Print Ad Concepts

Before I became a writer, I worked in market research. When my position at Young & Rubicam advertising was eliminated, I initially thought I’d try my hand at ad copywriting. Y&R graciously allowed me access to their creative staff, to bounce ideas off them and get feedback. I worked up some ideas for a few print ads and got someone to do some decent illustrations based on my crude sketches.

In the meantime, I had been doing some writing for Chart magazine, and that career path had begun to bear fruit. I decided to follow my nose into music journalism.

The following samples are the mock-ups of the ad ideas I had created. As such, they lack the benefit of proper art direction. These were all created about 15 years ago. I used real companies and products, basing the copy on the benefits and claims they stressed in their material.

First up, an ad for The Club™:

Next, an ad for the Wilson Stretch Tennis Racquet:

And finally, a series of three ads for World Wide Wax, an online store selling vinyl LPs.

World Wide Wax 1 – “Green Onions”

World Wide Wax 2 – “Hot Tuna”

World Wide Wax 3 – “Humble Pie”

It’s interesting to note that I’ve since seen similar kinds of ads pop up in print, in transit ads and on TV. For instance, Bridgestone tires has a currently-running TV ad that uses a similar concept as my print ad for The Club™ (although the roles are reversed). In the Bridgestone spot, a pair of astronauts is zooming about on the surface of the moon, they park their moon buggy to go collect rock samples, and upon returning, find their vehicle up on blocks, sans tires, and a UFO spacecraft is seen zipping off out of sight. I’m not saying Bridgestone stole my idea… I’m just sayin’.