Ogilvy on copywriting
Ogilvy never wrote an advertisement in the office: “Too many interruptions.” He started by looking at every advertisement for competing products for the past 20 years: “Study the precedents.” Then he’d go to work on a headline. Finally, when he could no longer postpone the actual copy, he would start writing, usually throwing away the first 20 attempts. “If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratio on the gramophone. This generally produces a gush of copy.” The next morning, he would get up early and edit the gush. “I am a lousy copywriter,” he would say, “but a good editor.”
From Kenneth Roman’s The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising
Also available for online shopping copywriters: Handel oratios and bottles of Bundy.
