To find Luke Sullivan’s Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads alongside my copies of Richard Hugo’s The Traveling Town, Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, Dean Young’s The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction, and a few notable others is a testament to how good I think Sullivan’s book is. I know it’s a biased statement, but I don’t know what else to say. I like his book. I would read it again and again, and I intend to do so.
That says nothing about the book itself, so I’ll do my best to give an idea of why the book has become one of my favorites. I suppose the book attracts me because Sullivan talks about writing in a way that is familiar to me. He discusses points I’ve reached, too, albeit via a different route. Sullivan comes from the ad agency world; I come from the more creative side of things with my background in poetry. Somehow, though, his thoughts and mine converge, perhaps because he’s convinced that ads can and should be art. I echo his conviction. Commercial work doesn’t have to be “commercial” alone. It can rise above that. It can effect change. It can do what great art does: move a person to think or act differently. Ads, however, may provoke a stronger reaction and much sooner than a moving piece of art. A painting or a poem may cause a person to pause and consider; an ad can cause a person to go out and purchase an item or get involved in a project. The effects of an ad are immediately felt. Art sometimes occurs on a more subconscious level, and the effects aren’t felt until months or even years later.
The book itself isn’t set up as a textbook; it’s a book one can jump into at almost any point. I recommend starting at the beginning, though. The beginning truly is the beginning with Sullivan’s thoughts about selling without selling out and getting started – a chapter reminiscent of Hugo’s “Nuts and Bolts” in The Traveling Town. The book builds from that point with chapters dedicated to print, online media, television, and radio. Sullivan even offers advice for those considering a career in copywriting as well as for those trying to break into the industry without the ad background or the assistance of an art director. It’s a well-organized book, and it flows from beginning to end. It’s a book, if it weren’t so wonderfully heady at times, that I would read cover to cover and over again. It’s a book that prompted notes in the margins and exclamations of “yes!” and outright laughter. It was and is a lovely book, and I’m so glad that it was recommended to me. It’s a book I will cherish as evidenced by its seat of honor with my other favorite books on the art and craft of writing.
Have a book you think I should read? A question about Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This? The comments are yours.