Marketing

Magazine Advertising Copy

Yoshitaka Kanakubo, Nick Leung, and Madeline Yacoe

Many successful advertisements capture a reader’s attention by deliberately contradicting

expectations. This convention of nonconformity rewards creativity and exploration, but

discourages strict regulations. The genre of promoting ideas or products changes constantly,

as innovative ads continually replace yesterday’s stale traditions. This evolution is what

complicates our job of defining precise strategies for writing successful ads.

Popular magazines commonly feature full-page color ads. These often depict modern culture,

relate to current events, and reflect the mindset of the period. Magazine ads do more than

just sell products; they also promote ideas, bolster public opinion of a brand name, and are

fun to look at. To break away from the mainstream, advertisers employ new ideas and

constantly challenge current trends. These imaginative ads draw attention and revenue, and

promote the culture of freedom and unrestrained creativity that exists in the advertising

industry today.

We know that the unstructured freedom of writing the text in a magazine ad (called the copy)

can be overwhelming for the unaccustomed. We wrote this guide to help you understand what

works and what doesn’t. It describes common techniques and explains when to use (or ignore)

them. Hopefully, this discussion will prompt you to ask productive questions about your own

work, and will help you create successful ads. It will also give you valuable instructions on how

to market directly to your ideal consumer by giving you a comprehensive understanding of

how the genre functions in society.

THE GOALS OF ADVERTISING

Magazine advertisements often appear simple, but are actually very complex. Although the

copy is almost always short, the layout is perfectly designed to maximize its effect. The

interplay of words and images on the page attracts and maintains a reader’s attention,

communicates a...