Andy Blackford came into advertising “because it paid me more for doing less than any other job I could think of” – and on first impression you could think he’s still at it, flogging you this book.
You could read its twelve short punchy chapters and, having chuckled and tittered your way through every one of them, think, “That was great - now for a textbook on advertising”. Of course, you’d have missed the point. This book is as complete and informative as any you’ll find sandwiched on the shelf before Art and Architecture.
As a copywriter and creative director, for me it’s known territory. As known to me as my own 80ft by 40ft St Johns Wood living room (I knew that being paid more for doing less sounded familiar). The book’s dramatis personae are also achingly well known to me, and drawn with an accuracy and good humour that never stints on detail. From the word-blind copywriter/ lighthouse keeper to the chairman too busy with the clients to see the creative work, I’ve met them all many times over.
In fact detail is the unexpected quality which suffuses the book, Take “Umbongo” for example. Blackford’s breakdown of this ad’s genesis through client thinking, research, creative approach and composition (including doing the track and still holding the musical rights 17 years later) is a template of “how to” for any aspiring entrepreneurial copywriter.
In detail, too, are Andy’s thoughts on the area of the business in which he has been vaunted as a guru, Direct Marketing. But this isn’t the mechanistic detail so much DM text mires in. Here are Andy’s gritty opinions, cogent advice and a timely kick in the butt for a business that some feel has been bent over gazing at its belly button lately.
At times I found myself flushed with disagreement. How can he call advertising courses at colleges and universities “whore’s school”? How can he accuse the business of “sending its youngsters to Whore’s School... |
