The evolution of a culture. Find out here where copywriting all began and how it evolved to become the marketing technique it's used for today.

1. The History of
Copywriting
The Evolution of a Culture
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The history of copywriting is one of
trailblazers, late nights, and a culture
that turned upside down. It’s one of a
world that influenced ideas, and ideas
that influenced the world.
“If I ask you to think about something, you can
decide not to. But if I make you feel something?
Now I have your attention.”
— Lisa Cron
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Copywriting has
changed in many ways.
And stayed the same
in many others.
In the early 20th centuIn the early 20th century, the practice of
advertising and copywriting was to simply state
the facts. Of course, the facts weren’t always the
facts: smoking was good for you, and fizzy drinks
made you healthy.

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Evolution.
This gThis gradually evolved, so that
advertising came to be about speaking to
a culture. It would be necessary to
communicate an idea, to describe a
mood, a feeling. This could only be
possible with a talented copywriter on
the frontline.

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It’s about understanding
what the hell’s going on
around you.
— George Lois
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6. Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become,
under able direction, one of the safest of
business ventures
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The idea of using psychology
and market research in
copywriting hit its stride in the
1960s (a decade we’ll come
back to) but the idea had been
around since the 1920s.
Claude C. Hopkins, hailed as one ofClaude C. Hopkins, hailed as one of
the pioneers of the advertising world,
published his seminal work ‘Scientific
Advertising’ in 1923.
In it he said:
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Hopkins understood that marketing could be
measured and perfected, and his words have been
followed by copywriters and the advertising
industry ever since.
Copywriters must have a good, well-researched
reason for everything that they write.“
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10. Confessions of
an Ad Man
David Olgilvy, 1963
Copywriters were now seen as stylish
innovators, trailblazers, creative thinkers,
and there was an arms race on for the
most exciting campaign yet.
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11. Young people were literally increasing their
numbers, with the postwar baby boom generation
coming of age in the sixties.
Advertising was coming of age too.
EEverything was becoming more colourful, and copywriting
wasn’t about to be left behind. The industry had caught up
with technology, and photography and language were
combined in revolutionary artwork. In 1960 Doyle Dane
Bernbach introduced the ‘creative team’ approach, an
ingenious move that brought copywriters and art directors
together.
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VW Beetle
The campaign for the VW
Beetle defied expectations with
its ‘Think Small’ campaign.
ItIt took what you might assume to be a
negative, its negligible size, and turned
it into something exciting, rebellious,
and provocative.
ItIt was creativity at its most potent –
taking established norms and shaking
them up to create something
completely new.

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Coca-Cola.
In 1971 Coca Cola released their
groundbreaking television commercial
with the jingle “I’d like to buy the
world a coke”.
It shIt showed people from all parts of the
world, gathered together on a hilltop,
singing in harmony.

14. The debut of
MTV
(1981)
Advertising continued to become more
sophisticated, and 1981 saw the debut
of MTV, which would herald a new era
for advertising and the youth market.
TTechnology continued to evolve until
in 1993, the Internet had built up 5
million users. No one yet knew the
ramifications it would have for
copywriting.
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Technology
Over the course of human
history, everything has changed
with technology.
FiFirst we told stories with cave
paintings. Then we told stories
on paper, then on the television
and now we use something called
the Internet. We can only guess
at the developments we’ll see in
the next 50 years, but the odds
arare they’ll be stranger than we
expect.

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