Philosophers gone Copywriting – a collection of quotes on the craft.

Good copy is part mindless reductionist science, part art. Its implicit yet cunning nature carries itself with great wit and oomph, and should seek to create as many pain points as it eliminates – being thought provoking to the avid reader and layman alike.

I compiled a list of quotes (in no particular order) – chiefly from the masters of writing itself, that have aided me in my pursuit of writing proper ad copy. Their tireless search for understanding and truth thus leads us to a byproduct of golden nuggets that will put even the most of sophisticated sophists to shame.

1. Language is a work of art and should be regarded as such.’ – Schopenhauer (PPii, §289a)
   a. Simple yet overlooked. Language subsumes syntax and semantics, and like art, evolves with time.
   b. Michelangelo’s David was meticulously chiseled to reveal the end-aesthetic and was not finished overnight. Similarly, good copy can take a seemingly endless amount of time to craft, but often achievable if compartmentalized properly.

2. ‘We write only at the frontiers of our knowledge, at the border which separates our knowledge from our ignorance and transforms the one into the other. Only in this manner are we resolved to write.’ – Deleuze (DR, pref.)
   a. Interest and expertise in the field for which one writes comes of great benefit for this is where our substantive depth will either shine or falter.

3. ‘Those who know they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.’ – Nietzsche
   a. Despite the obvious ego probe, Nietzsche was known for his perspective idealism (Beyond Good and Evil, et al.). Obscurity is thus no less acceptable than clarity, depending on which will serve their master best, in addition to the level of risk one chooses to employ, i.e. brand outreach, conversion rates, etc.

4. ‘Every unfamiliar subject or concept should be clearly defined; and neither discussed as if the reader knew all about it already nor stylistically disguised. … No idea should be presented more than once in the same prose passage. … Sentences and paragraphs should be linked together logically and intelligibly. … The order of ideas in a sentence should be such that the reader need not rearrange them in his mind. … No unnecessary idea, phrase or word should be included in a sentence.’ – R. Graves & A. Hodge (TROYS)
   a. Echoing clarity, this checklist is the antithesis to Dan Brown’s novels.

5. ‘Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.’ ― Thomas Nagel
   a. It’s hard to take this seriously in Trump-era America, but shock value does peek the interest and leaves its questionably profound mark on even the most complex of characters.

6. ‘I love everything brief and find that in general the longer the work is, the less there is in it.’ – Kurt Gödel
   a. Super relevant in today’s ADD ridden culture.
   

7. ‘Style is the physiognomy of the mind and as such is more infallible than is that of the body. To imitate another’s style is equivalent to wearing a mask. However fine this may be, it soon becomes insipid and insufferable because it is lifeless.’ – Schopenhauer (PPii, §282)
   a. All too often we try to be “unique”, but if we recognize that uniqueness is a function of ones style then we entirely fail of our aim – focusing our efforts on the end result instead of our immediate goal.

8. ‘Venerable ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew do not have the simplest grammar but the most difficult; while what is beyond doubt the most advanced of all languages, English, has so alarmingly few actual rules that, on the one hand, any uneducated foreigner can easily learn to understand it and speak some mangled version of it, while, on the other, only the greatest minds in the nation itself, men like Sir Charles Sherrington, Bertrand Russell or Gilbert Murray, are capable of expressing themselves in it clearly, intelligibly and in such fashion as to delight the reader or listener.’ – Erwin Schrödinger
   a. Fewer rules to break means greater overall flexibility and the occasional curse.

Marketing trends come and go, but the teleological pillars underlying the art of copywrite remain eternal. Don’t stray too far from these guiding principles and you should see your next campaign delivered smoother than Casanova himself. Charm and enticement is my forte – you find yours.