Every now and then, a good ad will sneak up on you from out of blue. Or from within yourself. A dream, a hunch, a personal experience. David Ogilvy, in The Art of Writing Advertising, wrote: "Some of good (ads) I have done have really come out of real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive."

A good ad is a subject about which you'll hear a lot of views. A lot of people will tell you an ad is good if it wins awards. Some will say a good ad is one that "sells product." Others will say an ad is good only if it "tests well." And more cynical others will say a good ad is "any ad client buys."

John Caples, who created enough good ads in his career to get him into Copywriters' Hall of Fame and Advertising Hall of Fame, opined that "... you're almost sure to have a good ad, if you come up with a good headline." And Bill Bernbach of Volkswagen "Lemon" fame believed that good ads are often ones that "take chances."

Still, while all preceding identifiers may be interesting, they are all descriptors after fact. None of them tells you how to know, at moment you've done it, that you have done a good ad. How do you decide when to take this beast you've created and lock it up in a cage for all rest of world to see?

Two little words: Your gut.

Intangible, unsupportable, unprovable. But unbeatable.

You may be suspicious of it, but you know it's never failed you. You can't evaluate it easily or readily define it but, deep down, you know you can't ignore it.

You know a good ad when you know it in your gut. And that's an easy thing to know.

(c) Burek Group 2002

"Life is trying things to see if they work." - Ray Bradbury

"Try? There is no try. There is only do or not do." - Yoda (in The Empire Strikes Back)

"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something." - Frank Capra

"The art of creation is older than art of killing." - Andrei Voznesensky

"Look and you will find it; what is sought will go undetected. - Sophocles

"It's simple. you just take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it. Keep doing this and pretty soon you've got something." - Jasper Johns

"The mind is like a parachute; it only works when it is open" - Unknown

" Every new idea looks crazy at first." -- Alfred North Whitehead

"Je ne cherche pas; je trouve." (I do not seek; I find.) -- Pablo Picasso

"Without deviation, progress is not possible" -- Frank Zappa

"Lady -- if you don't know, don't mess with it." -- Louis Armstrong (when asked exactly what jazz is)

"The life of creative man is lead, directed and controlled by bordeom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes." - Saul Steinberg

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People learn more from observation than they do from conversation." -- Will Rogers

"You can observe a lot by watching" - Yogi Berra

(c)Burek Group 2002

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