Letters to the Editor

MAKING OVER THE MAVEN

I love Tom Collins’ makeovers. Some may think he’s “old school” because he always [stresses] the importance of good copy. This industry, and especially those in advertising, need people like him to constantly remind them what they should be focusing on. Yet for the most part, print ads seem to ignore that wisdom.

Artsy-phartsy prints ads are “in” and have been for a long time. Still, I side with Collins because they are not communicating…they’re only making pretty shapes (which are impossible to read).

On the other side of the coin we have Tom — a brilliant copywriter who’s somewhat lacking in design skills (forgive me, Tom). In the past I’ve read letters where some have pointed this out, but none of them has ever stepped forward and tried to illustrate their point.

I’ve always wanted to do a makeover of one of Tom’s efforts, but something always got in the way. Every time I get a copy of Direct it’s almost the first thought that crosses my mind: “This is the issue that I’m going to do a makeover of Tom’s makeover.”

Well, I finally got around to it, though I wish the ad would’ve been easier to make over, like a number of his past efforts. Some of the old ones just needed a little bit of tweaking, but what the heck, why not [tackle] a tough one? (See The Makeover Maven, March.)

One ad (State Street Global Advisors’ original, at left) is artsy-phartsy with terrible copy and the other (Tom’s makeover, center) has great copy but a really plain-Jane design. Now, what if the two mated. What would their offspring look like? My vision of what they would produce [is at right].

I’ve always believed that successfully designed ads lie somewhere between artsy-phartsy and plain-Jane. The artsy-phartsy ad in question would be ignored because it’s just too hard to read. And Tom’s makeover could easily be passed over by page flippers because it looks a bit boring. My rendition is somewhere in the middle. It can stop the page flippers, and then, if they’re interested, they could actually see the words and read them.

I have no doubt that my effort, along with Tom’s copy, would kick that ad agency’s butt (in response) any day of the week.

Keep up the great work, Tom.
Vic Kally
President
Hollow Woods Group LLC
Pequea, PA