Quotes About Copywriting

I've always believed writing ads is the second most profitable form of writing. The first is ransom notes…

Writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.

Axiom 5 Get the reader to say yes and harmonize with your accurate and truthful statements while reading your copy.

People think copywriters are obsessed with words. This isn't correct. The word should be 'infatuated' - it fits the context better.

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product.

Most good copywriters', says William Maynard of the Bates agency, 'fall into two categories. Poets. And killers.

Aldous Huxley, who was once a copywriter, said, 'It is easier to write ten passably effective sonnets than one effective advertisement.' You cannot bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.

When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing each of them a letter on behalf of your client. One human being to another, second person singular.

advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not.

Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.

I was infinitely more useful to my clients when I wrote copy than when I was Chairman of the Board.

All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short.

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

Only amateurs use short copy.

The GCHQ staff were sporty, providing most of the players in the Foreign Office football team that won the Civil Service Football Cup in 1952. This could present some peculiar problems. When local reporters covered matches in Cheltenham, they were told they could name the goal-scorers of the visitors, but not of the local team. Reporting these games tested their copywriting skills to the very limits.

used to write copy. My boss told me: If you gotta say it's upscale, it ain't. My boss said, It's like that guy who tells you he's funny.

No, sir, I'm not saying that charming, witty and warm copy won't sell. I'm just saying I've seen thousands of charming, witty campaigns that didn't sell.

My father was a legendary copywriter. He wrote 'Timex Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking.' He named Earth Day 'Earth Day.' It falls on his birthday, April 22. Earth Day, birthday. So the idea came easily.

Jay Abraham's client sent him $50,000 a month for a long time for writing one headline. That's what people who understand communication can do.

When people ask me about the definition of a copywriter, I say, "If I become a good copywriter, I will have the ability to bring nonliving people to life.

Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product.

Copywriting probably did make me a commercial writer. Nobody wants to read advertising copy, so you have to keep it punchy; you almost have trick them into reading it. You have to make every sentence work.

I have very talented art directors in my agency who start out telling me, 'Well, this is what the picture is... ' I ask, 'Well, what's the headline?' and they say, 'We haven't done that yet, but it looks this way.' But I'm still writing copy, almost every day.