Go Fact Yourself.

Somehow, this seems more germane today than when it first ran 55 years ago.

If you want to piss me off--not that it's not easy to do--call me a "wordsmith."

I hate that locution almost as much as I hate contrivances like "job creator," or "big beautiful bill," or "operation desert dildo," or whatever the current administration monsters are calling our illegal war in Iran.

Copywriters are meant to make copy read well.

But we ain't John Keats. 

Though we could learn from him.

Abridged. 

The beauty we convey isn't supposed to be about the words we use but the products and services we write about. The AO (advertiseable object) is supposed to stand-out. Not our skill.

In other words, I believe we should be more 'detectives' than 'stylists.' What makes the thing work, not how can I make the thing sound pretty.

Most often when I work on a big assignment (I do about one a month) I spend a portion of my time interviewing the people who have made the product, designed the product, use the product and sell the product.

In other words: I learn about the product.

This forensic phase takes a few days.

After those days, I present the client with a document of "pull quotes," I call "What I heard." 

At that point they're usually as happy as a teenage boy un-hooking his first bra. 

They're fairly gushing at my words.

I'm quick to tell them the truth.

Those aren't my words.

They're your words. I just gussied them up a bit to make them easier to remember or shorter.

After that, selling them is easy.

I don't make things up.

I do something hardly ever done in advertising today.

I tell the truth.

I realize that put me far from today's ideal of becoming "part of culture."

I wouldn't have it any other way.

--

Here are 15 car ads, you've probably not seen before.

None by DDB.

That use actual details of the car to sell the car. They don't try to be part of culture. They use the product to sell the product.

Revolutionary.