There are no end of “How-to” books on a whole range of subjects and the subject of “How-To-Do-Advertising,” has its fair share of them. This book is not one of them. This is not just another How-to book. This Ad Week release, published by John Wiley and Sons, from Luke Sullivan is a helpful and funny, and once-read, an essential guide to copywriting and as the title promises, a guide to creating great ads.
A Background to Luke Sullivan
Luke Sullivan is a copywriter of immense stature within the ad industry and considerable experience, with some thirty years in the business. As well as working at some of the country’s biggest ad agencies, on the accounts of a goodly number of the world’s biggest brands, he has also has picked up more than 20 medals in the “Oscars of the ad business,” the One Show. If ever there was someone from the world of copywriting especially qualified to write a book titled:”Hey Whipple, Squeeze This,” but helpfully subtitled:”A Guide to Creating Great Ads,” it’s Luke Sullivan.
Luke Sullivan, the 1998 1st edition of the book’s jacket cover blurb tells us, worked for ad agency Fallon McElligot. Sullivan, by the 2008 3rd edition, is now Group Creative Director of GSD&M in Austin Texas and had included the Martin Agency in his roster of elite US Ad Agencies, and Fallon McElligot had become Fallon, the Minneapolis-based Fallon Worldwide Company.
Contents and Chapters of the Guide to Creating Great Ads
As any reader from the world of advertising, who has to be the target audience for this book, would expect, the author covers a wide spectrum of the industry. The titles of the chapters give more than a clue to their contents and include:
- A Sharp Pencil Works Best – on getting started
- In the Future, Everyone will be Famous for 30 Seconds – on making TV commercials
- Radio Is Hell, But It’s a Dry Heat – on what to some is “the tough medium”
- Pecked to Death by Ducks – on presenting and protecting work
- A Good Book or a Crowbar – on getting into the business
The book ends with a comprehensive and wisely chosen suggested reading list, and a bibliography.
Chapter 6 Advice on Working in Radio
A book review that concentrates on one chapter of the book alone is not the usual, but there are a limited number of good books on the medium, that many in the ad world see as the Cinderella media and many practitioners find difficult. Luke Sullivan not only tackles this perception head on, but offers advice from his own experience. It is advice anyone working in any capacity at any time in the industry will find useful. It is advice anyone thinking of getting into the industry in any capacity should read.
Working in sound is a huge challenge for some broadcasting professionals. Many copywriters retreat to the safety of other media and perceive only the restrictions. This is complicated further for them by the paid-for units normally being of short durations of 30 or 40 second. Luke Sullivan’s writings may help. He covers:
- Why most radio is not good
- How to write the commercial
- Steps to writing better radio
- The best use of sound effects
- Casting the right actors
- Studio work, Recording, Production and presenting the finished commercial.
All of this is presented with examples of well-written radio commercials and the author’s own experiences of making radio ads. It’s advice from one who’s been there and done it, and ‘done it,’ better than most.
Further Editions of the Guide to Creating Great Ads
In the 1st edition, the author tackles the traditional forms of advertising. As the world of advertising continually moves and changes by the 3rd edition of the book released in 2008, Mr. Sullivan had also included details and comments on new media, new technology and included online advertising. In short he has created an all-year- round guide to advertising creativity.
Why has he called the work, “Hey Whipple, Squeeze this,”? By page two, he’s revealed this with one of the first of his memorable stories and anecdotes, which is one of the reasons why, it’s not just another, “How-to-do-something,” book.
Hey Whipple Squeeze This, A Guide to Creating Great Ads, by Luke Sullivan 3rd Edition edition is published by John Wiley & Sons. (2008)
Dan McCurdy - Dan McCurdy is a freelance writer producer creative and lecturer. Dan is one of the UK's most experienced radio writers and producers. ...
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