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If any field of endeavour suits the format of quotations, it is advertising, which is at its best when it uses words in the most economic way. Short sentences that say a lot about their subject. Snappy headlines on print ads. These are the bread and butter of advertising.

Koenderman has been writing about marketing and advertising for more than 20 years, and almost every year has authored and edited an annual review of the sector. For the last seven years, his annual, Tony Koenderman's AdReview has been published in association with Finweek, one of the country's biggest-circulation weekly business magazine.

It was while he was putting together one of these annuals that the idea for a book of quotations came to him. He decided to decorate the pages with quotes from well-known figures in the global ad biz, only to discover that the field was very sparsely covered in existing reference books.

So he began collecting quotes, at first with no sense of urgency, but merely adding quotes to his collection as and when he came across them. When the numbers had grown to a significant level, he started working more determined way, until he had more than 1600 quotes, covering advertising and related marketing fields such as PR and media.

The book is arranged into 26 chapters dealing with the practice and skills of advertising, such as:

• Copywriting - “Darned Good Baloney;”
  
• Creativity - “Surround yourself with crazies;”
  
• Effectiveness in advertising - “The Art of Persuasion;”
  
• Business and advertising - “Capitalism's Soft Sell;”
  
• Advertising and politics - “Soap and Sealing Wax.”
  
• Client- agency relationships - “Make his logo twice the size.”

The sheer number of quotations make Smoke and Mirrors: advertising in a nutshell a veritable text book - the chapter on copywriting is effectively a guide written by copywriting legends such as David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Rosser Reeves and Bill Bernbach - and an amusing reminiscence for members of the general public.

The 256-page book will retail for around R150.

[11 Nov 2008 12:54]

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