A parody of agency life—”The making of the agency holiday party invitation”—depicted as a Charlie Brown cartoon.
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnxSEg8pQlw)
17
Mar
09
A Charlie Brown Ad Agency
Recently, I remembered a phone conversation I had with my former internship supervisor who had gone to work for Kraft. During this phone call, I made an off-the-cuff riff about an idea I had for a Kraft promotional item with high kitsch appeal.
The idea was this:
A snow globe inside which is the company name—Kraft—spelled out in letters that look like macaroni. Instead of white snow flakes falling when the globe is shaken, it was orange flakes to represent the powdered cheese.
27
Feb
09
Sophomoric humor that works
From the Advertising Is Good For You blog, comes this entry for plastic surgeon Daniel R. Knight MD.
From MAC cosmetics, a promotional video for their Hello Kitty cosmetics collection.
What I like about this ad is it has the surrealistic imagery of David LaChapelle.
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8OA-fBtAAY)
07
Jul
08
On writing headlines
When I was an advertising student, my professors said that one of the ways of learning the art of advertising is to study the work that’s out there and figure out why in your opinion any given ad is good or bad. What I’ve learned from this exercize over the years is that headlines fall into one of three types: complimentary, contrasting, and straight forward.
Complimentary headlines are ones where the headline and visual work together in a mutually reinforcing way.
An example of a complimentary ad is one for a airline (the name of the particular carrier escapes me). The headline reads: “Our planes are easier to catch.” The visual is photo still from the original King Kong movie (1931, RKO Pictures); in the visual, Kong is atop the Empire State Building swatting at the biplanes that are attacking him.
Contrasting headlines are ones where the headline and visual are opposites, but they work together in an ironic way, i.e. the headline is not what one would expect to go with the visual.
An example of a contrasting ad is for timetotalk.com, part of the Partnership for A Drug-Free America. This ad is copy-driven, so there is no visual in the picture sense, but the same effect is conveyed as if the ad had a headline/visual structure. The headline reads in distorted type: “Mood swings? Sweaty palms? Loss of appetite? Dry mouth?” The pay-off body copy reads: “You must be trying to talk to your kids about drugs. We can make it easier.”
The contrast lies in the initial perception of what the ad is going to be about; based on the headline, the reader is led to think that ad will be for a product to deal with menopause (O.k. I was led to believe that, you may believe something else.)
Straight Forward headlines are exactly that, they spell out exactly the intended message of the ad is. An example of this is an ad I did for the restaurant client of a marcom agency I freelanced for. The purpose of the ad was to promote/drive business to the early bird hours of the dinner service. The USP was the extension of the lunch menu into the early-bird hours of the dinner service, i.e., during the “early-bird hours, 4-6 pm, the customer could get any item from the lunch menu as a dinner meal at the lunch menu price.
The headline read: “Have lunch for dinner;” the visual was a picture of a meal.
05
Jul
08
Hard Rock Cafe ad
I saw a great ad on a taxi cab roof for the Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe the last time I was in Las Vegas, just more than a year ago (05/2007). For illustrative purposes, the ad below is fundamentally the same ad.
I was once discussing with a non-industry friend how I get my ideas for writing headlines and concepts. I replied that I don’t know where they come from, adding that it’s probably the same mystical wellspring where lyricists get their ideas for songs. The truth is that most of the time (99%) it’s work, that is thinking about the product, the target market, and the goal of the message, then writing and rewriting to hone the message. The rest of the time (1%), it’s pure inspiration when the muse smacks me upside the head with a great fully formed idea or concept.
This conversation got me to thinking about how do we copywriters do what we do? The conclusion I’ve come up with is two-fold, copywriting ability is 50% academic and 50% aptitude.
(1) The academic part anyone can learn, that’s why we have college/university programs and the portfolio schools where the tradecraft of copywriting is taught.
(2) The aptitude part can’t be taught; you either have the ability to think like a copywriter or you don’t. I liken copywriting as being analogous to observational stand-up comedy, the style of George Carlin or Jerry Seinfeld, you have to be able to look at the world in a different way.
A great illustration of the thought process comes from Maxine Paetro author of How to Put Your Book Together and Get a Job in Advertising. To paraphrase what she wrote in her book:
When writing a headline for a perfume ad…
The average person would write: “Put this on when you want to be kissed.”
The copywriter writes: “Put this on where you want to be kissed.”
A creative director once said to me something that I think sums this point up really well, he said: “I can’t make you creative, but if you are creative I can make you better.”
03
Jul
08
Welcome to 3600 MHz
Welcome to 3600 MHz, my professional blog where I muse about things related to advertising, marketing, and public relations. Here you’ll find my thoughts, commentary, and various creative ideas.
Legalities:
All my original creative concepts and ideas presented this blog — tagged as “my ideas” — are my intellectual property pursuant to United States copyright law, including but not limited to, (17 United States Code 201, 302, 402, and 408).
Copyright © slastnik, 2008. All rights reserved.
