10 Pro Tips For Young Ad Copywriters

I spent 25 years as a CW/CD at one start-up NYC ad agency. This is what I was taught/learned.

In those 25 years, because I started with a start-up—as the only staff copywriter—I worked approximately a trillion hours. Countless seven-day weeks, even 30- or 31-day (depending on the month) months. So many all-nighters, and occasional 48-hour shifts with zero sleep. I wasn’t just a working copywriter. I fucking lived as copywriter. But I loved it. It took me 25 years to finally get a bit sick of it. I am still mentally ill from the experience.

Being a start-up, we pitched new business constantly. And because of that, I’ve written/concepted…several shit-tons of ads/campaigns. It physically hurts my mind thinking of all the good, bad, and terrible stuff I came up with that I have no copies of, no recollection of. Oh, if only I had all that work, I could now be a successful one-man agency.

During those 25 years, I had a great, very smart Boss/Creative Director/Art Director to work with. Every day was a crash course in Ad Creativity. I learned a lot. Below is the first round of ten tips. Ten more tips coming next month.

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