(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnxSEg8pQlw)

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.

What I like about this ad is it has the surrealistic imagery of David LaChapelle.

(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8OA-fBtAAY)

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.

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.”

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).  

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