Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Advertising by Luke Sullivan

Somewhere, over the rainbow ...
Gary Bloomer, A reviewer based in Wilmington, DE, 03/04/2008

We open tight on a sheet of white paper. A hand holding a nubbin of pencil is scribbling into little rectangles. We pull back and, illuminated by a single work lamp, we see a writer hunched over a desk. It is night and the desk and floor are littered with balls of wadded paper. In the background, a TV set with the sound turned down is tuned to a late night movie. It is the Wizard of Oz. Just as the writer crumples another sheet a pointy-nosed, green-faced figure dressed in black appears on the writer's left shoulder. Nonchalantly cleaning its fingernails the figure peers down at the writer's pad and cackles 'That won't work either! You suck!' Suddenly, there’s a tiny puff of white smoke and another figure appears on the writer's right shoulder. Dressed in white, its tiara twinkling joyfully, it waves its fairy godmother wand toward a discarded sheet of paper half obscured by a pizza box and says, 'What if you attached your current headline to that image over there? That might work. See? Now we’re getting somewhere!' Somehow, something in the writer’s demeanor changes. Disgusted, the figure in black shouts 'Ill be back!' and vanishes in a billow of acrid smoke. Welcome to the world of the advertising copywriter. When I first read 'Hey Whipple', I laughingly referred to myself as a copywriter. Looking back at my stale, cliché-drenched ads from ten years ago I see how much I, er ... sucked. Now, I don't suck quite as much, and although I'm still not there yet, 'Hey Whipple' has been my chart and compass. Neil French says greatness in advertising lies in what you throw away, in what you crumple and toss, so that you can begin from scratch. Points illustrated by Luke Sullivan in this third edition of 'Hey Whipple' again, and again. The book covers new ground as well as old, but while it’s doing that it’s also adding insight that pulls back the curtain of the Great Oz of advertising even more. And as the fabric swishes back, pay attention to what you find. The 77-word lesson in advertising at the bottom of page 194 alone is worth the purchase price of the book. Take those words and bind them to your soul with ropes of steel. I'm working through the new bits while chortling at the old. And to any cowardly lions out there the additions are valuable enough to buy this book, read it, and re-read it. Waste no time, take notes, and learn. If 'Hey Whipple' enables you to produce just one great ad for one great client ... a client willing to take a risk and to jump into the unknown, then your investment of time and money will have been worth it. Whether you produce ads for big brands or little ones, a great ad is a great ad. Whether you're a client buying advertising, or a creative producing it, by applying a fraction of the advice in this third edition your ads and the impact they have on the bottom line will improve. If creating a great ad is your Emerald City, Luke Sullivan’s third edition of 'Hey Whipple' is your yellow brick road. Follow it. Where it leads you is anyone’s guess. But one thing’s certain, it sure won’t be Kansas. And as to knowing when you’ve done a great ad, when you’ve arrived at the Emerald City? Oh believe me, you’ll know.

Also recommended: 'Cutting Edge Advertising', Jim Aitchison