Bending the clock every once in a while.

        Salvador Dali wrote that "to gaze is to think". He would've made a great advertising art director. We need all the thinkers we can get.

        With thoughtful art direction, an ad is easier to read than pass up. Without good art direction, an ad is easier to forget, not take seriously, and it's easier to mis-judge the quality of the product.

         Just compare an Apple ad to any ad for HP. Which one reeks of confidence and timeliness? Which one makes you either crave to own the product or proud you already do?

         Some ad agencies are better at this than most. Chiat/Day, Apple's agency, rarely fails to captivate. The art direction reflects the passion in the product. Anything extraneous is thrown overboard.

         Doyle Dane Bernbach turned the little VW Beetle into a gem of engineering (and attitude). The same agency's work for Sony made us sit up and respect Japanese ingenuity.

         I've always sought out art directors who knew how to go for the heart or the throat. You can love a person into reading your ad or you can scare her. But if the art direction is wishy-washy, the reader will be too.

         We go through life uttering phrases that are born of our dependence on what we see. "Seeing is believing." "Out of sight, out of mind." "Oh, I can see your point of view."

         If we aren't grabbed by an ad or a commercial, we won't engage with it --- no matter how beautiful the words. Anything less than great art direction is invisible.

         My motto is "think visually first". I've learned that the hard way. Which is why Dali is a master.

Putting the art director on a pedestal.

         What does it take to be a good advertising copywriter? A good advertising art director. I should know; I've been blessed with one after another.

          The first great art director I worked with was Gene Mandarino. That was at my first job in Chicago. Gene worked his magic with pastels, and it was prestidigitation. A whirl of hands, a cloud of yellow, blue, and red, and a good ad appeared on his tabaret. One day, before dusting himself off to go home, Gene tore four pages out of a stock photo book. On each page were 16 small photos. "If you're a copywriter," Gene said to me, "write a headline for a Jim Beam bourbon ad with each of these pictures." I did. Gene opened my mind.

           The next great art director I worked with was Bill Bratkowski. He was from Vancouver and itching to get back out West the whole time I knew him in Detroit. We came up with each idea together but after that,  Bill wouldn't lift a finger until I wrote a good headline for it. Then he would kick me out of his office so he could design a good layout for it. Bill made me realize the value of working with an art director who cared about copy.

            I'm convinced Marty Lieberman talked his agency into hiring me. He wanted a real partner who would get things done. Marty was at his best working on television, and whenever I wasn't sure of something, he would make it better for sure. He was prolific and goaded me into doing work at a consistently high level. At least three Clio nominations came off his drawing board.

            Paul Grisson understands how to get to the heart of the matter --- and into the hearts of viewers and readers. Everything he did surprised me --- and I learned the value of surprising your audience. He did the ad that won us the Gutenberg Award for the Power of Print; with a human eye peering out of a bust of Augustus Caesar. His surrealistic ad campaigns for Delco batteries must have haunted thousands of drivers on snowy mornings. Paul's head of his own agency in Toronto now and can't stop doing fantastic work.

            The art director who taught me to do ads that make you laugh out loud was Ross Van Dusen. He wouldn't do an ad or commercial that wasn't funny. He taught me that humor is a sure way to make your work human. Funny thing about Ross --- he couldn't do a bad ad. Once he had to create crummy ads for a presentation, and try as he would, every one of them looked charming. That's Ross.

            Grab an art director and do an ad today!