Ex-Vice President & Copy Supervisor of W.R.G
<<An interview with Mrs. Carole Anne Fine(1)
chuukyuu What do you think is the most important competence of a copywriter?
Mrs.Fine Well, I think two things. I think talent, having talent is kind of like something you don't even count because like you shouldn't be if you can't write, you can't be able to communicate in words. So that I don't even count as... Talent is absolutely in born. It is something you can't learn but it's just the ability to communicate in words and whatever your particular medium is, whether it's a one printed page or spread, whatever it is, it's just your ability to sell people with your words, to make people buy something by the words that you use to describe the thing. That's talent. You can't teach anybody, you just can't. I could take the world greatest thinker or I could take a astronaut who has a tremendous engineering mind but I just couldn't make a copywriter out of them. But like that's not even a lot of people have that. It's so basic that you don't even talk about it. What I'm saying is that I think the first thing is you have to have a very sound thinking mind.
chuukyuu Do you think it priority?
Mrs.Fine Yes. I think that's the most important thing. I think soundness comes probably after the talent. Soundness is probably the most important thing you can have because just to be able to communicate in words isn't enough. You have to figure out what aspect of this product is going to be the most appealing to people. And in order to do that, you have to really know the product thoroughly. You have to be able to zero in on the product and realize what aspect of it you can best communicate to people. It sounds easy but it is the hardest thing in the world. I mean actually sit down to do it, it's not so easy. A great example is that you very often see great public service ads because public service is a kind of natural thing. You know kids are starving in Biafra.
It isn't very difficult to write very emotional ad about that kids, it is just a kind of something that any writer can do. But if you have to sell a wire cord hanger to somebody that's not so emotional and so exciting. You have to know how you can communicate the story of that miserable unimportant thing to people, which is a tooth paste. You know soap or detergent, which is like awful, which is like nobody cares. And that's when you need really the sound thinking. And also I think you have to have the feeling of what people really want. It's not as simple as reading a psychology book and say, "Oh". Like Mary Wells, Mary Lawrence, I think one of the secrets of her success is that she just has this feeling of that something is going to work and something is going to sell to people. She is a kind of unfailing in that instinct.
chuukyuu It's like a divine quality.
Mrs.Fine I don't know whether it is or not. I said Bill Bernbach really has it. I think that thinking also counts, I mean I think you have to think it through. One thing that happens in advertising is getting less and less phony. You can't phony to people. The reason you can't is because I see through it right away. I'm talking about Americans but you really do have to be honest. I can't say that a lip stick is going to make you the most beautiful woman in the world. I can make you feel so but I wouldn't say it will because it's phony. People are getting more sophisticated and seeing through dishonesty.
chuukyuu So you can't betray the consumers by the words. You have to appeal to their feeling.
Mrs.Fine Yes, absolutely. I think all the successful campaigns and adver" tisements ever been done had appeal to their feelings and then to their minds. I think Volkswagen is a great enmple of that. It reaches you just emotionally and then it really says something. You've got to have really words to say.
