Comments on: Luke Sullivan and the 800 headlines

By: Put on your blue suede shoes and write. « woah!

Put on your blue suede shoes and write. « woah! — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:13:27 +0000

[...] Mr. Luke Sullivan sure does know. And so does Miss Hogshead, taking account of it on her always inspiring blog and her radical career advises. Unfortunately for me, my very own copy of “Hey [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:44:04 +0000

Super interesting.
I’m a BMW motorcycle rider and I was also working in advertising in the mid-90s in NYC. I remember getting a repair made on my cycle out in Huntington, NY. (The largest seller of BMW motorcycles on the East Coast.) The owner started chatting me up and asked what I did for a living when I responded, “Advertising.”
I also remembered Fallon Berlin winning some awards for their motorcycle print. (the ads featured in this article)
I asked him what he thought of them and if he felt they were effective.
“Those ads sucked. Didn’t move the dial one bit. And I can guarantee you one thing. They were written by someone who never rode a BMW bike in their life. I pay for those ads as a franchise seller and I can tell you this. Total waste of fucking money.”

By: Brock Johnson

Brock Johnson — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:54:51 +0000

Sally, my buddy saw your 800 BMW headlines in ad school and tried to do it for Listerine breath strips. While I only was able to crank out 687, it was one of the more useful things I did in school. Thanks for the inspiration.
Brock

By: Jimmy Gilmore

Jimmy Gilmore — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:06:06 +0000

I had to read the book to get Luke’s wisdom.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one working with massive volume. I’ve found over the years that I’m usually the only writer in the shop with 40 or so lines pined up on the wall and about 400 more on my word processor.
The older I get, the easier the mediocre lines are to write but the really good ones still take a solid effort.

By: Bill Kelly

Bill Kelly — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:22:31 +0000

Friggen brilliant! An old muse of mine was also into quantity before quality. I still write one page before I tackle the day… about b.s., taking out trash, road rage, kid stuff… whatever. It gets mind primed. told some jr’s about this method and their eyes glazed over. Still, always will push work ethic over talent any day. Cheers!
bk