Hey, Whipple, squeeze this : the classic guide to creating great ads

Hey, Whipple, squeeze this : the classic guide to creating great ads / Luke Sullivan and Edward Boches.

"The classic guide to creating great advertising now covers all media: Digital, Social, and Traditional Hey Whipple, Squeeze This has helped generations of young creatives make their mark in the field. From starting out and getting work, to building successful campaigns, you gain a real-world p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sullivan, Luke (Author), Boches, Edward (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Hoboken : Wiley, 2016.
Edition:Fifth edition.
Subjects:
Advertising copy.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS > Advertising & Promotion.
Advertising copy
Online Access:Click for online access
Table of Contents:
  • Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Introduction: On Being The Second-Smartest Person in The Room
  • 1: A Brief History of Why Everybody Hates Advertising: And why you should try to get a job there
  • The 1950s: When Even X-Acto Blades Were Dull.
  • ``What?! We Don'T Have to Suck?!´´
  • The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Portrait of the Artist As a Young Hack.
  • 2: The Creative Process: Or, Why it's impossible to explain what we do to our parents
  • Why Nobody Ever Chooses Brand X.
  • Staring At Your Partner'S Shoes.
  • Why the Creative Process Is Exactly Like Washing a Pig.
  • ``The Sudden Cessation of Stupidity.´´
  • It'S All About the Benjamins.
  • Brand = Adjective
  • Simple = Good
  • 3: Ready Fire! Aim: Or, What to say comes before how to say
  • Remember, You Have Two Problems to Solve: The Clients and Yours
  • Before You Put Pen to Paper.
  • Examine the current positioning of the product or brand.
  • Try the competitor's product.
  • Develop a deep understanding of the client's business.
  • On the other hand, there's value in staying stupid.
  • Get to know the client's customers as well as you can.
  • Listen to customers talk.
  • Ask yourself what would make you want the product.
  • Imagine a day in the life of your customer.
  • Imagine the buying process.
  • Study the client's previous work.
  • Look at the competitors' advertising.
  • Read the awards books
  • study the sites.
  • A Few Words on Authenticity.
  • Some tactics on communicating true authenticity.
  • The Final Strategy.
  • The best creative people are closet strategists.
  • Make sure what you have to say matters.
  • Insist on a tight strategy.
  • The final strategy should be simple.
  • The difference between strategy and tactics.
  • 4: The Sudden Cessation of Stupidity: How to get ideas-the broad strokes.
  • Get Something, Anything, on Paper.
  • First, say it straight. Then say it great.
  • Restate the strategy and put some spin on it.
  • Put the pill inside the bologna, not next to it.
  • Stare at a picture that has the emotion of the ad you want to create.
  • Let your subconscious mind do it.
  • Try writing down words from the product's category.
  • ``Embrace the suck.´´
  • Allow yourself to come up with terrible ideas.
  • Allow your partner to come up with terrible ideas.
  • Share your ideas with your partner, especially the kinda dumb, half-formed ones.
  • Spend some time away from your partner, thinking on your own.
  • Tack the best ideas on the wall. Look for patterns.
  • Come up with a lot of ideas. Cover the wall.
  • Quick sketches of your ideas are all you need during the creative process.
  • Write. Don't talk. Write.
  • Write hot. Edit cold.
  • Once you get on a streak, ride it.
  • Never be the ``devil's advocate.´´
  • Can you use the physical environment as a medium?
  • ``Do I Have to Draw You a Picture?´´
  • ``Do I want to write a letter or send a postcard?´´
  • Can the solution be entirely visual?
  • Coax an interesting visual out of your product.
  • Get the visual clichés out of your system right away.
  • Avoid style
  • focus on substance.
  • Show, don't tell.
  • Saying isn't the same as being.
  • Move back and forth between wide-open, blue-sky thinking and critical analysis.
  • Think it through before you do the ol' exaggeration thing.
  • Consider the opposite of your product.
  • Interpret the problem using different mental processes.
  • Put on different thinking caps.
  • Pose the problem as a question.
  • Don't be afraid to ask what seems-at first-to be an astonishingly dumb question.
  • Avoid the formula of saying one thing and showing another.
  • Whenever you can, go for an absolute.
  • Metaphors must've been invented for advertising.
  • ``Wit invites participation.´´
  • The wisdom of knock-knock jokes.
  • Don't set out to be funny. Set out to be interesting.
  • Learn to recognize big ideas when you have them.
  • Big ideas transcend strategy.
  • Don't keep running after you catch the bus.
  • 5: Write When You Get Work: Completing an idea-some finer touches
  • 95 Percent of All Advertising Is Poorly Written-Don'T Add to the Pile.
  • On writing brand manifestos.
  • Get puns out of your system right away.
  • Don't just start writing headlines willy-nilly. Break it down: Do willy first, then move on to nilly.
  • If the idea needs a headline, write 100.
  • Save the operative part of the headline for the very end.
  • Never use fake names in a headline. (Or copy. Or anywhere else, for that matter.)
  • Don't let the headline flex any muscles when the visual is doing the heavy lifting.
  • When it's just a headline, it'd better be a pretty good headline.
  • Certain headlines are currently checked out. You may use them when they are returned.
  • Writing Body Copy.
  • Writing well, rule #1: Write well.
  • Write like you'd talk if you were the brand.
  • At the same time, remember to write like you talk.
  • Pretend you're writing a letter.
  • Don't have a ``pre-ramble.´´
  • Five rules for effective speechwriting from Winston Churchill.
  • ``It's not fair to inflict your own style on a strategy.´´
  • Eschew obfuscation.
  • Once you lay your sentences down, spackle between the joints.
  • Break your copy into as many short paragraphs as you can.
  • When you're done writing the copy, read it aloud.
  • When you're done writing your body copy, go back and cut it by a third.
  • Proofread your own work.
  • If you have to have one, make your tagline an anthem.
  • A Few Notes on Design and One on Thinning the Herd.
  • Something has to dominate the ad.
  • Avoid trends in execution.
  • Own something visual.
  • Be objective.
  • Kill off the weak sister.
  • Always, always show babies or puppies.
  • 6: The Virtues of Simplicity: Or, Why it's hard to pound in a nail sideways
  • Make Sure the Fuse on Your Idea Isn'T Too Short or Too Long.
  • Simple has stopping power.
  • Simple is bigger.
  • Simple is easier to remember.
  • Simple breaks through clutter.
  • Keep paring away until you have the essence of your ad.
  • A Few Words About Outdoor (Three Would Be Ideal, Actually.)
  • Billboards, banner ads, posters, 15-second TV-they all force you to be simple.
  • Outdoor is a great place to get outrageous.
  • Your outdoor must delight people.
  • 7: Stupid, Rong, Naughty, and Viral: Getting noticed, getting talked about
  • The Art of Being Rong®
  • ``The reverse side also has a reverse side.´´
  • Question the brief, the media, question everything.
  • Try doing something counterintuitive with the medium.
  • Does it really have to be an ad? If so, does it have to be a flat page?
  • Do not sit down to do an ad. Sit down to do something interesting.
  • Instead of doing an ad, change the product, or make a new one.
  • The Strategic Invincibility of Stupid.
  • The highest form of rong-stupid.
  • Working way out past the edge.
  • ``Love, Honor, and Obey Your Hunches.´´
  • Build a Small, Cozy Fire With the Rule Books. Start With This One.
  • 8: Why Is the Bad Guy Always More Interesting?: Storytelling, conflict, and platforms
  • Platforms: the Mother of Stories.
  • Campaigns vs. platforms.
  • Platforms are ideas that create ideas.
  • Think of a campaign as a movie and a platform as a Hollywood franchise.
  • Two signs you have a platform: it fits on a Post-It note, and it starts talking to you and won't shut up.
  • Truth + conflict = platform
  • 9: Zen and the Art of Tastee-Puft: Or, Managing time, energy, panic, and your creative mind
  • What to Do When You'Re Stuck.
  • First of all, being stuck is a good sign. Seriously.
  • If you're stuck, relax.
  • Leave the office and go work somewhere else.
  • What does the ad want to say?
  • Get off the stinkin' computer.
  • Go to the store where they sell the stuff.
  • Go to a bookstore and study books on your subject.
  • Read an old Far Side collection by Gary Larson.
  • Ask your creative director for help.
  • Get more product information.
  • Go into it knowing there's a chance you could fail.
  • It helps to work on several projects at once.
  • Don't burn up energy trying to make something work.
  • Be patient.
  • Learn to enjoy the process, not just the finished piece.
  • Remember, you aren't saving lives.
  • 10: Digital Isn't a Medium, It's a Way of Life: Ads, media, content, and customers- they've all gone digital
  • We Are So Not in Kansas Anymore.
  • It's not about making ``digital advertising.´´ It's about making advertising for a digital world.
  • Funny, It Doesn'T Look Like Advertising.
  • Red Bull gives users a rush online.
  • Dove produces a mini-documentary.
  • The Swedish Institute gives away its Twitter feed.
  • Century 21 hijacks the finale of Breaking Bad.
  • Lowe's starts running six-second commercials.
  • Ice Bucket Challenge raises 100 million. Media Investment: 0.00.
  • Digital advertising can be building things out of connected devices.
  • 11: Change the Mindset, Change the Brief, Change the Team
  • ``We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us´´ (Actually, It'S the Brief).
  • The Post-Bill-Bernbach Creative Team.
  • Partner With Creative People Who Aren'T in the Advertising Business.
  • Combine Art, Copy, and Technology.
  • It'S No Longer About ``The Dude With the Idea.´´
  • Unite Storytellers and Systems Thinkers.
  • ``Keep the Team to Two Pizzas.´´
  • Fewer Generals, More Soldiers.
  • Shut Up and Write.

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