Who wants to be a Copywriter without billing me like a millionaire?

Who wants to be a Copywriter without billing me like a millionaire?

Required:  A copywriter and /or an art director with or without experience, to work on a pro bono ad for a project on AIDS 

All those interested may present the work as a Spec Ad and email your completed Spec Ad. But first, you may have to go on my page on Facebook. It’s at: 

https://www.facebook.com/rajani.rajanshriram.

Don’t rush. There is no pressing deadline. You have a good month or two to submit your work. The top three entries in either category can pick my brain for a month.

In the meantime, you could, if you like, send me three of your best published work so I can upload some of the best for all to share.

Who am I? The Notes section will brief you on that.

For any further questions, you may contact me at: rajni.shriram@gmail.com and I’ll try to answer all your queries as soon and as well as I can.

Good luck!

How the page works

How the page works

Whatsoever the matter that goes up here, please remember you are being watched by prospective employers, perhaps even clients.

So do take care about what is said on this page and also how you present your work.

You are solely responsible for the material on this page. This page does not take responsibility for how you present your work nor is it responsible for any misrepresentation of ownership of the work.

The page encourages original and good work. Such work may also be recommended to different agencies but it is not binding for the page to recommend every earnest body of work as that may not be possible. 

However, the page will attempt, as far as is possible, to put in a good word on the page itself for your friends to see and appreciate your work.

 You are entitled to pitch and/or apply for a job, but it is at the discretion of the respective authorities to reserve the right to choose anybody without having to explain the grounds of disqualification. They have the final say, and their decision is binding on all parties concerned.

That, in a nutshell, is how it works.

Rajani Rajan Shriram on Facebook

Dear valued readers,

I am about to embark on a venture on Facebook that I hope will provide some succour to the advertising profession in general and the creatives in particular.

To know more, read the post carefully. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me an email. I would be only too happy to clarify any doubts. Hope you find this helpful.

Here then is the meat of the story:

The purpose of the page

Many people from the creative world complain about the rampant plagiarizing within this, and for that matter any creative industry. Indeed, it is a vexing problem without any signs of clear resolution.

The purpose of this page is to give all those creative geniuses a forum where their original work will be given voice and indeed shape leading to fame.

All that separates talent from a trip to the Mecca of Advertising is that the work they publish has to be original and theirs only beyond doubt.

This is your chance. Stake your claim to fame and watch the agencies vie with one another as they scramble for a piece of you.

For here there are no politics. Only a gentle reminder to be kind and helpful to those made of less stern stuff than you.

With malice towards none, and success to all...

...I wish you all good luck!

 

The Big and Small of it All

The Small Idea Coming from the Stables of a Big Agency

Headlines – Part 4

I was just running through a list of great ads and then it struck me: why must I look for anything else when there’s the, by now much overused Bill Bernbach VW classic, “Think Small”? This ad to me is also a classic example of how copy and art ought to go together. But that, on its own, merits to be a worthy subject of another post. And so without much ado let me hasten to proceed with the purpose of this post, which is, the headline must focus on a single big idea.

And I’ll tell you some more reasons why I call this ad a true blue-blooded classic. It delivers on all the relevant elements of a good headline.

In an age when America was besought with big cars (and pretty damsels in the ads suggesting that if you take the car you get the girl as well) came an ugly small car. And Bernback had a difficult problem to solve: to get the consumer to accept a small car. And from the difficult proposition was born the deceptively simple VW ad: a tiny picture of the small ugly car in the middle of a huge stretch of white space. 

Two famous words urged the people to think differently. True to his philosophy, copy and art worked in perfect harmony and how!

Do I need to explain myself more?

What lesson do you take away from this post?

Like I said there are many. That is why it is a classic. But the one I would like to draw your attention to is the single-minded focus with which Bernbach went to address the issue of persuading the consumer to give the small car some thought.

No ad would be worthy of mention if it did not focus on a single big idea.