Dramatic Sales Writing

And speaking of the Ad Council -- I thought
they were supposed to be a group of high-
powered ad people. Is that wrong?

One radio station I listen to a lot on a sustained
basis (when there's a program on I like), is
97.1 FM Talk. All talk shows. I don't know
whether it's because they're still relatively new
and their format is competing against KMOX
which is a long established and very popular
talk station here in St Louis on AM, but 97.1
runs a lot of public service ads. I assume they
do so only because they don't always fill
their paid advertising time.

And some of it is so wretched, it's pathetic.

Not just the teen volunteer who has her arm
torn off by a bear . . .

But the ad that's totally incoherent. It starts
out with a young man talking about he was
such a show-off as a kid that all his
teachers gave up on him, except one . . .
then it seques -- with NO logical connection
whatsoever -- into talking about so many
years of alcoholism and so many years of
recovery.

What is the connection? I don't know. It
starts out as an ad applauding a good
teacher and then ends up as an ad about
alcohol treatment and there is no connection
made. Who was the alcoholic -- the student
or the teacher? I don't know, and I've heard
it a 1000 times.

The ad for WIC (Women, Infants & Children --
it gives food and formula away to mothers
with children under 5, and does some routine
exams of the kids) out and out lies. It says
it's free -- but taxpayers have to pay for it.
It's free only to the women and kids who get
it.

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