Advertising Agency and Process Structure!! 17An example is, ‘‘Tasty Cakes taste great.’’ The reason for that is
they have more butter and they are baked longer. That’s a sim-
plified strategy. If account people say that ‘‘you have to say that
we have been in business since 1923 and our ovens are made of
iron and our delivery men have nicer mustaches and our icing
has more sugar in it,’’ then you are going to have advertising that
is not going to work on any level. I am a big believer in less is
more. A simplified strategy, whether you’re doing a musical jin-
gle or not, will lead to better, single-minded, stronger, and more
successful advertising. If that [the simple strategy] doesn’t con-
tain the kitchen sink, you’re not going to have to put in a lyric or
a print ad.
MZ: What are some of the large national accounts you have worked
on?
Joel: Lots of Proctor and Gamble business, Crest toothpaste,
Bounce, Dawn, Charmin, Ivory Snow, Zest, Kraft General Foods,
Cool Whip, Post Raisin Bran, Crystal Light, Texaco.
MZ: Do you find that copywriters specialize in categories?
Joel: I think these days that’s true. The best example I can give you
is Business to Business and the Internet. There are people who
have training in that they started by working on WorldCom or
American Express. People like that become well versed in those
categories. So I think it’s very hard for someone who is working
on, say, package goods, for example, to make the jump into
something that is highly technical like the Internet and a lot of
Business to Business advertising.
MZ: The advertising business is interesting because it is as much
business as it is creative. When you are creating an ad, are you
thinking as a creative writer, or are you thinking as a business-
person? What goes through your mind?
Joel: Yes, yes. More as a creative person because that’s what they
pay me to do, but I also think of it in terms of the business. I
think of the category, I think of the competition, I think of what
the competition is doing, how the competition will react to this,
how we can beat the competition. I’m a big believer in knowing
the business of advertising in addition to the creative side of
advertising.
MZ: There are many creative commercials that are not effective
advertising. Can you give me some examples?
Joel: In the boom period of the Internet, some of the most creative
and entertaining, most clever advertising was done for lots of the
Internet companies, but most of them failed. They didn’t burst
the Internet bubble by themselves, but people were entertained
by the advertising but had no idea whose company it was, and