The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
David OgilvyRead
If you have all the research, all the ground rules, all the directives, all the data - it doesn't mean the ad is written. Then you've got to close the door and write something - that is the moment of truth which we all try to postpone as long as possible.
Interpretation
Research and preparation are important, but the actual writing is a critical and often procrastinated step in the creative process.
In this quote, David Ogilvy emphasizes that while collecting data, setting rules, and preparing thoroughly are essential parts of any creative endeavor, the real challenge lies in the act of writing itself. It is often easy to get lost in preparation, but true progress requires overcoming the fear of putting words on the page, which is a moment of truth that many creators tend to delay.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a creative writing workshop to inspire participants to start writing sooner.
The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.
Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
Experience has taught me that advertisers get the best results when they pay their agency a flat fee. It is unrealistic to expect your agency to be impartial when its vested interest lies wholly in the direction of increasing your commissionable advertising.
Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.
While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity, creative recovery (or discovery) is a teachable, trackable spiritual process. Each of us is complex and highly individual, yet there are common recognizable denominators to the creative recovery process.
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
Don't wait for permission to do something creative.
The creative individual is particularly gifted in seeing the gap between what is and what could be.
When people say, Did you always want to be a writer?, I have to say no! I always WAS a writer.
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