The Writer’s Coin

So after re-reading Pick Me, I decided to go back to another classic: Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, by Luke Sullivan. This one is also a great read and I had forgotten that so much of it was a how-to on breaking into the industry and general ad creation.

So rather than review it, I’ve decided to highlight some of the most useful parts in bullet form. I’ll post part II tomorrow:

• “The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.” —Bill Bernbach. From the father of creative advertising.

• On page 10 Sullivan mentions, offhandedly, that he got his first job at Bozell “through a contact.” You see and hear this a lot, networking is crucial to getting in. He goes into networking more on page 221, where he says you should “tell every living person you know you’re trying to land a job at an agency.” All you need is a name and you go from there.

• Read the award annuals. Know what’s out there but also realize that when you see them they are already at least one year old. You want to be fresher than that.

• Page 18 has a great analogy that explains why there is so much bad advertising out there: agencies are like restaurants—a few of them are excellent and the rest are mediocre.

• “Drop the whole thing and go do something else while your subconscious mind works on the problem.” This is something I’ve been writing about a lot lately and keep reading everywhere. It’s true. It may sound fuzzy, but creativity isn’t a science.

• “Creativity means getting out of the way . . . If you can quiet the yammering of the conscious, controlling the ego, you can begin to hear your deeper, truer voice in your writing.” —Marshall Cook

• “Shake the Etch-A-Sketch in your head, start over constantly, and come at the problem from wildly different angles.” This one reminds me of my boggle with the brain analogy.

• Invite participation in the reader by asking “the reader to close the loop for us.” This involves telling the reader most of what they need to “figure out” an ad and letting them “get it” on their own. The image of the unfinished circle is one I’ll never forget from a visual communication class I took in college. It was all about this idea of perception and the different ways our brain processes things. When we aren’t given the whole story on something and we put in some minimal work (you better make it easy, though) to “complete” it, the brain feels pleasure in that success. Which is good.

• “If you take one thing from this book, let it be the advice in this section. Simple is almost always better.”

• When writing, “Pretend you’re writing a letter.” This way if “feels like a conversation, not a speech.”

You can see why this is the single-most mentioned book when it comes to breaking into advertising. It’s just chock-full of great advice and excellent insights. Plus the writer’s voice is very entertaining. I’ll be reviewing part two tomorrow.

Tags: building your portfolio, hey whipple, luke sullivan