A - It's not doing the world any good. Advertising skills can t used for very good things, but they rarely are. I think it's important that advertising be in the hands of the right people, because it's a very powerful tool. I have done freelance jobs for solar power people and felt very good about that, because I knew that the better advertisement I create the more positive impact it will have. Knowing that it would benefit something that I really believed in was rewarding. I have refused to work on things that I really couldn't bring myself to sell. But usually it's just coffee, dog food, or paper towels.
A common complaint around the creative department is that the account people forget who they are working for. They think that they are working for the client, but their job is to promote the agency's point of view. There are sometimes complaints about the account department that they are not as well-trained as they should be in the visual aspect of advertising or in the production aspects, so they often don't understand how much things cost and how much time things take.
I dislike the idea of deadlines, but if we didn't have them, nom of us would ever get anything done. We would play with an advertisement until doomsday. The deadlines are a necessary evil. They do create a lot of pressure and stress.
The feeling like I have to be "up" all the time, like I have to b" creative all the time. Feeling like I have to have a clever idea today and like I have to have several clever ideas tomorrow. I keep telling my boss if I had a shower at work, I'd do great. I do all my great thinking in the shower.
The single hardest thing that you face is doing something that you don't think is right. Sometimes a client demands something that you're fairly sure is not going to do any good, but you're not in a position to argue. So you don't. That's one of the things that makes it hard to get up in the morning.
It's very stressful. A lot of people get ulcers, slipped discs, and lings that are apparently from tension. People do what they can to believe the tension. Some play athletics and go and beat a squash ball. Most people in this business drink a lot. Whatever it is that you need to o, you do. I sometimes talk in my sleep about problems that we're having. I have also been told by my dentist that I grind my teeth at night.
There is a burnout factor in writing. You just simply get tired of writing up the same accounts. As a writer, you have to come up with creative ideas from scratch. You can cover the same ground only so many times before you feel like you've explored everything.
Q - Have you ever been stumped?
A - You're not allowed to get stumped. That's why you stay here late at night. If you can't do it straight, then you get drunk, and try and love it that way. Sometimes you become obsessed; you live it. If you don't have an answer, there are the formulas you can always fall back on. We have a joke of the standard commercials: "Turn you're a** into a ***"; "Watch this amazing demonstration"; or "the doubter concerted." So if you're stumped and you can't get a deadline extension, you can always do one of those. You try not to. They're horrible. Everybody hates them. If you're stumped, the first thing you try and do is get more time. If you can't get more time, you try to get someone else to work on it instead. If that fails then you have two choices: writing something formula or slitting your throat.
Q - What are some valuable skills a copywriter should have?
A - You have to be able to listen. There's a whole broad category that involves everything that we do, and it's called communication. You have to have at least a basic knowledge of human psychology. You need to know what makes people tick. You have to be somewhat goal-oriented. You need to take on a job and do the very best you can. There's no room for half-way jobs. There's too much money involved for that kind of attitude.
Organization and prioritizing. While I say these are important, I know there are a lot of people in this business who are not well-organized. I'm not that well organized, not as well organized as I would like to be. I think there is a myth about the creative type of personality that says they are disorganized, scatterbrained, emotional, unstable. The people I know in advertising who fit that profile don't last very long.
Thinking on your feet. You have to be cocky, but you can't be so protective of your work that you take everything personally.
Typing-at this agency you do your own. There is a lot c editing and a lot of rewriting. Many times better versions are accomplished in the middle of typing the first copy. Communication is important. A lot of people don't converse intelligently, they don't listen, they don't search for the next thought, they don't pattern their conversation they don't reach a goal with it. It's important in talking with a client that you be able to keep a focus, a goal in mind, and to get information that you're going to need for your copywriting. It's important to be able to converse intelligently.
