Week’s Ad Lessons

Yay I didn’t get an entirely shitty critique today in my Strategic Thinking class. Thank the gods. This week has been a lot of hard lessons, so I feel it might be useful for me to re-list them here even though I know some textbooks might disagree with what I’m about to say:

+ Headlines should always be intrusive, no matter what.
+ Ads must always have tension.
+ What you think is on-brand is always too boring. Pump it up but not too extreme.
+ When you think you’re finished with long copy, cut it down by three sentences.
+ Never watch TV when trying to get your work done.
+ Be provocative. Be a blasphemer.
+ Simplify, simplify, simplify. That often means killing words on an ad. Unfortunately…
+ Creatives love humor. Don’t even try for drama in San Francisco.

These are pretty sweeping generalizations, and I realize I spoke in stern absolutes. Yet the way they’re teaching this quarter is making this sound like the stone is pretty set. I’ll live off these ideas until told otherwise. Live, learn, live, learn. Goodnight and let the grind begin anew tomorrow.