• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Adpulp

The Chronicle of Bright Ideas

  • About
  • Ad People
  • Featured Creative
  • Political Advertising
  • Content
  • Social Media
  • Media Trends
  • Contact

Harry Potter and The Obtuse Client

May 23, 2007 By Dan Goldgeier

Seeing the StrawberryFrog ad that has 3 paragraphs of body copy made me flash back to every client I ever had that would demand to see bullet points instead of sentences. And the Creative Circus student who presented me an ad with two paragraphs and dubbed it a “long copy” ad.
So are people reading anymore? If the Harry Potter books are any indication, people still read. But as an industry, are we giving them anything worth reading? Are clients the ones who don’t have any patience?

Combined, the books in the Harry Potter series have sold over 250 million copies worldwide. Somebody’s reading all those words. Words that are typeset on pages. Pages that are bound in book form.
So why the hell do my clients think a paragraph with 3 sentences of copy is “too long” for their audience?
It’s not consumers who have the short attention spans. It’s the clients. Because today’s clients aren’t concerned with brand equity, customer relationships, or long-term initiatives. It’s a project-to-project, deliverable-to-deliverable existence. They’re worried about their jobs—and surviving in those jobs for one more month.

It’s the focus of my new column on Talent Zoo. Enjoy.

Related

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Art of Advertising

About Dan Goldgeier

Dan Goldgeier is a Seattle-based freelance copywriter with experience at advertising agencies across the U.S. He is a graduate of the Creative Circus ad school, and currently teaches at Seattle's School of Visual Concepts. Dan is also a columnist for TalentZoo.com and the author of View From The Cheap Seats and Killer Executions and Scrubbed Decks.

Primary Sidebar

About

The Chronicle of Bright Ideas. Launched by David Burn and Shawn Hartley in 2004. Read, shared, and debated by a rogue group of ad pros ever since.

Breaking News

  • Spotify’s In-House Creative Team Is Raising The High-Bar April 21, 2018
  • Hot Desert, Cold Brew April 18, 2018
  • Frustrated Fido? Walk It Out With Rover April 14, 2018
  • What Marketers Can Learn from Hootsuite Academy April 12, 2018
  • Minute Maid Questions What Good Is, Decides, “this is GOOD” April 11, 2018
  • Are You Open to the Massive Business Opportunities in EQ? April 10, 2018
  • My Y Story: A Star-Studded Original Content Series by the Y April 8, 2018
  • Tim Horton’s Has The Coffee That Brings Canadians Together April 7, 2018
  • Take the Long Way Home in a Citroën April 7, 2018

Get Adpulp in Your Inbox

Receive an email notification when we publish a new article.

Navigate by Topic

Connect

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mailFollow Us on RSS

Inkl Up!

Help support Adpulp with financial contributions on a per-post basis. Sign up for @Inkl today.

Footer

Translate

What People Are Reading

  • Spotify's In-House Creative Team Is Raising The High-Bar
    Spotify's In-House Creative Team Is Raising The High-Bar
  • Hot Desert, Cold Brew
    Hot Desert, Cold Brew
  • Frustrated Fido? Walk It Out With Rover
    Frustrated Fido? Walk It Out With Rover

Search the Site

Hours & Info

Off Madison
[email protected]
Always on.