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famouscopywriters

Rule of Three • Sept 2015

IIIRULE OF THREE

Alec Guinness.Alec Guinness is one of the

most treasured performers

England has had.

SStarring on stage and in such films as

Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the

River Kwai and Star Wars among many

other classics. However, he began as an

advertising copywriter, before his acting

career took off.

The muThe much-loved actor certainly had an

eye for business. He only agreed to star

in a peculiar picture called Star Wars,

because he was given 2% of the gross

royalties paid to the director, George

Lucas.

Essentially, I'm asmall-part actor who'sbeen lucky enough toplay leading roles for

most of his life.— Alec Guinness

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Great copywriting requires real talent.

Where doesan idea come

from?

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Don DeLillo.Donald Richard DeLillo has made his career writing challenging, innovative fiction that fearlessly examines and satirizes American culture.

He He worked at Ogilvy & Mather for five years, before moving on to write works such as White Noise, which gained him success and respect in equal measure.

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Writing is a concentrated form of thinking... a

young writer sees that with words he can place

himself more clearly into the world. Words on a

page, that's all it takes to help him separate

himself from the forces around him, streets and

people and pressures and feelings. He learns to

think about these things, to ride his own

sensentences into new perceptions.

— Don De Lillo

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Joseph Heller.

CatCatch 22 is now a widely used phrase,

denoting a situation with no easy

solution, but it began as the name of a

widely acclaimed satirical novel about

war, a book memorable for far more

than just its title.

Its authoIts author, Joseph Heller, was working

at the Merrill Anderson Company in

New York, when he began writing

Catch 22, his groundbreaking work on

the madness of warfare.

He He went on to write several other

novels including Something Happened,

Good as Gold, and Closing Time.

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I happen to go for the simplest, most ordinary things. The extraordinary doesn't interest me. I’m not interested in psychotics. I’m interested in the person you don’t expect to have a story.

— John Hughes

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John Hughes.

The maThe master of the 80s teen movie

began his career selling jokes to

performers such as Rodney

Dangerfield, and Joan Rivers. He used

his talent for comedy to land a job as

an advertising copywriter at Needham,

Harper & Steers.

He He went on to become a treasured

filmmaker in Hollywood, directing

seminal 80s hits Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

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Where exactly is anidea conceived?

We may not be able to answer these questions, but we can be glad these

creative people never stopped being creative.

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Terry Gilliam.Terry Gilliam is a much loved American

born, British filmmaker, animator,

comedian and writer, who has been

telling weird and wonderful stories since

the seventies.

Gilliam Gilliam worked at an agency in America. When he

became disillusioned with American society and

police oppression, he decided to leave his job, only

to be fired before he could quit. He headed to

England and began an incredible career. He was an

integral part of Monty Python, and directed many

classic films including Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear

and Loathing in Las and Loathing in Las Vegas.

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Hugh Hefner.

Hefner left his job as a promotional

copywriter at Esquire in 1952 when

they refused to offer him a raise of $5.

He then gatheHe then gathered $8,000 from 45

investors, which included his mother,

to launch a magazine you may have

heard of. Its name is Playboy.

Hefner is also a World War 2 veteran

and political activist and

philanthropist.

Creating my own world in

a comic or selling my first

penny newspaper aged nine

was a way of gaining

recognition and acceptance

by my peers.

— Hugh Hefner

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Salman Rushdie.Rushdie worked as a copywriter at Ogilvy and Mather, then at Ayer Baker, creating the ‘irresistibubble’ tagline for Aero, and ‘That’ll do nicely.’ for American Express.

He leHe left to become a full-time writer, and essayist, his most famous novel being Midnight’s Children. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

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F Scott Fitzgerald.When writing The GWhen writing The Great Gatsby,

Fitzgerald said he wanted to

create “something new –

something extraordinary and

beautiful and simply and

intricately patterned”. He was, of

course, successful in his

endeendeavor.

Born in 1896, during his

twenties Fitzgerald made use of

his writing talent at the Baron

Collier Ad Agency.

He lived in a single room on

Manhattan’s west side, frantically

working on short stories in his

spare time. When Zelda Sayre

broke off their engagement, he

moved back in with his parents

and completed This Side of

PaParadise, an instant success.

He ended up marrying Zelda after

all, and his writing has appealed to

many generations ever since it first

captured youth and American

culture.

Phone • 020 7118 0333 Email • copywriter@rule-of-three.co.uk

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