"…Overall planning has continually become more exciting. So many of the normal rules don’t apply, and there are now more opportunities to consider anything to be the answer for a brand. Just as creative teams are no longer restricted to a 30-second TV commercial, planning isn’t restricted to any particular way of thinking about brands or how they should express themselves” - Guy Murphy, Global Planning Director at JWT

"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." - David Ogilvy

Easier said than done, but highly important.

Why is it so hard for so many of us to write the way we speak?

Because we've had it beaten out of us repeatedly, from kindergarten, through high school, college and sometimes grad school.

We've been criticized so many times for not following an artificially rigid writing format that we've internalized the critic.

But... that critic has been working overtime. The critic needs to go on vacation when you're writing copy.

"Creative departments are the most hidebound and conservative departments in the agency"

"Fear. The prevailing corporate climate is one of fear. There is a difference between fear and being afraid. It makes sense to be afraid because it can guide you to do the right thing. Maybe if you're lucky it pushes you into action because you are afraid to be mediocre. Fear, on the other hand, creates paralysis. And to be successful you have to have the courage to act." - Alex Bogusky, Chief Creative Officer, CRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY

"You're going to have so many versions of ads, and you're going to have so many media decisions to make with the fragmentation of the media. How is a human going to be able to process that amount of information?"
- Mark Read, director of strategy for WPP Group