Sponsor (Jan-June 1956)

« forum «•»» questions of current interest to air advertisers and their agencies Where do television copytvriters come front Wallace W. Elton V.p. and Director J. Walter Thompson, N.Y. THE PICTURE HAS CHANGED • Today they come from the same areas that produce creative advertising people for all media. But it was not always so. About 10 years ago, when the production of tv commercials started to increase, most of our tv writers were drawn from an experienced and wellstaffed motion picture department. That department had been producing institutional and sales training films as well as "minute movie" advertisements for use in theatres. Additional help came from writers of live radio commercials and the resulting group formed what the military calls a cadre, with the technical experience to indoctrinate new talent. During recent years, as the demand for tv talent increased, writers have come from diverse sources. Now they come from areas that produce good advertising men for all media — from areas that are defined by talent and creative ability rather than by work classification. For instance, some of today's successful tv writers have come from outdoor and print advertising, publication staffs, research and cartooning as well as from radio and television stations and motion picture studios. Some have come from undergraduate college publications via agency trainee programs or apprenticeship in general copywriting. Candidates from the latter sources are discovered by watching the college magazines. Wherever they come from, the best tv writers usually have a graphic or "picture" sense. They realize that more than half of human knowledge is acquired through the eyes. Finally, the most encouraging trend of the last few years has been the increasing collaboration between print writers and tv writers. More and more good tv commercial ideas are coming from the general editorial groups. The result will be a breed of advertising writer characterized by an ability to write for all media. Gordon U ebber V.p. in chg. of Tv Commercials Benton & Bowles, N.Y. THEY'RE WHERE YOV FIND THEM • The good tv copywriters, like gold, are where you find them. And, like gold, you sometimes find them in the most unlikely places. Copywriters on our staff previously have had jobs ranging from artist on a metropolitan newspaper to a menswear salesman at Macy's. In between are a former salesman for a silver company, an announcer, a song writer, an actor, a commercial photographer, a film writer, an instructor in music theory and a former mimeograph operator. There are also a few ex-radio copywriters, station continuity writers and an art buyer. What do you look for in a good copywriter? You look first for a good professional advertising man. That is to say, a person who knows the principles of the advertising profession as well as the practice of it. A man who knows the difference between a good selling idea and what is merely a gimmick. Beyond professional competence there are other attributes that a copy cbief hopes — rather wistfully at times — to find in his best writers. There is a hint of one of those attributes in the listing of pre-tv jobs above. The one thing so many good copywriters of seemingly divergent backgrounds have in common is a visual sense. The man or woman who can "think in pictures" — pictures that move — as well as in terms of the compelling headline and the polished selling phrase is cherished above all others by a copy chief. The ideal tv copywriter has other characteristics, too. He may have a music background (as the ex-songwriter and music instructor) and that may lend grace and good ear to what he writes. He may have had dramatic training (as the former actor and announcer) which could add drama and humor to his copy. And finally, if the copy chief is abundantly blessed, this ideal copywriter just might have added to all the rest the rarest trait of all: taste — that ineffable sense of what fits when and where. If a copywriter has all these, he is gold, indeed, and you don't care where you find him. 50 SPONSOR