Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads by Luke Sullivan
Me reading this book = pausing every few seconds to nod head, highlight and secret fist pump that this book exists. 
And in a grand show of crazy-kindle-highlighting, I ended up with 146 pieces of much loved content!
Suffice to say it has now become my absolute favourite (to date) book on advertising and creativity. It’s definitely going on the highly recommended list! I’ve read it twice. Yes, it’s that good!
3 things to love about this treasure
- It’s written like a chat with a friend (a v funny one), with none of that corporate speak that makes you feel like a naughty five year old.
- Did I mention the guy is v funny?
- Full, brimming, busting, with a serious amount of AMAZING advice.
Top 8 fav quotes from Hey Whipple, Squeeze this
(headings = mine, quotes = directly from the book)
1. You gather as much information on the problem as you can. You read, you underline stuff, you ask questions, you visit the factory. 2. You sit down and actively attack the problem. 3. You drop the whole thing and go do something else while your subconscious mind works on the problem. 4. “Eureka!
2. Creativity = washing a pig
“I’m serious. Creativity is exactly like washing a pig. It’s messy. It has no rules. No clear beginning, middle, or end. It’s kind of a pain in the ass,”
3. Online is the first place consumers look
“Online is where the clients are spending more of their marketing dollars, and there’s a dirt-simple reason for it: it’s the first place we look, people. It’s the first place everybody looks…”
4. Content is king, queen and princess
“How can a brand get any attention at all?” The answer: Have better content than everyone else.
“Quit interrupting the interesting things people want to look at and start being the interesting thing to look at. Quality content trumps all.”
5. Storytellers (plus a cool way to explain what you do if you’re in the biz)
“We are storytellers in service of brands.”
6. Don’t talk constantly about yourself (or your brand) on social
“Conversation strategy is just as important here as it is on Facebook, and I read again and again of either the 80/20 rule (promote others 80 percent of the time and your own agenda 20 percent) or the thirds rule (one-third industry-related stuff, one-third about your field or company, and one-third about your fine self).”
7. All art/creativity is theft (for more on this read: Steal Like An Artist)
It’s been said there are no new ideas, only rearrangements. Picasso himself said, “All art is theft.” Historian Will Durant wrote, “Nothing is new except arrangement.”
8. Stop trying to make every message/product fit into one spot
“Smart companies know this. Coca-Cola owns nearly 80 brands of soft drinks, but they’ve never run an ad for all of them with some catchall claim like, ‘Bubbly, sugar-based liquids in a variety of vastly different tastes for all your thirst needs.’
Grab the book, hell grab 10 copies and give them out to your workmates.
The Marketer's Bookshelf 