No.2 in rent .1 cars. So \\ e haye
to try harder to make our customers icel like customers.
Our counters all have two sides.
And we know which side our bread is buttered on.
 92

PLATE IV

Ifyou find a ~
cigarette butt in an
Avis car, complain.
It’s for our own good.

We need your help to get ahead.

As is is only No.2 in rent .1 ca rs. So we have to
try harder.
liven if it's only a marked-up map in the glove
compartment or you waited longer than you
felt you should. please don‘t shrug it olT.
Bug us.
Our people will understand. They‘ve been briefed.
They know we can't all'ord to hand you anything less
than a new car like a lively. super-torque Ford. And it's
got to be immaculate. inside and out.
Otherwise. make a noise.
A Mr. Meadow of New York did.
He searched and came up with a gum wrapper.
 93

PLATE V

Who do you think of first

when you think
ofrent a cars?
Certainly not Avis.

F—v—m-wm—v-----~-—--1 It mustbe nice

Ii- mm...
AV“ now
Wfl-QL Wu“?‘3' l. .
toheahousehold
.112. l word. Like jell-O,
-. . ...a-n-Q'1IME Coke or Kodak.
1‘..-

But we're not.

m.
cone-cow: soc-us!!!" As is is only No. 2
—v —— —

......a.......m..a....sa..s..c in rent a cars. and

it’s always the big fellow you think of first.
So we have to try harder. Hoping the people w ho stumble
on us will come back for more.
(We probably have the world’s most fussed-os‘er Fords.
Spick and span and nicely in tune.)
And when someone calls us by the wrong name, we turn
the other cheek.
After all, it doesn’t matter what you call us.
just so you call.
 94

PLATE VI

‘
IfAvis is out ofcars,
we’ll get you one
from our competition.

We‘re not proud. We're only No.2.

We‘ll call everybody in the busi-
ness (including No.l ). If there‘s a car
to be had.we‘ll get it for you.
At the airport.we‘ll even lock up
our cashbox and walk you over to
...»...a....-..,..,........ the competition in person.
All of which may make you wonder just how often all
our shiny new Plymouths are on the road.
We have 35,000 cars in this country.
So the day that every one is out is a rare day for Avis.
(Ifyou have a reservation,don‘t give it a second thought.)
And don’t worry about the car our competition will
give you.
It’s for an Avis customer and they know it.
This is their chance.
 95

PLATE VII

If you have a complaint,

call the president ofAvis.
His number is CH 8-9150.

There isn‘t a single secretary to

protect him. He answers the phone
himself.
He's a nut about keeping in touch.
lle belies es it’s one ofthe big ad-
vantages ol'a small company.
.... ......m... ................. ..... You know who is responsible for
w hat. There‘s nobody to pass the buck to.
One of the frustrations of complaining to a big com-
pany is finding someone to blame.
Well, our president feels responsible for the whole kit
and caboodle. He has us working like crazy to keep our
super-torque Fords super. But he knows there will be an
occasional dirty ashtray or temperamental wiper.
If you find one, call our president collect.
He won‘t be thrilled to hear from you. but he’ll get
you some action.
 96

PLATE VIII

Avis is only No.2.

But we don’t
want your sympathy.
Have we been crying too much? Have
we overplayed the underdog?
We didn’t think so till David Biener,
ll years old, sent us 35c. saying,“lt may
help you buy another Plymouth?
That was an eye-opener.
So now we’d like to correct the false
impression we’ve made.
“...-......“ We don’t want you to rent Avis cars
because you feel sorry for us. All we want is a chance to
prove that a No.2 can be just as good as a Nod. Or even
better. Because we have to try harder.
Maybe we ought to eliminate the negative and accen-
tuate the positive.
Instead of saying “We’re only No.2 in rent a carsl’we
can“ say “We’re the second largest in the world?
Oats-sets.- stem-
 CHAPTER.VI

THE COPYWRITER'S CONSCIENCE

“The path of the professional copywriter isn't easy," rm“

says George Gribbin.l And when we consider how many masters

the copywriter must serve, how many different interests he

must satisfy, we can better appreciate the difficulty of his

task.

First, there is his employer, whether it be an adver-

tising agency, a television station, or a retail store. The

copywriter is expected to do the kind of work which meets

certain specified standards, and which will produce results

in the judgment of his superiors. Secondly, he must satisfy

his client, the people who pay for the advertising. The

client must agree that the creative execution will serve his

needs and accomplish his objectives. It must also conform

to whatever his personal tastes or prejudices.

Thirdly, the copywriter must create his advertising

within the guidelines and restrictions of advertising indus—

try codes and government regulations. These are constantly

1Wright and Warner, Speaking, p. 253.

97
 98

changing and evolving. The advertising must also be accept-

able to the media in which it runs--the television networks,

radio stations, newspapers, and magazines.

Fourthly, the copywriter must satisfy his own con-

science that he has done the best job he is capable of and

that his creativity will serve the interests of the consumer.

What this means in practical terms is that the copy- t—fi

writer must have genuine empathy, the quality described in i

the first chapter of his paper. He should be able to gauge

how the consumer is going to perceive his message, how the

ad or commercial is likely to be comprehended. And if he f

is in doubt, he should suggest testing or research to deter-

mine how his message will be interpreted.

This is important not only to insure the effective-

ness of an advertising message, but to avoid misleading or

misinforming the consumer. And the assumption here is that

the copywriter of conscience does not want to deliberately

deceive the consumer--that he feels an ethical obligation

and moral responsibility to the object of his persuasion.

The fact that the copywriter is, in the words of Professor

Clarke, "a paid propagandist . . . creating and moulding

public opinion" does not allow him to justify intellectual

dishonesty by claiming results.2

2Clarke, Copywriting, p. 16.

 99

The copywriter of conscience will shun such ques—

tionable practices as quasi-truths (ignoring important nega-

tives to stress product advantages), appealing but half-

intelligible claims (such as "uniweld body"), and contrived

testimonials (hiring celebrities who do not use products to

endorse them).3

The copywriter who respects the consumer will banish

from his copy such “weasel" phrases as "unsurpassed for nu—

trition" (which means no more nutritious than any other pro-

duct) and "save up to 40%" (which could mean that, in some

cases, you might lgsg 10%).

Communication scholar Erwin Bettinghaus argues that

"every individual ought to have developed a set of ethics

and a set of expectations regarding ethical conduct, and

that he should know what they are and how to apply them in

various situations." This applies very specifically to the

copywriter, who uses the art of persuasion to influence human

thought and behavior.4

The copywriter must search his conscience and exam-

ine his values. Only then will he know instinctively how

to proceed in any given instance. Writers have refused to

3Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide To Pseudo-

Events in America (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers,
1961l: pp. 211-228.

4Erwin P. Bettinghaus, Persuasive Communication (New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968), p. 284.
 100

work on accounts (cigarettes are an example) and have quit

their jobs because they could not reconcile their personal

standards with the demands of a particular situation. Most

cases, of course, are not that black and white. The great

gray area is composed of those little ethical erosions that

develop from day to day. The copywriter who refuses to com-

promise his values will not find his integrity slipping away

from him during the course of his writing career. The c0py-

writer of conscience will heed the advice of copywriter and

agency founder Leo Burnett:

Now, more than ever, is the time for us to cling

like wildcats to the only realities we can swear we have
hold of--our own sacred and individual integrities--our
own savage refusuals to compromise with what we, as sen-
sitive and thinking human beings, feel to be e truth
. . . the truth we know in our gut to be true.

5"Leo Burnett on Integrity," Marketing/Communica-

tions, December, 1971, p. 55.
 EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE COPYWRITER

The advertising student--looking ahead to a copy-

writing career--may speculate: what will the copywriter's

job he like a few years from now when I finish school? What

qualities of the copywriter will be particularly important

then? Recognizing the dangers of prediction, we can still

make some reasonable assumptions based on present trends.

You will be working in a more competitive environ—

ment than today's copywriter.--The number of new products

coming onto the market is increasing at a rapid rate. And

by "new products," we mean not only innovations, but addi-

tions to a company's present line to compete with existing

products. When we consider the mini-cameras, double-bladed

razors, instant meals, double-knit fabrics, and hot lather

shaving creams of today--is there any doubt that competition

will be even more intense in the years ahead?

What this means for the future copywriter is that he

will be under even greater pressure to devise effective sell-

ing strategies, and communicate them to the consumer in ways

that will command and hold attention. With the consumer ex-

posed to more and more advertising messages--on TV and radio,

in newspapers and magazines--the burden will be on the

101
 102

c0pywriter as never before to create interesting, imagina-

tive and benefit-oriented ads and commercials.

You will have to be more knowledgeable than today's

copywriter.--Because the copywriter must play a leading role

in the formulation of creative strategies, he must have a

good working knowledge of the marketing process--manufactur-

ing, distribution, packaging--all of the factors involved in

the movement of goods and services to consumers. This back-

ground is essential to the creation of effective, on-target

advertising. The most likely source of this training is the

university, which can give the writer a basic understanding

of the marketing approach. He can then apply his general

knowledge to a particular client's advertising problems.

The future copywriter will also need a much broader

general background than the writer of today. Not only will

he have to write for particular market segments--ethnic

groups, age categories, peOple who are concerned about nu-

trition—-but he will also have to create advertising on an

expanded range of subjects from electronics to ecology. The

more knowledgeable he is, the better prepared he will be to

come up with creative solutions. Education, travel, sales

experience--these will all be invaluable in conditioning the

copywriter to meet the demands of his job.

You will have to work under more restraints than to-

day's copywriter.--The increasing pressures of consumer pro-

tection groups-—as well as more government involvement in

 103

advertising—-will undoubtedly affect the future copywriter's

job. The question is: in what way, and to what extent?

Will copywriters have less freedom to use vivid, imaginative

language? Will their jobs actually turn out to be simpler

because there will be definite guidelines to follow in mak-

ing advertising claims? No one really knows, of course.

Regulation could be a help or a hinderance. We must wait

and see.

The copywriter, however, will certainly have to be

even more patient and resistant to frustration than at pres-

ent in coping with the changing conditions of his job. The

copywriter of the future will still have to serve many mas-

ters: his employer, his clients, regulatory agencies, and

his own individual conscience. So it will take writers with

exceptional resilience, integrity, and common sense to be

able to function effectively in this more restrictive atmos-

phere.

You will be more involved in public relations than

today's copywriter.--The continuing emphasis on the social

responsibility of business will have its impact on the copy-

writer of tomorrow (as it already has had on the copywriter

of today). More and more clients will want ads and commer-

cials that inform the public of what their companies are

doing to serve the interests of society. The copywriter will

thereby spend an increasing amount of his time selling client

image as well as company products and services.

 104

In addition, more advertising agencies will be in-

volved in public service and political advertising, and the

copywriter will play a significant role in this, too. Thus,

the copywriter of the future will be a public relations com—

municator as well as a salesman of client products. This

trend toward corporate communication is evident today in the

advertising of such companies as Gulf and Mobil.

You will need to be even more sensitive to people

than today's copywriter.--In order to arrive at sound sell-

ing strategies, the copywriter must analyze the needs and

wants of consumers; he must also understand human nature to

take advantage of emotional appeals; and he must be able to ,

get along with his colleagues, his superiors, and his clients

to function on the job.

This sensitivity to people will be even more impor-

tant in the competitive environment predicted for tomorrow.

For the copywriter must create his mesSages at a time when

the average consumer is overwhelmed with a vast array of

choices in goods and services. Thus, the future writer must

find better ways of communicating with people. He must use

all of his intelligence and creative imagination to make his

client's voice heard in the sound and fury of heightened com-

petition. He must penetrate the boredom barrier that sur-

rounds the consumer in a market saturated with advertising.

At the same time, the copywriter of the future must

learn to accommodate his thinking to the concerns of consumer

 105

advocates and government agencies. These groups must be

granted a genuine interest in protecting the consumer. It

may be easy for the future copywriter to feel that everyone

is out to frustrate him and stiffle his creativity. But the

sensitive writer will resist the impulse toward hostility.

He will accept the fact that he represents his client‘s in—

terests, and that the public deserves representation too.

In short, the copywriter of tomorrow will need to an

exceptional degree that indispensable quality of the creative

individual-—empathy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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