Richard Bayan

This review was published in German language, and in a slightly enhanced & more comfortable format, at my blog between drafts.

Like its predecessor, Words That Sell, this one’s an extremely helpful collection: not of the tried and true this time, but from several fields where regular thesauri can help you only so much. You get lists for “cerebral,” “plain,” “emotional,” or “upscale” words and such. Then you get lists for, well, special interest advertising like real estate or employment ads. To top it off, you get lists for flavors or fragrances which always come in handy. What’s really sweet about these lists is that they still don’t stifle your creativity but help you to be more specific, which is another mantra in advertising. And, yes, browsing these lists can give you ideas too!… (meer)

This review was published in German language, and in a slightly enhanced & more comfortable format, at my blog between drafts.

Regardless of what people say about this book (or its successor More Words That Sell): it’s simply an extremely helpful collection of the tried and true. Things that work. If you read some of the masters of the advertising trade, especially David Ogilvy, they hammer you with their advice to use words and layouts that have stood the test of time: words and layouts that sold the product. And no, it doesn’t stifle your creativity in the least. You still need a brilliant idea, and the copy will still be hard work, from your research to the finished piece. Words That Sell is immensely useful for giving you an idea as to what kind of headlines make people actually read your copy. The choice is yours, and there’s a myriad of possible combinations you can try and test for yourself. You should create your own headlines that work—but there’s no rule out there that you have to start from scratch, as if there were no such thing as the history of advertising.… (meer)