Customer Reviews

Great Print Advertising: Creative Approaches, Strategies, and Tactics

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Mr. Antin has spouted his views on how advertising should be and at the same time single handedly created copydrones to carry on his boring dictums. Thank God for Luke Sullivan and many other creatives that follow their own drummer and keep this business alive and vibrant. I think this book should have a pillow top cover so when you fall asleep reading it you at least have somewhere to rest your head.

The ads he advocates (he gives numerous examples in these pages) were bland 25 years ago. TIme has moved on...but Mr. Antin has not. If the idea of advertising is to capture your audience attention, why do what has already been done? What you can see on any UHF station anytime? Mr. Antin apparently doesn't like to be challenged, because there's nothing here a bright twelve year old could not come up with.

If everyone did what Mr. Antin believes in, advertising would be dull. Duller than it already often is, even. He seems to think that Readers Digest headlines and banal wordplay are the sin qua non of advertising creativity. It's sad that he lectures to members of the business community, and that they apparently take what he says seriously. It explains why so many clients are reactive, imitative, and why their advertising blends together and is quickly forgotton. And why when a company or industry breaks the "rules" they create memorable work (Nike, Got Milk, Porsche, Isuzu). 256 pages of waste.

I've just read the four reviews of Tony Antin's book and I'm shocked at what three of the four reviewers say. The negative reviews come from people who have the idea that advertising is capturing people's attention, without giving much thought to what is the message. That has led to so much crappy, far out advertising today in which you see lots of grungy people and you end up with no idea of what is the product or what it does for you. I have owned the book for several years and have used ideas from it extensively with my clients (I'm a market researcher) because they make sense and they work. And I even have used it in my own company, trying to get subordinates to think about whether they are saying things clearly, both in writing questionnaires and reports of studies.

Wake up someone! I have considered this to be a Bible on good advertising practices for a number of years. This book provides a systematic approach to developing meaningful ads with good messages. In contrast, advertising mostly is just personal opinion with jargon developed over the years to make most purveyors sound brilliant ("reach," "frequency," "hits," etc.)

I read Tony Antin's book. As a print advertising copywriter, I found it very useful because it supports the idea that "customer-centric" advertising is the way to go. Antin doesn't say you can't be creative or memorable. Just the opposite, in fact -- as long as you quickly and clearly communicate the most compelling reasons why the target audience would want your product. I highly recommend the book.