How to write a great ad

How do you write a great ad? Ans: Get someone great to write it.

If only it were that simple. Paying someone else to do my work is hardly the solution. For one, I wouldn’t be able to afford whomever I’m hiring to do it in the first place, given my measly wages. So, I guess I’ll just have to learn how to get to great. And fast!

Don't be mistaken, it’s not even that I can’t be arsed to do it. I’m just stumped. Walked into a cul-de-sac with shadows looming over the dark recesses of my mind. Any time the creative grim reaper is going to come visiting. And when that happens, I know inspiration shall rescue me, watch over the creative life of me just so I deliver. And I feel it will be soon.

I heard the way to writing a great ad (and more after) is to copy. Maybe copy is too strong a word. What I meant was to copy great ideas, give it a good massage, and have a sprouting new idea in its place.

Harsh as it sounds, the fact is (okay wait for it) most ideas are regurgitated. There you have it. If u had flinched from you chair and taken a hard knock to the head, so did I when I first heard this painful string of words.

I realized this little iota of truth (yes, it hardly ever gets mention for fear that if words gets out and clients catch on that we’ve been sitting on our arses and plagiarising ideas, we’ll all be out of jobs).

Shockingly, it’s all true. There’s a website I stumbled upon not too long ago where they actually juxtaposed different ads just to highlight the glaring similarities. And believe me, it’s glaring. Which goes back to my point. Ideas are recycled, reworked and reused.