Customer Reviews

The Art of Writing Advertising : Conversations with Masters of the Craft: David Ogilvy, William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, Rosser Reeves,

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The Art of Writing Advertising is a unique collection of interviews conducted about forty years ago by Advertising Age magazine editor, Denis Higgins. Legendary copywriters William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy and Rosser Reeves candidly discuss their craft, their writing processes and their lives in this fascinating book.

The interviewer initially set out to find if these pioneering copywriters had any tricks or gimmicks for the difficult task of writing, but ended up with revealing and at times very personal glimpses into the lives of these five men. The interview with David Ogilvy is particularly poignant and enlightening. This book also includes a few example ads from each copywriter and pictures presumably taken during the interviews.

These great ad writers give some useful advice and share their thoughts on copywriting, but this is not a step-by-step guide for copywriting. If you are familiar with these copywriters and you would like to know a little more about their views on advertising, then I highly recommend The Art of Writing Advertising.

"You know, only advertising men hold seminars and judge advertising. The public doesn't hold seminars and judge advertising. The public either acts or it doesn't act." Rosser Reeves

The men in this book cut straight to the point of advertising and they don't mind going against the grain of art director clubs and guilds. I have learned to like that because I now subscribe to their point of view. The success of an advertisement cannot be measured by its pleasing aesthetics or its award winning status. It has to be measured by how successfully it met its objectives - which most of the time is to move product.

I think this is a must-read for young designers as many have a very mis-guided view of what advertising is all about. I cannot find a single design graduate who has learned the principles of good advertising from college. This book sets any print, web or such communications designer on the right path if they ever want to create effective ad's--no matter the medium or technique.

Five interviews with figureheads of advertising-Bill Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, and Rosser Reeves. They all get drilled with the same questions about their start in the business, qualities they look for in writers, use of figures of speech, etc. The answers don't vary much. They all think good ads must be fresh and original to fight being ignored, and copywriters should have an understanding of people stemming from an everyman background. They stress that copywriting is different from other types of writing (duh), and that writers should be widely read. Bernbach reads philosophy, whereas Ogilvy has no interest in it. This highlights differences in styles and backgrounds. On one spectrum, you see a copywriter who's into art and philosophy, then another who comes from research and thinks he's a better editor than writer. The book is good for putting together common traits of copywriters and getting a feel for the range of styles out there. If you just want entertainment, skip to the Rosser Reeves interview for an ad man intensely defending the business side. He says certain accounts are pure copy operations that force an understanding of the business.