David Abbott is dead.
And I am sad.
With the exception of one man, he, above all others, shaped my career as a writer.
And that one exception was a student of Abbott’s.
So the point may be moot.
Like so many others, I pored over his entry in The Craft of Copywriting, copying his writing technique, feet on the desk, slightly tilted chair, pen tipped to my lips in a woeful attempt to mirror his inimitable style.
I was enchanted with his daredevil acts of writing, “If the welding isn’t strong enough, the car will fall on the writer”.
I couldn’t wait for the latest D&AD Annual, knowing there would be an Abbott or two to worship, for the grace of a well-turned headline or the simple shock in a carefully crafted sentence, “When the Government killed the dog licence they left us to kill the dogs.”
A photocopy of his Chivas Father’s Day ad stayed with me through five interstate moves and a divorce. “Because a red Rudge bicycle once made me the happiest boy in the street.”
His, “Or buy a Volvo” ad is as iconic as Bernbach’s “Lemon”. And perhaps more copied. Aping an Abbott ad seems, sometimes, to be a national sport for lesser writers.
Whenever I had to defend the use of more than twenty words in a press ad, I would turn to a Sainsbury’s ad and triumph, “Which of these words would you remove?”
He made me want to be a better writer.
He still does.
All I can do, like so many others, is bow my head over my keyboard.
And try harder.
Originally published by Brand Clarity, May, 2015
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