Rosser Reeves was a dynamic and powerful copywriter one of the few in 1960 inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame. There's a reason for that: He knew and practiced reality in advertising. He stripped away the myths that were long held and that are still held today. He provided his clients with the practice of good principles that you'll read in this book.
Any copywriter or advertiser who is not fortunate enough to own a copy of this book is a sad character indeed. It is a gem. If you have to pay $300 for it, buy it. In your hands you'll own the most dynamic truth ever written about selling your clients products and services and writing great copy, making advertising pay major dividends.
You say this book was written in 1960. How valuable could it be today? Perhaps more valuable than many books being offered up by contemporary writers. What you discover in this book are practices that most people no longer use. That's sad because they're taking money, profits, off the table. They're losing market share. Advertisers are paying for sales copy and ad campaigns that will never work because big egos are involved.
While many of the books written today about advertising on the Internet, for example, will be outdated in a few years, this book, I venture, will never be outdated. While many copywriters today attempt to be great writers who are admired by their peers; writers who are puffy and more interested in selling their own skills than their client's products, Rosser Reeves was interested in one thing --- selling every widget he could for his clients. That's what this book is all about. That's why I love it and value it. That's why it is indeed a classic.
In the book, Reeves shoots down many of his contemporaries. He shoots down myths. Yes, he talks about the unique selling proposition, which he helped make famous. The USP is remarkably important. Yet few copywriters even bother to discover their client's USP. They're not salespeople. They want a showcase for their own so-called talent and not a tool with which to sell products. Trouble with all this is, you simply can't sell without having a handle on the USP.
Reeves wrote copy to sell. He didn't write to win awards. He knew that awards were unimportant. He gives the example of two television commercials that the advertising community said were terrible. They laughed about them and explained how they would make them better. And yet, these two commercials made their advertisers rich --- they outsold all other commercials that the ad people thought were so great. You see, ad people are not good judges of what's good. The consumer is the ultimate and most effective judge. The consumer is the only award that counts.
I've read some unkind reviews about this book. I challenge anyone to find a greater book for the advertising professional. I have some four decades of advertising experience under my belt and I learn each time I read this book. I value the words as if they were freshly found gold coins. If I had a choice of being a copywriter like Rosser Reeves and one of these "gurus" of today who is so in love with his own words and style and wants to showcase his own talents, I'll choose to model after Reeves.
For in the end, advertising and copywriting is about selling the client's product or service to as many consumers as possible. And that's what Reality in Advertising is all about.
VERY highly recommended.
- Susanna K. Hutcheson
