Print Matters: How to Write Great Advertising Copy

Print matters still. In fact, it matters more than ever, even”maybe especially”in a world of continuous rapid-fire media innovations because it provides the standard”the acid test”for relevance and communication power. Why print? Because it's the purest form of advertising”an idea given power visually and crafted to move people with words. If you don't have an idea, it shows. If you can't write, people know. You can't hide emptiness behind a mesmerizing glare of glitzy TV production or trade on the familiar voice of a spokesperson to make a connection for you. It's just you and the reader. So print is the acid test for advertising as well as advertising people. Unlike electronic media, print requires our attention. If you lose your concentration when you're reading and your mind wanders, what do you do? Why, you read the sentence or paragraph or page over again”too often more than once. A woman named Evelyn Wood built a speed-reading franchise on this simple truth. Her instructors don't teach you to read faster; they teach you to concentrate better so you don't have to reread. That's why Evelyn Wood graduates not only seem to read faster, they also remember better.

Bob Lauterborn is the James L. Knight professor of advertising in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Lauterborn was director of Marketing Communication & Corporate Advertising for International Paper worldwide and creative director of General Electric's 400-person in-house agency. Over the past 12 years, he has consulted or conducted seminars and workshops for more than 50 organizations in 21 countries on five continents.