One of my more popular assignments - and blog posts - is the Ad Haiku. Seems everyone loves to write them. Very few understand how great they are for learning to write copy.
The Haiku has several common characteristics, all of which force each Haiku to express common experiences in uncommon ways.
For the copywriter, ad haiku teach:
Ad copy should do the same.
Haiku are a great way to learn mixing it up, changing word orders in unexpected ways, perfecting more oblique structure for emphasis, movement, visual (not descriptive) and evocative emotional appeal.
Ad copy should do the same.
The twist (kiru). Haiku's kiru plays the third line off the first two in a kind of "You think I have you here, no here's the unexpected place I'm taking you" manner. The third line can be seen as the reveal. When done well, it forces the reader to participate and the third line, is an "expected surprise." How can a surprise be expected? You think you know where it's going, it may take you there - but never in the boring, lay down flat way you think/expect.
Ad copy should do the same.
Below are three ad haiku written last term for the same product - The Creative Circus.
They're a bit 'insider," but work so well, with third line reveals following the second line kiru/twist, they still should make sense. Where they're too insider, I'll provide the missing info only a current/past student would know.
knowledge has its price
thinking worth every cent, still...
cheap toilet paper
silent monolith
behind cold aluminum gates
why, hello Andrew*
(*Andrew is the Circus' head of security, he rules from the welcome desk at the student entrance. He's also a great guy, much beloved by all, faculty and student alike.)
This last one has a name, "Norm Grey"
asleep in forum
dreams of faces who've lost names
his school sets us free
(*Norm is the Creative Circus' newly inducted into the One Club's Educator Hall of Fame Creative Director Emeritis. He's one of the Circus' founders and has probably counseled, taught and critiqued more ad students than any other person, living or dead.)
That, my friends, is how ad haiku should be done.
Haiku(c) 2014, Reilly Schlitt
The rest of this entry, as with all posts in KamikazeCreative.blogspot.com, (d)2015 (or earlier), Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative(TM)
The Haiku has several common characteristics, all of which force each Haiku to express common experiences in uncommon ways.
For the copywriter, ad haiku teach:
Brevity. No extra syllables for wasted words, verbs that just lay there, extraneous or lazy/weak anything. No articles, prepositions. Each word must contribute. Each word must count. The result should be visual (not descriptive - huge difference), evocative.
Ad copy should do the same.
Say it with Structure. You can't write flat, uninteresting lines creating haiku. If you do, they lose energy, run down hill, merely say it. The fun, romance, excitement and movement of the thing bogs down in poor structure.
Haiku are a great way to learn mixing it up, changing word orders in unexpected ways, perfecting more oblique structure for emphasis, movement, visual (not descriptive) and evocative emotional appeal.
Ad copy should do the same.
The twist (kiru). Haiku's kiru plays the third line off the first two in a kind of "You think I have you here, no here's the unexpected place I'm taking you" manner. The third line can be seen as the reveal. When done well, it forces the reader to participate and the third line, is an "expected surprise." How can a surprise be expected? You think you know where it's going, it may take you there - but never in the boring, lay down flat way you think/expect.
Ad copy should do the same.
Below are three ad haiku written last term for the same product - The Creative Circus.
They're a bit 'insider," but work so well, with third line reveals following the second line kiru/twist, they still should make sense. Where they're too insider, I'll provide the missing info only a current/past student would know.
knowledge has its price
thinking worth every cent, still...
cheap toilet paper
silent monolith
behind cold aluminum gates
why, hello Andrew*
(*Andrew is the Circus' head of security, he rules from the welcome desk at the student entrance. He's also a great guy, much beloved by all, faculty and student alike.)
This last one has a name, "Norm Grey"
asleep in forum
dreams of faces who've lost names
his school sets us free
(*Norm is the Creative Circus' newly inducted into the One Club's Educator Hall of Fame Creative Director Emeritis. He's one of the Circus' founders and has probably counseled, taught and critiqued more ad students than any other person, living or dead.)
That, my friends, is how ad haiku should be done.
Haiku(c) 2014, Reilly Schlitt
The rest of this entry, as with all posts in KamikazeCreative.blogspot.com, (d)2015 (or earlier), Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative(TM)
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