Direct Response Radio Advertising Blog: Copywriting Wisdom From a Master

November 06, 2007

Copywriting Wisdom From a Master

Straight from "The Art of Writing Advertising" comes this pearl from Bill Bernbach that touches on many of the point's we've made about creating successful direct response radio ads:

"Anybody in advertising who doesn't say his purpose is to sell that piece of merchandise is a phony. And you must be as simple and as swift and as penetrating as possible. And it must stem from knowledge (of the product). And you must relate that knowledge to the consumer's needs.

I don't say that by being imaginative that you just go out and be cute. I have very often given the example of being able to attract people to an ad by standing a man on his head on a page. But that is not a good ad unless you're selling a product that keeps things from falling out of that man's pockets. Then your inventiveness, and your attractiveness and your cleverness is furthering and making memorable the advantage of your product."

Category(s): creative
Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 01:04 PM | Permalink

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Comments

The point of any ad, one way or another, is to sell something. That means being interesting, not necessarily entertaining. This is something too many people in the advertising field simply don't understand.

David Ogilvy understood this too. He called direct response his "secret weapon." If you're interested, I've posted a rare video where David Ogilvy talks about the advantages of direct response advertising.

Posted by: Dean Rieck @ Direct Creative Blog | November 6, 2007 09:43 PM

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