Cutting Edge Commercials: How to Create the World's Best TV Ads for Brands in the 21st Century [Paperback]

Jim Aitchison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2002

This is the definitive step-by-step guide to creating cutting edge television commercials, exploring everything from how television communicates, how planners contribute new insights, how to get great television ideas, how commercials are structured, how to sell concepts and how they should be executed.

Join a master class where the faculty includes Tim Delaney, Graham Fink, Neil French, Lee Garfinkel, Roy Grace, John Hegarty, Steve Henry, Drain Holmes, Lionel Hunt, Michael Patti, Jim Riswold and 70 other creative leaders. Share their personal creative processes in page after page of practical and inspiring guidance, complete with storyboards and case histories.

Step behind the famous campaigns at BBDO New York, Fallon, Goodby Silverstein, Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury, Leagas Delaney, Lowe, Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy and great agencies in the US, UK and Australia. Consult film directors at Hungry Man, @ radical.media, Window, and many more. Explore creativity in the emerging markets of Asia, especially China and India. And possess the statistical evidence that creativity SELLS!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bravo... Far, far deeper (and better) than anything heretofore written on the subject -- Andy Berlin, Founding Partner, Goodby Berlin Silverstein, San Franciso and Berlin Cameron & Partners, New York

If you care about advertising, you'll love this book. -- Steve Henry, Creative Partner, Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury, London

From the Back Cover

Vital subjects covered in this book:
* How the medium actually works, what you can realistically expect a television commercial to achieve.
* How to get the background thinking right, ensuring that creative work is correctly targeted and expressed.
* World famous creative leaders share their secrets about how they get ideas, and how they develop them into scripts and storyboards.
* Experts discuss the way commercials should be structured to communicate with today's more sophisticated, movie-literate audiences; what kind of storylines will appeal, and how layered can they be?
* Experts tell how they develop, execute and maintain some of the world's most creative and effective TV campaigns. What are their secrets of consistency?
* An exclusive special chapter on how to write humorous TV commercials - featuring the creators of classic TV spots like Carling Black Label Dambusters, America's legendary Little Caesars Pizza campaign, and Hamlet Cigars Photo Booth ranked as the single Best TV Commercial of All Time at Cannes.
* Once a great script is approved, what happens next? How should you choose the right director, how do you control the work, how do you choose the most effective music?

"THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK. I promise you that you will have read something to challenge and inspire you in virtually no time at all. If you're a client who's scared of making a brave decision, a researcher who doesn't know how to interpret research intelligently, or a member of the regulatory boards who still live in Victorian times, read it and weep."

—Steve Henry,
Creative Partner, Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury, London

"Nobody has ever portrayed the depth and subtlety of the world's second-oldest profession like Jim Aitchison. A former inmate himself, and, strangely, a man with no other agenda than writing the truth, Jim 'gets it'...and what's even more amazing, he can explain it."

—Andy Berlin,
Founding Partner, Goodby Berlin Silverstein, San Francisco,
and Berlin Cameron & Partners, New York

"Aitchison did it again. After unearthing nearly all the secrets of the world's creators of great print, he's done it with television...what's brilliant about Aitchison's book is the diversity and quality of minds that he's tapped...This book has finally convinced me: brilliant television creatives aren't born. They can be made. As long as you read and study every word of this book."

—Bruce Bildsten,
Group Creative Director, Fallon Minneapolis

"All the world's top creative people will wish they had written this book. And they did."

—Lionel Hunt,
Chairman, Lowe Hunt & Partners, Sydney

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1st edition (May 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130908282
• ISBN-13: 978-0130908285
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,757,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Break out of the mold, May 14, 2004

By 

"ivyice" (Thailand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cutting Edge Commercials: How to Create the World's Best TV Ads for Brands in the 21st Century (Paperback)

Aitchison talks about the different myths in advertising and how some isn't true. Then he gives us some clues about how to get an idea and execute it successfully.

It is a great book that gathers opinions of advertisers worldwide. This is for someone in the advertising field who wants something different and original without going overboard.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Ad Book on Commercials!, August 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cutting Edge Commercials: How to Create the World's Best TV Ads for Brands in the 21st Century (Paperback)

Bravo! Cutting Edge Commercials is the second book in the Cutting Edge series. This book contains the WORLD's BEST television commercials. Get your dose of inspiration here! Can't wait for the next volume to be published ...