Ad Books

Hey Whipple, one more time! The third edition of Luke Sullivan's guide to creating great advertising

Dabitch — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:02:06 +0100

A lot has changed since the first edition of the now staple creative diet book "Hey Whipple, Squeeze Tthis", not just that Dick Wilson who played Mr Whipple has gone to squeeze the big fluffy clouds in the sky at the grand age of 91. There's also the galloping development of the web and the myriad of new media areas. So how does the grand old classic "idea" apply to these new solutions? Don't worry, Luke knows.

“Luke Sullivan writes just about as relevant an advertising read as you can get. It’s a perfect lesson in advertising for newcomers – and a familiar and highly painful reminiscence for those of us entrenched in this noble and often crazy profession.”
–Lee Clow, Chairman, TBWA/Chiat, Chief Creative Officer Worldwide
“This is a business that is changing like crazy, but Sullivan’s advice is timeless.”
–Mike Hughes, President, Creative Director, The Martin Agency
“Luke’s reflections on the advertising industry make me wish I could do it all over again. Except for that ‘scab’ story in Chapter 10.”
–Bob Barrie, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy

Lets do an excerpt. My favorite way to check out a book is to slap it open and read a bit. If I fancy it, I buy it. The third edition of this book doesn't just have two new chapters but old chapters have been updated as well as the examples were getting a little dusty. Check out chapter eight inside for your test read.

Paul Arden on God

Dabitch — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:09:23 +0100

The man who always said "God is in the details" has lost religion and thus put out a book on the subject. A book short enough to read in one single cab ride sitting. A book which has it's own myspace profile. A book full of those little brilliant napkin scribbles that'll never happen.

Paul Arden quips again.

Dabitch — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:50:06 +0100

Here's another pep talk for you special snowflakes who need someone to remind you to keep your opinions and your backbone, despite what the adgame might be doing to you. Paul Arden delivers his usual distilled smarts in his second book, despite the fact that he claims he can't write. He makes up for this by writing a lot of short sentences and hitting the return key way too often. His books are to young misunderstood adgrunts what the little black poetry book is to Emo kids. If you know a sulking creative at your office, this might be the right gift for them.

I used to commision a lot of photography.
Consequently, people weere keen to show me their work.
99 percent of portfolios I saw were of a very high standard.
But 98 percent of them contained pictures I had seen before.
Obviously not the same subject or composition, but I had the general impression that I was not seeing anything new.

Cutting edge advertising excerpt.

Dabitch — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:56:17 +0100

As a cutting edge communicator, you need to know what is happening. You need to understand the changes. You need to see how they will impact on your own creative thinking process, because they will.

Strategies and briefs

The joke goes something like this: a copywriter and an account director were visiting a client in Paris. The copywriter asked the account director how to get to the client's office, and the account director handed him a map of Europe.

When Mad Men ruled the world, or at least got smashed.

Dabitch — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:34:12 +0100

For those who are already pining for next season of Mad Men, why don't you dive head first into the golden years of UK advertising, the 60's, 70's and 80's. Back when men were alcoholics, women never climbed above the title of secretary, and all paychecks for creatives were insanely huge.

Little 1 by Ann and Paul Rand

Dabitch — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:21:17 +0200

I can't be the only adgrunt who's procreated, so humor me here for a sec while I review a childrens book for wee little adgrunts-to-be. Did you know that Ann Rand wrote children's books, four of which were illustrated by her husband Paul? Start your little artist off right with some well designed classics I say.

In Little 1 we learn basic addition by following the number one around, in rhyming rhythmic verse no less. Don't worry, it might be lonely being the Little 1 but it has a happy ending - and great artwork.

Little 1 looked like a stick

read more

Paul Arden's Lecture at the D&AD

Dabitch — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:14:26 +0200

"Everybody probably does want to be good but not everybody are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes. To some people being nice, to be liked is important. There is equal merit in that too. But you must not confuse being good with being liked. There may be not one person in this room that truly wants to be great. Most of you have come here for a solution. The way to become good. I have to tell you that I have no such solution. I can't teach you anything. I can tell you, but you won't hear me. The only way to learn is through your own experiences and mistakes.

Adcult USA and Ogilvy On Advertising

Dabitch — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:07:44 +0200

From "Adcult USA" and "Oglivy On Advertising"
about Subliminal Advertising.
"ADCULT USA"

By James B. Twitchell
Where's The Beef?
The subliminal explanation of Advertising

Ordinary Advertising. And How To Avoid it like the plague

Dabitch — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:19:39 +0200

by Mark SilveiraChapter One
How Bad Is Most Advertising?

The Other Side of Advertising by Wallace J. Gordon

Dabitch — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:13:57 +0200

tip from adgrunt Laters - One man's view from 40 years in the trenches of the advertising wars.

A memoir is made of memories, and in these memories I've changed only a very, very few actual names, dates, and places. And those only for reasons best considered as prudent.

All the other memories are exactly as they were. Or at least as they seemed to me. If some of them seem unpleasant or less then flattering...? Well, that's the way I remember them.

Bluff Your way in Advertising!

Dabitch — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:07:33 +0200

In this small book, you can learn the lingo, who’s who in the mess of mystery advertising agency titles, and how to panic appropriately during deadlines. Like all Bluff books it’s very funny, and sometimes so true it’s scary.

Art Directors. Art directors are in theory responsible for the visual aspect of an advertisement. In practice, art directors will direct practically anything, the campaign, the account, the commercial, the agency, the client, and the personal lives of anyone they find attractive. What they think they do;

"Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip and Dan Heath

Dabitch — Sun, 20 May 2007 02:28:10 +0200

When I received the review copy of the book "Made to stick" by Chip and Dan Heath and started making dog-ears all over it I knew I had to share it with you all - at the same time I was kind of hogging it hoping to keep it my little secret ;) It's quite inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's The "Tipping Point", but an inspiring idea book in its own right where the brothers argue that the elusive thing that makes an idea stick can be boiled down to six critical elements:

Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotions
Stories

Add sexy and you spell success.

Adcult USA

Dabitch — Fri, 18 May 2007 00:20:58 +0200

"The history of advertising yo-yo’s between hard and soft sell. During hard times we get the hard sell, during affluent times the soft.Until we got video,cable, and the remote control, we could observe the yo-yoing in approximately fifteen-year cycles. Hard or soft, however, the one thing advertising has not been ironic. But it seems to me that irony is becoming more and more a staple of Adcult and that irony is the deflation of Adcult. This irony often becomes parody, as if the only way to get through the clutter is to give up the charade and come out in front of the curtain.

A Big Life - in advertising

Dabitch — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 13:32:11 +0200

A Big Life (in advertising) - by Mary Wells

Under the radar

Dabitch — Fri, 20 Dec 2002 01:00:00 +0100

WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF AN EPIDEMIC OF CYNICISM.

What's a Saatchi?

Robblink — Fri, 04 Oct 2002 03:27:48 +0200

Looking to topple IPG, WPP, Omnicom and Publicis? Who isn't! Learn the tricks of the trade from Hoffman York, one agency that fought for their independence from Saatchi and Saatchi and won.

Tom Jordan, Hoffman York's creative director and author of recently published 'What's a Saatchi and How Come We Have Two of Them?' dropped by adland to share some pearls of wisdom with you adgrunts.

Click continue to read about Hoffman York and Tom Jordan, the Master of Marketing in the Mid-West!

Unspecial effects for graphic designers - Bob Gill

Dabitch — Fri, 20 Sep 2002 01:00:00 +0200

Graphic designer says: to hell with special effects.

The thesis of Unspecial Effects for Graphic Designers is that the most effective way for print to compete with the dazzling special effects of the hottest music videos or the latest alien movie is by going to the other extreme...to reality! To, in effect, say to the audience, "have you ever noticed this before? Even though it was right under your nose."

Creative Company: how St Luke's became the ad agency to end all ad agencies.

Dabitch — Sun, 23 Jun 2002 20:45:34 +0200

Chapter 18 : Culture

Ogilvy on advertising

Dabitch — Mon, 20 May 2002 09:42:55 +0200

How to run an advertising agency.

"Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads."

Dabitch — Tue, 20 Nov 2001 01:00:00 +0100

The Hack
by Luke Sullivan.

Many thanks to Luke Sullivan for e-mailing me this part of his book. - Dabitch

Yes, clients can misbehave. Thank God, most of them don't. And to account for all that awful work you see on TV every night, those bad clients must have a few friends in the business. They do. Like everything else in life, America's list of agencies makes up a big bell curve. There are a few truly great agencies, then a whole bunch of agencies that are just okay, and then a few bad ones.

A Communicator's Credo

Dabitch — Wed, 20 Sep 2000 19:00:00 +0200

The big idea will always be what great advertising is all about

85% of all advertising is invisible. This wasted work may not be all bad, but it's not good enough to win your attention. Much of it could be thoughtful and well "positioned." A lot of it may even be visually appealing. But none of it is good enough to stop you in your tracks. 14% of all advertising is terrible ugly, stupid, patronizing, demeaning. Paradoxically, that's better than being invisible; at least it might get your attention.

George Lois, What's the big Idea?

Dabitch — Wed, 20 Sep 2000 02:00:00 +0200

'You'd be paranoic too if people were out to get you!'
by George Lois.
From the book; What's the big idea?

Revisionism is a hazard of the advertising life. Credit for the big
idea and disputes about who said or wrote what when can drive you
up the wall if you let that kind of backbiting get to you. Advertising
attracts intense personalities who thrive on the heat of confrontation,
the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Advertising also attracts

Mad Ave Must Have

commando — Tue, 08 Aug 2000 03:34:03 +0200

If you're an ad geek like me (and you wouldn't be on this web site if you weren't) you might be afflicted with an ad book fetish. Well, get ready to squeeze a new tome on the bookshelf

MAD AVE: Award Winning Advertising of the 20th Century.

Herman Vaske interviews Tim Mellors

Dabitch — Thu, 20 Jul 2000 19:40:35 +0200

It's only advertising. Nobody gets killed. The old saying about boxing champions "They never come back" does not apply to advertising. At the beginning of the seventies, Tim Mellors was the beloved wunderkind of British advertising. Then Mellors went into directing and failed. After an attempt to set up his own consultancy, which went bankrupt, Mellors ended up in the world of alcohol and drugs. Seven years back, Charles Saatchi and Jeremy Sinclair got the prodigal son back into their office.

No Logo by Naomi Klein

Dabitch — Thu, 20 Jul 2000 01:00:00 +0200

As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?'

David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, in Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963