An Interview with Ronald Rosenfeld(2)

chuukyuu How did Mrs. Phyllis Robinson help you write copies at that time?

Ron She was an enormous help. She went over the copy that I did. She showed　me where I was. When the writing got flat, she ahowed me how to make it more interesting. She taught me how to use words that worked harder. I also learned a great deal from just reading her things. And I also learned a great deal from David Reider by reading his copy. I saw how he did. And also in several cases he was doing a campaign and he did not have time to do all the ads, so I was asked to do several of the ads in the same style the Mr. Reider had done them.
I learned a lot from writing in his style, learning and having to learn what made his style, what, why, how he did it. So that by the time I wrote the ads in the series perhaps it was difficult for some people to tell that he had not written them because I tried to not copy so much as understand his methed of approach and his thinking behind cach ad.

chuukyuu What is your current teaching method?

Ron I try to do the same thing for the writers working for me that Phyllis Robinson and Dave Reider did for me. I got over their work and when I find cliches or words that do not work hand enough or not colorful enough or not interesting enough,　I will suggest that they look for some other words or ideas. I try to teach them about the rhythm of writing. A piece of copy or any piece of writing has a rhythm to it that should not be broken. And I listen to them when they diagree with me and I have learned as much from the writers who work for me as perhaps they have learned from me.I am always keeping an open mind and learning from them. It's amazing how benefitial it is to the teacher to have good students.

chuukyuu　among advice Mr. Bernbach gave you, what impressed you most?

Ron　I guess the best advice was "Try to go the heart of the problem".
"Do not be just too clever for the sake of being clever. Try to isolate the problem and if the client has given you a set-up of a problem for you, sometimes you have to lead to find the problem because the problem as it is presented to you is not the one that should be solved. So you have to lead to find the problem with the client and perhaps there you discover it is a new problem that has to be solved. "
That has proved very valuable.

>>(3)

Be a little daring,
Climb down a 600-foot waterfall
with the Jamaican Tarzan.
(You'll have something be tell
your grandchildren.)

Do something corny. Break off a scarlet flame tree blossom for your hair. And wind into a sarong or the closest you can come to one.(Men, bring your loincloth.) Then, splash your way down cool, musical Dunn's River Fall, with Vincent in the lead. From the heights, it looks scary. But relax. Vincent is a professional waterfall walker -- and he hasn't lost a climber yet. When you reach the base of the falls, you'll find yourself standing, surprisingly, on a beach. Remote and lovely. You won't have it all to yourself, though. There's always a family or two of Jamaicans splashing in the Caribbean here. (They know how to live, there beautiful Jamaicans. They enjoy their delightful world as much as visitors do. And they don't mind sharing it with other nice people who have a passion for it.)
To continue your jungle life, you might chase after a six-inch Papilio butterfly through nearby Fern Gulley (so laced with tropical greenery, the sun barely touches the ground). The Land of Look Behind.
Strange, largely unmapped. And inhabited by descendants of plantation runaways. Or drive to the south coast, to shoot alligators (the only wild beasts on the island). Or, to the Rio Grande, for tamer sport, to shoot rapids -- on a bamboo banana raft.
When the sun sinks slowly in the west, and you've had enough of this jungle epic for the day, head for one of Jamaica's highly civilized hotels. Any of them can provide you with an evening that will be more
man-of-the-world than man-of-the-jangle.