A Copywriting Legend on Real Thrills

“Always shoot for the moon—it’s one of the few real thrills left today!”

Eugene Schwartz

Not that great of a quote. Mostly just a celebration of finishing this book.

Read it as research for a course I’m writing in Fizzle. It’s this out of print classic in copywriting. Much of it old and outdated, but tons of great morsels.

The examples and the tactics feel hard-sell-ish today. But there’s a few bits in here (some passages on creativity, his reverence for VW ads and the quote above) that point to a richer creative life for good ol’ Eugene.

Read it if you’re a student of ads and copywriting. Else, just do what everyone else who’s smart does and just pay attention to how Basecamp does it.

Good Work That Works Good

I’m working hard on Fizzle.co. Less people signed up over the summer, and now we need to get those numbers up. It’s a weird mode for your dad to be in… numbers and results are tough for me. I’d rather do what sounds fun and interesting and compelling. But I’ve learned enough about the importance of the balance: do good work that works good. Too much good work that doesn’t work good and I (you also probably) get moody, dumb, traction-less. But bad work that works good has the same effect. So balance it out if you can.

I created an Gmail address for my son (he’s 5 years old). Every month I send him a lil’ note. A picture, a story, an update on him and me, etc.

This morning the bit above popped out. “Good work that works good.” That balance sure is hard to find.

Joseph Campbell on the Not Striving Moment

“There’s a wonderful moment that comes when you realize, ‘I’m not striving for anything. What I’m doing now is not a means to achieving something later.’ Youth has always to think that way. Every decision a young person makes is a commitment to a life course, and if you make a bad decision, that angle, by the time you get [older] you’re far off course. But after a certain age there’s no future, and suddenly the present becomes rich, it becomes that thing in itself which you are now experiencing.”

Joseph Campbell

Why to Give a Thing Away

“So here you have it: a book that in­vites you to pay. Not be­cause you have to. Not be­cause you want to. Not even be­cause you should. Rather, be­cause the al­ter­na­tive—starv­ing the con­tent you en­joy—is against your interests.”

Matthew Butterick

Bill Murray on Secrets About Living

“I think the only reason I’ve had the career life that I’ve had is that someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you’re very, very relaxed, no matter what it is or what your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That’s sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had, the better I did it. And I thought, that’s a job I could be proud of. It’s changed my life learning that, and it’s made me better at what I do.”

Bill Murray

Men Have Become the Tools of our Tools

“Men have become the tools of our tools.”

Henry David Thoreau in Walden

We teach what we’ve been taught.
We cut how the tool can cut.
We make how the tool allows the making.
We start at some unmovable starting point.
But it is moveable.

Execution Isn’t Good Enough

“If an ad looks good, that isn’t enough. An Attractive ad without an idea is just a decoration. Sure, the execution of any ad should be brilliant. Why not? But execution alone is not advertising. We encourage our art directors to think in terms of copy, much as every good copywriter thinks visually. It’s not important where the basic idea comes from—it can come from the writer, the artist, or the elevator operator. The important thing is that the advertisement, to do a job, must have a basically sound idea. Truly brilliant execution invariably grows from such an idea.”

Stephen O. Frankfurt

This guy was a creative director and eventual president of Young & Rubicam, a big ol agency.

But what I like best about him was his team was the one who came up with the tag line for the movie Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Ugh, so good.

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