Readings: Chapter 2 and 3

Chapter 2: The Strategy

Chapter 2 explores the topic of how to go about creating a strategy in order to create an ad. Barry highlights aspects such as: how to form a creative brief and the eleven categories that make up the brief, the importance of researching the client and its product/service, and how to create an effective logo. These points were explained through the use of examples that helped to understand how to effectively think about was goes into the concept of an advertisement. One thing that stuck out to me was how important the tone of an ad is, and how important it is that the image and the copy, use the same tone.

Chapter 3: Print

This chapter details the different forms of print ads as well as the "rules" behind print advertising. Beyond explaining the differences between posters, press, and prosters, Barry walks the reader through how to reduce elements in an ad and how to effectively call attention to the right part of the ad. He also explains what to do and what not to do when creating headlines and visuals, as well as how visuals and headlines should play off each other and create a kind of tension that draws the viewer in. Even though the section on what kinds of questions to use in a headline was a bit lengthy, I found it interesting as to how easily a bad headline could surface. However, many of these same rules (don't use straight puns) apply when writing for general purposes as well.