At 21, when I decided to be a humorous, entertaining, prolific, proficient copywriter, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I figured I had the “humorous” and “entertaining” part pretty well down pat, but the “prolific” and “proficient” parts were lacking.
I had not been a writer up to that point in my life, I had just been, well, humorous and entertaining.
How did I know that? I hung out with myself a lot. I seemed to enjoy my own company, laughed at my jokes and found myself to be quite entertaining.
That’s when I had a flash of genius. I think that’s what it was. It may have been indigestion.
Humorous Entertaining Prolific Proficient Copywriter Jack Goldenberg
I decided to read books by two of the great Mad Men of that era, David Ogilvy and William Bernbach. (Books, by the way, were ancient writings on non-electronic Kindles with pages made from paper. Weird, huh?)
Ogilvy’s book “Confessions of an Ad Man,” was a real page-turner. By that I mean you had to turn the pages. I remember one piece of advice he gave:
“Tell the truth, but make it fascinating.”
That’s advice I’ve always tried to follow.
After college, I called or visited every ad agency in Baltimore and a number of NY shops. Unfortunately, I got the same “Catch 22” response everywhere I went. “We can’t hire you because you don’t have any experience.”
My dream of becoming a Humorous, Entertaining, Prolific, Proficient Copywriter almost ended.
Well, they were right. I didn’t have any experience. But how could I ever get experience if no one would hire me?
That’s when I had another stroke of genius. No, really, this time it was a pure genius.
Since nobody would hire me, I hired myself. I formed my own ad agency. And I gave my agency a big, “sounds like they’ve been around for a long time” name. A week later the trade press announced, “Burns, Keene, Katz, Lord & Jefferson hires Copywriter Jack Goldenberg.”
The article claimed that one of the partners was a former Air Force general, another was a woman, and the remaining partners were Jewish, British and an African-American who graduated first in his class at Harvard.
The papers did not report that all the principals of BKKL&J were imaginary.
Like the great Mad Man David Ogilvy said,” Tell the truth, but make it fascinating.”
I was happy I finally got my first job. Not as happy with my new business cards that said I was a Copywriter/Creative Director of the BKKL&J. I knew I’d have to wait a while to be promoted to the “Humorous, Entertaining, Prolific, Proficient Copywriter.”
I’ve changed the name of my freelance ad agency several times. When McDonald’s was a client, I called my company Goldenberg & Associates. I have upgraded my company name since then. I now work for Einstein da Vinci & Goldenberg.
My partners don’t give me any trouble. Leonardo has been out of the office for over 600 years and Einstein is relatively absent. But best of all, if I screw up, I just say, “Hey, whaddya’ expect? I’m not the genius in the company.”
Renowned writer Jack Goldenberg is a prolific copywriter, creative marketing consultant and pro blogger of 10 Minutes of Brilliance.
If you are interested in adding humor to your sales pitch and entertaining prospects while selling them on what makes you different and better, please contact Jack Goldenberg, or call 973-590-7343, NOW! Einstein and da Vinci are standing by to take your call.
Sign up for my up to the minute blogs!
Prolific Copywriter
[...] Goldenberg is a prolific copywriter, creative marketing consultant and pro blogger of 10 Minutes of [...]