WRITING COMMERCIALS: CREATIVITY & INFLUENCE

No other form of writing gives a writer more opportunity for instant exposure and success than the local retail radio or TV commercial.

A commercial is a miniature play, story, or manifesto that can reach thousands overnight in a way that can influence behavior on an unparalleled scale.

With no more than 150 words, a commercial writer can get the kind of response that old-time pitchmen, crusading novelists, and muckraking journalists use thousands of words for.

There was a time when Madison Avenue was synonymous with the kind of creative excellence that won awards and created lines at the cash register. Today, Madison Avenue runs from sea to shining sea with hundreds of tributaries that crisscross the U.S. and Canada and reach into the smallest radio stations.

The first rule for writing "Mad-Ave" quality commercials is this: Watch television and listen to radio every chance you get. Look and listen-not for the programming, although that's important; pay particular attention to the commercials. When everyone else is going to the kitchen or bathroom, take notice-and take notes.

Once in a while-a long while-a commercial will be so interesting, so compelling, so entertaining, that people around you will forget to leave the room, forget to pick up the newspaper, forget to change stations, or forget to turn the thing off altogether. That's the kind of commercial to take special note of. That's the only kind of commercial to learn how to write because that's the only kind that gets enough attention to get results.

When you're looking and listening, continually ask yourself: What...gets my attention? ...holds my interest?

...do I remember? ...do I want to act on? You are exposed to hundreds of advertising impressions daily. A popular top-40 radio station can run 240 or more commercials plus self-promotional matter during the typical 12-hour day. Only one or two spots are going to stick with you by the end of that day. Which ones are they, and why? You have to use yourself as the ultimate yardstick because you are the only person who can see into the workings of your own mind. A great novelist writes from his own experience-so does a great copywriter. You have to be more than just a writer, however. You have to be a psychologist, philosopher, sociologist, and-above all-a superconsumer. (By this I don't mean someone who buys a lot of things, but someone who looks for real value in the marketplace, knows it when he sees it, and can define it in terms understandable to other people.) This is a book about writing commercials. Music and production values can be an important part of the total effect of the commercial, but they are no substitute for the original writing. Millions of dollars are thrown away every year on lavish productions that fail because the writer didn't lavish one good idea on his script. Volkswagen used relatively low budget black-and-white production to outscore in viewer retention the extravaganzas of Ford and Chevrolet. What made the difference? Certainly the Fords and Chevrolets were nicer to look at than the VWs. In the American-car ads, the girls were more numerous and prettier. What made the difference? Writing. Ideas.

The ideas happen in your head. The writing happens in your typewriter. You can be sitting anywhere while this process is going on-and the air is cleaner in Keokuck, Iowa than on Madison Ave., N.Y.