I wonder if Hemingway would have made a good copywriter?
Easy Read
I used to think that to become a great copywriter I needed to become a student of other great copywriters.
Which isn't horrible thinking.
Though I came to realise following only copywriters is a short road to remaining capable, and never great.
And believe me, I’m chasing the greats.
So I began looking beyond and thought where better to begin than with the best.
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I’ve piled through the various works of Ernest Hemingway from A Farewell to Arms and A Moveable Feast, to The Old Man and the Sea and, more recently, Hem’s articles for the Toronto Star.
It’s only when I read his Journalistic works that I had the thought:
Would Hem have made a good copywriter?
Simply put — yes.
For obvious reasons, he’d have held every copywriter, alive or dead, in the palm of his hand and reduced them to rubble.
If you think otherwise, you prob’ly need your head checked.
This understanding becomes less pretentious and more tolerable when you read Hem’s article for the Star titled:
At Vigo, In Spain, Is Where You Catch the Silver and Blue Tuna,
The King of All Fish
It’s a masterclass in selling travel, though I’m not even sure that’s its intention. But after reading the article I imagine folks flocked to take in the sites at Vigo and chance their arm at reeling in a big blue Tuna of their own.
Take a look:
(Hemingway is writing now)
“Vigo is a pasteboard-looking village, cobble-streeted, white-and orange-plastered, set up on one side of a big, almost landlocked harbor that is large enough to hold the entire British navy. Sun-baked brown mountains slump down to the sea like tired old dinosaurs, and the color of the water is as blue as a chromo of the bay at Naples … It holds schools of strange, flat, rainbow-colored fish, hunting-packs of long, narrow Spanish mackerel, and big, heavy-shouldered sea bass with odd, soft-sounding names. But principally it holds the king of all fish, the ruler of the Valhalla of fishermen.”
He goes on …
“The Spanish boatmen will take you out to fish for them for a dollar a day … if you land a big tuna after a six-hour fight, fight him man against fish until your muscles are nauseated with the unceasing strain, and finally bring him up alongside the boat, green-blue and silver in the lazy ocean, you will be purified and will be able to enter unabashed into the presence of the very elder gods and they will make you welcome.”
Sentences brawl for our attention daily.
Only a few hit you like a fist. I don't know about you but, these from Hemingway batter you black and blue making you feel utterly compelled to open booking.com and plan a trip to Vigo.
Now imagine what he could do if he was actually trying to sell travel
to Spain.
David Ogilvy, a man renowned by many as the godfather of advertising, shone a spotlight on how to write travel copy that sells.
He makes the following stipulations:
“Spotlight the unique differences.” — But principally it holds the king of all fish, the ruler of the Valhalla of fishermen.
“Facts are better than generalities.” — Vigo is a pasteboard-looking village, cobble-streeted, white-and orange-plastered, set up on one side of a big, almost landlocked harbor that is large enough to hold the entire British navy.
“Give your advertising a big idea.” — Catch the King of all fish
“Don’t shy away from long copy.” — Hem’s article is 504 words. Not short.
“Copy should allay anxiety about going to a strange place.” — you will be purified and will be able to enter unabashed into the presence of the very elder gods and they will make you welcome.
Without ever knowing Ogilvy, or having an interest in selling Vigo to potential visitors, Hemingway checked all the boxes like a to-do list of chores.
And this is only one article. There are droves more that completely sell you on whatever topic Hemingway sets down with his pen.
The deeper you explore the more the pendulum will swing to the side of the fence that any copywriter ever would be privileged to even lace Hem’s boots.
Anyway.
By Ryan Heaney.
