Gossage the Great
Column: Robert Louis Stevenson once remarked that every artist starts out by drawing a monkey. But what’s the situation in our consumer goods industry, Mbwana?
Column "People read what they
interested - sometimes even the article on the back of the
Advertisement", one could say in reference to Howard Luck Gossage. That has
Robert Louis Stevenson once remarked,
that every artist goes ape first. But what about our
Consumer goods industry, Mbwana? The strange thing about journalism is,
that there are hardly any classics. Every generation starts every four years
from the front. Sure, in the library you can find
collections from Tucholski to Thompson,
Capote to speaker. But surprisingly few professionals have them
and hardly ever with the greedy eye of the copyist. No wonder,
For journalism, the beautiful phrase by Kaspar von der
Lueg: "Waste paper collection. And I'm there!"
Perhaps the most instructive head for journalists is not a journalist,
but an advertiser: Howard Luck Gossage. Gossage was an anarchist, lived
from 1918 to 1969, advertised shirts, whiskey and Range Rovers, made
for himself and his customers, and this despite the fact that he is
and from the advertisement "a limited, but nevertheless
an art form".
Gossage's specialty was to write practically all written or
to break the unwritten laws of his industry. Instead of fast
He designed customer-oriented slogans. For example, for Fina petrol stations: "If you
driving down a road and you see a Fina gas station and they
is on your side of the road so that you do not have to make a hairpin bend
and there are not already five or six cars waiting, and you
need gas or anything else, then come by." That was
Gossage's shortest ad. For the Irish whiskey brewers he designed a
campaign, which, in the rambling way of the Irish, has the problem of
discussed whether Irish whiskey might not have the emphatic, polished
taste of whiskey, so whether they, the Irish
Whiskey brewers, so not out of greed for profit their pride to a
Brazilian berry ... The display broke in the middle of each
and was written like a serialized novel for weeks.
continued. Gossage also parodied
first to advertise the competition. From Ogilvy's famous ad for Rolls-Royce "At 100 hours
kilometers, the loudest noise is the ticking of the electric motor.
Gossage's Range Rover plea "At one hundred kilometers per hour
the loudest noise is the roar of the engine".
In addition, Gossage placed each ad strictly only once. His argument:
"If you really have something to say, for example 'Fire!
itself
not repeat it either." His working motto was: "People read what
they're interested in - and sometimes it's an ad." This kind of
Cheekiness not only allowed him to write the epic serialized novel,
but also playful things like the Fina cam-
campaign, in which he is the last man standing for a boring gas station chain.
crucial addition to the industry was invented twenty years ago.
clean toilets were introduced: pink air. Fina's five-year plan,
pumping pink air into the tires, the calculations for the pink
Piping, the pink hubcaps and the preview of the end product -
pink balloons - sold like crazy. Provable, because Gossage
used to attach a coupon to every ad: 9 of the 10
most successful campaign returns of his time came from him.
What makes Gossage interesting for journalists is precisely that - his
Attitude: "People read what they are interested in - and sometimes it is
Even the article on the back of the ad." And finally
readers are almost always interested in what the writer himself enjoys.
And this is almost always the opposite of the tried and tested, mechanical
Rules of the game in your own industry.
Apart from that, Mbwana, Gossage's work captivates with many advertisements
plus all the tricks of the trade essays. If you want to study it,
look for his antiquarian book "Can advertising still be saved?"
or - if you are cautious - send an e-mail to
[email protected] to get the full version of this article.
interested - sometimes even the article on the back of the
Advertisement", one could say in reference to Howard Luck Gossage. That has
Robert Louis Stevenson once remarked,
that every artist goes ape first. But what about our
Consumer goods industry, Mbwana? The strange thing about journalism is,
that there are hardly any classics. Every generation starts every four years
from the front. Sure, in the library you can find
collections from Tucholski to Thompson,
Capote to speaker. But surprisingly few professionals have them
and hardly ever with the greedy eye of the copyist. No wonder,
For journalism, the beautiful phrase by Kaspar von der
Lueg: "Waste paper collection. And I'm there!"
Perhaps the most instructive head for journalists is not a journalist,
but an advertiser: Howard Luck Gossage. Gossage was an anarchist, lived
from 1918 to 1969, advertised shirts, whiskey and Range Rovers, made
for himself and his customers, and this despite the fact that he is
and from the advertisement "a limited, but nevertheless
an art form".
Gossage's specialty was to write practically all written or
to break the unwritten laws of his industry. Instead of fast
He designed customer-oriented slogans. For example, for Fina petrol stations: "If you
driving down a road and you see a Fina gas station and they
is on your side of the road so that you do not have to make a hairpin bend
and there are not already five or six cars waiting, and you
need gas or anything else, then come by." That was
Gossage's shortest ad. For the Irish whiskey brewers he designed a
campaign, which, in the rambling way of the Irish, has the problem of
discussed whether Irish whiskey might not have the emphatic, polished
taste of whiskey, so whether they, the Irish
Whiskey brewers, so not out of greed for profit their pride to a
Brazilian berry ... The display broke in the middle of each
and was written like a serialized novel for weeks.
continued. Gossage also parodied
first to advertise the competition. From Ogilvy's famous ad for Rolls-Royce "At 100 hours
kilometers, the loudest noise is the ticking of the electric motor.
Gossage's Range Rover plea "At one hundred kilometers per hour
the loudest noise is the roar of the engine".
In addition, Gossage placed each ad strictly only once. His argument:
"If you really have something to say, for example 'Fire!
itself
not repeat it either." His working motto was: "People read what
they're interested in - and sometimes it's an ad." This kind of
Cheekiness not only allowed him to write the epic serialized novel,
but also playful things like the Fina cam-
campaign, in which he is the last man standing for a boring gas station chain.
crucial addition to the industry was invented twenty years ago.
clean toilets were introduced: pink air. Fina's five-year plan,
pumping pink air into the tires, the calculations for the pink
Piping, the pink hubcaps and the preview of the end product -
pink balloons - sold like crazy. Provable, because Gossage
used to attach a coupon to every ad: 9 of the 10
most successful campaign returns of his time came from him.
What makes Gossage interesting for journalists is precisely that - his
Attitude: "People read what they are interested in - and sometimes it is
Even the article on the back of the ad." And finally
readers are almost always interested in what the writer himself enjoys.
And this is almost always the opposite of the tried and tested, mechanical
Rules of the game in your own industry.
Apart from that, Mbwana, Gossage's work captivates with many advertisements
plus all the tricks of the trade essays. If you want to study it,
look for his antiquarian book "Can advertising still be saved?"
or - if you are cautious - send an e-mail to
[email protected] to get the full version of this article.
Constantin Seibt Columnist and (still) freelance author.
