All news magazines use the same format. Copy has priority over illustration. Three columns of type, set in serif faces. Captions under photographs. But the advertisements in these magazines do not follow any of these conventions, so very few people read them. Next time you construct an ad, pretend you are an editor; you will get more readership.

What kind of paragons are the men and women who run successful agencies? My observation has been that they are enthusiasts. They are intellectually honest. They have the guts to face tough decisions. They are resilient in adversity. Most of them are

the only thing you can expect from post-launch advertising is that it will persuade present users to buy your brand more often than the others in their repertory. If this is true, your launch advertising is a matter of life and death. Spend every penny you can lay your hands on. Now or never.

For 35 years I have continued on the course charted by Gallup, collecting factors the way other men collect pictures and postage stamps. If you choose to ignore these factors, good luck to you. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know that they are found in oak forests.

When faced with selling ‘parity’ products, all you can hope to do is explain their virtues more persuasively than your competitors, and to differentiate them by the style of your advertising. This is the ‘added value’ which advertising contributes, and I am not sufficiently puritanical to hate myself for it.

Bill Bernbach and his merry men positioned Volkswagen as a protest against the vulgarity of Detroit

If you make your ads look like editorial pages, you will get more readers. Far more.

You can do homework from now until doomsday, but you will never win fame and fortune unless you also invent big ideas. It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.

Few copywriters are ambitious.