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Damn Good Advice Preview
Damn Good Advice Preview
Damn Good Advice Preview
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George, be careful!
efu
Looking up from my crib on a dark and stormy night,
car
God commanded: George, be careful.
( Iremember it well.) My earliest childhood recollections
were punctuated by three words (in Greek)
, be
from the lips of my mother, Vasilike Thanasoulis Lois:
George, be careful. They have been a refrain
throughout my lifea sincere admonition from the lips
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of people who have always meant well but
never fathomed my attitude towards life and work.
In the art of advertising, being careful
eo
guarantees sameness and mediocrity, which
means your work will be invisible.
G
Better to be reckless than careful.
Better to be bold than safe.
Better to have your work seen and remembered
or youve struck out.
There is no middle ground.
26.
Even a brilliant idea wont sell itself.
Youre looking at Ron Holland, me, and Jim Callaway, in 1967,
a few weeks after starting my second ad agency,
Lois Holland Callaway. As you can see, were selling an
ad campaign to a new client (with gusto).
Always do three things when youpresent a Big Idea:
1. Tell them what they are going to see.
2. Show it to them.
3. Tell them, passionately, what they just saw.
54.
Reject Analysis Paralysis.
Get the Big Idea, think it through
it all fits, you know its right,
you know its ambitious and aggressive,
it thrills every cell in your body.
Does it work in print? Yes.
Does it make a gangbuster TV spot? Yes.
Put it all on paper and sell it to your client.
Do not analyze it.
Trust your gut.
Trust your instincts.
Analysis involves conjuring up not only the pros,
but those hidden, spooky cons and discussion about
the cons, is, ipso facto, analysis paralysis.
67.
Any great creative idea should
stun momentarily it should seem
to be outrageous.
Safe, conventional work is a ticket to oblivion.
But great creativity should stun, as modern art was
supposed to shock, by presenting the viewer
with an idea that seemingly suspends conventions of
understanding. In that swift interval between
the shock and the realization that what you are
presenting is not as outrageous
as it seems, you capture your audience.