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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."
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Recommended Books
Direct Response Radio, Brett Astor and Jeffrey Small
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Made to Stick, Heath & Heath
The Power of Persuasion, Robert Levine
Influence: Science & Practice, Cialdini
Words That Work, Frank Lutz
My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising, Claude C. Hopkins
Or Your Money Back, Alvin Eicoff
Being Direct, Lester Wunderman
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Made to Stick, Heath & Heath
The Power of Persuasion, Robert Levine
Influence: Science & Practice, Cialdini
Words That Work, Frank Lutz
My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising, Claude C. Hopkins
Or Your Money Back, Alvin Eicoff
Being Direct, Lester Wunderman
Our Book
Direct Response Radio: The Way to Greater Profit with Measurable Radio Advertising , Brett Astor and Jeffrey Small 
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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