How much do you know about advertisement? Before reading this book, my understanding of advertisement was from what I learned watching Mad Men. Don Draper tells us in a pitch to a cigarette client: “Advertisement is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams, with reassurance, that whatever you’re doing, is OK. You are OK.” Wow. Mad Men made me feel like an advertisement expert. But, if you sat me down at a desk and told me to create an advertisement for a new brand of sportswear made of hemp, I wouldn’t know where to start. Maybe I’d try to make something that tells the audience that hemp sportswear will make them happy, that wearing it will make them feel like whatever they’re doing is OK. But I wouldn’t know where to start in making that happen. Or what a completed ad looks like. After reading this book, I know what steps to take, and which rules to follow to write a good ad.
I don’t work in advertising. I just want to be able to publish my own content that grabs peoples attention and persuades them to take action on my content. This book offers exactly what I needed to learn.
Here are the 4 main lessons it taught me:
1. There are 5 basic elements of a good advertisement: get attention, show people an advantage, prove it, persuade people to grasp the advantage, and ask for action. He breaks each element down in its own chapter, providing concrete examples as well as abstract concepts. He adds quizzes at the end of each chapter to make sure you know the important parts.
2. How to write a good headline. I couldn’t believe this book was originally published in 1962. The headlines and advice he offers could easily be used for teaching a masterclass on writing youtube clickbait titles in 2018. At the beginning of the book, he provides 100 successful headlines with comments on why they work, and several sections on effective themes you see throughout the headlines. The way he provides these real examples with immediate feedback on why they work is the most effective way to learn, not employed enough in books. It will also be a resource I use for when I need to get inspired for writing headlines or titles in the future. I used the advice in creating this headline (did it get your attention?).
3. People make decisions based on feelings or emotional appeal they want to experience or avoid, but facts are needed to rationalize the decision to go after or avoid that feeling or emotion. Moreover, the stronger and more effective your emotional appeal is presented, the more readily your facts will be believed. When presenting facts, start with the easy ones you know the reader already agree with, leaving the unfamiliar ones at the end after he or she has already started accepting your facts as true.
4. How to be a better writer. He offers lots of advice on how to write clearly and keep the reader engaged to the end. This is important in copy. The longer your ad holds the readers attention, the more persuasive it is. At one point in the book, he offers 22 ways to hold interest longer. I already wrote them down in a personal notebook to review whenever I write something in the future.
This book is worth it for anyone interested in learning about advertisement or how to sell things online. Its well written, timeless, and provides tons of examples and chapter quizzes to make sure you understand the key points it offers. I wrote down so many notes and highlights that I’ll using for reference years to come.
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Paul Simister
A classic copywriting guide
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2018Phil.UK.Net
The best advice you will get on this subject from a master of the art
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2016
Keith Everett
Could Teach You Quite a Bit About Copywriting..
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2019Amazon Customer
Goldmine of information
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2020
