Hey Whipple, Squeeze This
by Adrian Hanft, (4 comments)
I finished reading Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This, by Luke Sullivan and although I can’t say it was revolutionary, it was definitely a good read. Luke gives advice about how to create great ads from the perspective of someone who has been beat up and bruised by the ad world and can look back and laugh. Lets face it, getting the client to approve our great ideas is hard. It can be so brutal and frustrating that when this book outlines the pitfalls that great ideas have to be careful of, the results are very funny. A highlight of the book is where Luke gives names like “The Koncept Krusher 2000” and “Hallway Beast” to the traits of project killing clients. He also gives good advice about what to do in these all to familiar situations:
A client asks you to print their phone number in big, bold type.
A client takes your concept literally.
Your client asks you to make the logo bigger.
Who hasn’t had to fight those battles? In the end it is comforting to read about Luke’s battles in the ad world and to hear his optimism and encouragement to those of us who can relate to the challenges of the trade.
Comments (4)
A. Eugene H. said:
“Look back and laugh” is a great perspective but very hard to “actualize” during the heat of the moment. Isn’t that what makes great people GREAT though? They are able to step back and gain some perspective on abusive situations where they feel “beat up and bruised by the world” they’re in. In our “kind yet assertive way” we may think to ourselves, “Squeeze This!” We actually want others to “get hold of” the ideas we feel are so imporatant. Grab ‘em and test ‘em out!
Posted on October 6, 2004
Tom said:
Wow, this book was assigned to me in college a few years back by my Advertising professor; I had forgotten all about it until you brought it up Adrian. I found it much as you did: a funny, if slightly off-kilter look at the advertising world.
A 50/50 Cotton/Poly blend of exposﾈ and how-to manual, I remember Hey Whipple fondly as the only textbook I actually read during my junior year. (Oh and if you’re tired of my posts and comments, or don’t think I’m funny at least 3.14% of the time, just inform my parents of that last sentence. I’ll be dead inside of a week. Voila: no more dumb comments from Tom! Unless I come back from the grave, in which case the least of your worries should be the words I speaketh…)
Sullivan is a former copywriter and his writing skill allows him to weave a terrific quilt of insider stories and pointers; even a voluntary illiterate such as myself found this book to be harder to put down than a cold one at the campus pub.
Fellow BE A author and good buddy Bennett can vouch for how much (how little?) I read, so when I say this book gets my stamp of approval, and that I might even go dig it off my shelf to peruse once more, you know I must mean it.
Posted on October 6, 2004
Bill said:
I loved it, it made me laugh during the darkest moments at my last agency (it was bad.) If anyone wants to sample a little from the book to see if they might like it, there’s a regular and printable version under the link I’ve added as my ‘homepage’. that is, here: http://shorl.com/guboraregrigra
Posted on October 8, 2004
Adrian said:
Bill, AdLand is a great blog and that was a good interview. Thanks for the link and the trackback.
Posted on October 12, 2004