Tuesday, January 24, 2012

David Ogilvy's best ever tip on writing copy...

#9. "If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy."
Similarly, I drink a half a bottle of Jack Daniels and play some mclusky on the SoundDock, and think of a bunch of sketchy ideas, and write down none of them, and then can't remember a fucking thing the next morning.
Read more of Ogilvy's 1955 letter on what a lousy copywriter he was on Letters of Note.
Previously: brilliant 1,909-word trade ad written by Ogilvy.

11 Comments:

Anonymous RobbieR said...

I saw mclusky twice when they were still around.

I had a ticket signed by all three of the band somewhere. I wish I'd kept it.

1:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

After playing that fucked up band, I would not be able to write copy either. or remember my ideas.

2:46 PM  
Blogger copyranter said...

Here, let me put some Kenny G on for you.

2:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nah, thanks. How about some Luther Vandross?

3:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ogilvy rulz!!! i am saving that, printing that, putting up all over the walls, and making a tee shirt of that.

I-)

3:55 PM  
Anonymous The DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual said...

When in doubt, drink and write! Probably not the best business idea, but surely many of history's great writers were under the influence. Can you tell us that Hemingway was sober while writing some of his most famous pieces?

5:02 PM  
Blogger Brooks said...

1000 extra credit points for the Mclusky reference.

6:55 PM  
Anonymous mm said...

I just took your blog post and created a quote within a quote by posting your whole post on my shitty tumblr. Partly because it takes a lot to make me smile at 10am on a Wednesday (which you did) and also because that kind of thing is the rum for my copy. I'm also very GenY.

9:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hemingway waited until after he was done writing to start drinking. He wrote none of his famous pieces under the influence.

11:42 PM  
Blogger Don said...

The closer I am to the "context" the better! I cannot do anything from afar, I need to "Live In" smell the "Shit" and then it happens magically!

11:21 AM  
Blogger Chris Collision said...

I owe you a bare minimum of a fifth of your brown liquor of choice, CR, for turning me on to mclusky.

1:13 PM  

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