Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This

Figure 5.1 One of my favorite ads from Neil French.

5Write When You Get WorkCompleting an Idea—Some Finer Touches

95 Percent of All Advertising is Poorly Written—Don't Add to the Pile

A cursory glance at most award shows will give the incorrect impression that all the best advertising is visual. Actually, it's all the best award shows that are visual, due chiefly to the globalization of the judging panels. It's simply easier for judges to agree on visual language. (Plus, visual solutions can be pretty cool.)

But for most new recruits to advertising, visual solutions may have to wait because most of the jobs you'll get early in your career will have no photography budget. You'll just be handed a couple of stock shots of a car or a smartphone and 24 hours to come up with a campaign. This means you're going to have to solve the problem with words. As cool as visuals are, most of the business on the planet is conducted with language.

Figure 5.2 is an example of an ad where we had no budget, no time, no stock photos—just the logo of Art Center.

Figure 5.2 Having no production budget to make an ad is strangely liberating. At least you know what you can't do.

In Breaking In, Ty Montague, founder and partner of co:, put it this way: “The idea swirling around that words are dead is ...