Dan Goldstein Copywriting Services
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TV Commercial Script This Freelance Copywriter Wishes He’d Written. And Directed.
Posted by dan in copywriter, Television on March 13, 2012
When it comes to copywriting services, here’s one great television commercial script.
I laughed the first time and every time I see this tv spot.
A solid, streamlined concept any decent freelance copywriter has to admire.
It’s a great, simple idea: Show how high-definition and lifelike this Samsung smart phone’s screen is by having people freak completely out when a spider appears on it–to the point of screaming and fleeing the phone and summoning every last atom of manly courage to swat the phone into arachnid submission.
As a freelance copywriter, I wish I got brought in on more tv commercials with production values like this.
The direction and/or acting talent on this television commercial is also inspired. When Ms. Bizlunch sees the smart spider, her scream progresses through three stages of increasing horror as she fully, then more fully, and then completely realizes there’s a tarantula on the table.
Mr. Bizlunch Sr. swats the eight-legged innocent into submission, and then swats him again to make sure. This is even more hilarious because he manages to let a certain shakiness come through his voice that communicates both how cool and collected he’s trying to appear and how much fear he had to overcome to swat the spider.
Slam dunk.
Radio Ad Script Antihero Under Investigation
Posted by dan in ad campaign, copywriter, Radio, radio advertising campaign, radio commercial producer on November 11, 2011
As the campaign builds, this radio ad script puts Tim Dauber under closer scrutiny.
Well, maybe wife Claire isn’t quite as oblivious as all that. In this radio commercial she’s hired a P.I. (Paint Investigator) to check Tim’s work. 
The radio ad script, “A Spy in the House of Dauber” presented creative and technical challenges for this radio commercial producer.
The timing and distancing of sound effects and dialogue had to be handled with great precision and at the same time creative interpretation to present an understandable, realistic and funny ear picture of goings on behind closed doors and out back windows.
Big fun here to have the audience root for mispainting malefactor, Tim Dauber, to escape detection and dodge Kelly-Moore Paints again–even as they take in the message of how this paint company offers friendly, expert advice and sells top quality paints at great prices.
”A Spy in the House of Dauber”
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Antihero Hangs On Through Another Radio Commercial Script
Posted by dan in ad campaign, copywriter, radio advertising campaign on November 3, 2011
In this next radio commercial script, Tim Dauber continues to whitewash wife Claire . 
But the neighbors are upset about the neighborhood eyesore that is the Dauber residence.
It was fun to paint a new dimension of Claire’s obliviousness and innocence in this radio commercial script.
And doubly fun to script Tim playing along to sidestep a lynch mob.
“No noose is good noose”
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Radio Advertising Campaign Antihero Tim Dauber Has Legs
Posted by dan in ad campaign, copywriter, Radio, radio advertising campaign on October 21, 2011
That’s what they say about an advertising concept
that is extendable, expandable, and, hopefully, effective.
It can keep going.
Tim Dauber seemed to walk that talk by engaging the listener in his ongoing domestic struggles with wife Claire.
As I was asked to create radio spot after radio spot in this radio advertising campaign, Tim’s backhanded advocacy of Kelly-Moore Paints played out many ways.
Here’s how it went down when Tim’s wife wanted to move out of their mispainted house…
Tim Dauber paints the door shut on moving in
“Realtor”
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Stay tuned to hear me and Tim Dauber keep slapping down this radio advertising campaign and painting more indelible radio spots.
Tim Dauber vs. Kelly-Moore Paints: Birth of a Radio Advertising Campaign Antihero
Posted by dan in copywriter, Radio, radio advertising campaign on October 17, 2011
A freelance copywriter sneaks in the front door.
I approached Kelly-Moore directly because they were based in my home town and I thought I could create and produce better radio ad scripts than they were airing.
They had a little jingle tag:
“Kelly-Moore! We help you do it right. We’re the painter’s paint store!”
This was their thrilling conclusion to radio spots in which an announcer simply read off the week’s sale items and their prices. They ran the same list in newspapers. That pretty much tells you how much use they were making of radio as a medium.
They agreed to a meeting, liked me and my samples, and asked me to come up with something better.
There was a benefit or two suggested in their jingle tag, so I questioned them about that and it did turn out their store employees are quite knowledgeable and helpful and many professional painters buy Kelly-Moore.
Their jingle jangled my imagination.
So I kicked around several ideas that might communicate how helpful the folks at K-M are and how good their paint is. But I thought it would be fresher and more attention-getting to not just brag about their staff and products. I wanted to dramatize it.
And this led me to my first campaign based on an ongoing character, Tim Dauber.
Tim Dauber gets to acknowledge K-M’s benefits without being a shill or spokesman.
How?
Tim Dauber’s secret to getting his way in life is to avoid K-M paint stores with their great advice and top quality paints.
When his wife wants her parents to come for a visit, he just keeps on miss-painting the guestroom with his lack of know-how and poor quality paint.
‘Oops, I’m so not sorry.’
He’s got an aptitude for using his painting ineptitude to get out of family vacations, selling the house, and anything else he wants to manipulate.
All he’s got to do is stay away from Kelly-Moore, or he’d have no excuse for the way things always go his way.
Here’s the first radio spot I scripted to set up the premise…
Tim Dauber’s Radio Debut:
“Guestroom”
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You can start to see how this is going to play out as Tim tries his worst to escape an impending family vacation…
Tim Dauber Lays It on Thick:
“A Dauber Family Vacation”
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So now the campaign got rolling and I had to keep cooking up situations for Tim to cook up a way out of…All while pushing Kelly-Moore’s sound advice and great paint. BTW, a 5-sceond tag at the end of each spot gave live announcers a chance to plug the paints on sale that week.
Wonder what would happen if Claire wanted to sell the house and Tim didn’t…
And now, another radio spot you won’t be hearing from Dan Goldstein Copywriting Services…
Posted by dan in copywriter, Radio on June 22, 2011
THICKE: This is Ed Thicke.
DULL: And Ted Dull.
THICKE: With a message from the Monolith Brick Company.
DULL: About strong, hard, rectangular…
THICKE: Monolith Bricks.
DULL: Ladies, Monolith Bricks are sturdy and reliable.
THICKE: And now, with Monolith’s new expanded line of products,
you can get them in your choice of two beautiful designer shapes: Wide or Tall.
DULL: Ed, I think the tall one is just a wide one standing on end.
SFX: CLUNK OF BRICK FALLING OVER ON ITS SIDE
THICKE: So it is. Well, I guess Monolith doesn’t offer all that much variety.
But aren’t there lots of great cosmetic and housekeeping uses for these hard, lifeless objects, Ted?
DULL: Could be, Ed. But we don’t really have to get into all that.
THICKE: I guess that’s true. Tell ‘em why, Ted.
DULL: You see, ladies, the Monolith Brick Company has just placed such an obese media buy
that it hardly matters what we say.
THICKE: We thought about just bluntly reading our marketing strategy at you—
DULL: But we don’t even have to do that, let alone capture your imagination or sell you on the benefits,
if there are any, of Monolith Bricks.
THICKE: No, all we have to do is keep hitting you with these boring brick commercials night and day
till you stagger off and buy some.
DULL: And don’t even think about switching stations.
THICKE: No, we’re on every station right now.
DULL: And will be again every five minutes till we reach our sales goals.
THICKE: So you see, ladies, it’s sort of a blackmail situation.
DULL: And it’s truly in your own best interests to think up your own uses for Monolith Bricks.
THICKE: We know you don’t want to hear from us.
DULL: And we don’t particularly like to talk to you.
THICKE: So what it really comes down to is—
DULL: Buy us or we’ll bore you.
THICKE: Say, that’d make a sell tagline, Ted.
DULL: We don’t need one, Ed.
How the Internet Stops Copywriters and Art Directors from Creating Great Ads
Posted by dan in copywriter, Print, Web on May 31, 2011
I love ads in which the visual and the verbal depend on each other to communicate more powerfully and economically than either could alone.
DDB, of course, did this wonderfully for Volkswagen time and again.
This classic print ad would look pretty dull in Google...
The not-spelled-out, keyword-oblivious gap between what you read and what you see forces a spark to leap between the two to form an idea. That spark leaps from your brain, so you have to engage and participate in the idea.
I haven’t interviewed any laboratory primates to confirm that this participation plants the presented idea more deeply in said simian’s cerebellum. But this primate knows that’s how it goes.
Having been enlisted to participate in the ad’s idea often aligns the reader more closely with the ads message: You’ve become an insider.
This magical marriage of copywriter and art director, however, is on the rocks.
The Internet is the most efficient way to reach the most targeted audience with an advertising message.
The problem with this fact of virtual life is that the search engines that decide what combination of art and copy will find you in your moment of need can’t perceive the riveting, illuminating, engaging gap between the words and the pictures.
So the copywriter and art director have hobbled to separate corners.
I think art directors have suffered the most in the break-up.
Google looks for keywords in place of inspiration. At least copywriters can write keywords. It can be a flatfooted, colorless hobble down court, but we copywriters seem to be holding the bounceless ball.
But now I’ll pivot and say it’s not quite the end of the game. It’s more a matter of a few rule changes. And as verbal and visual players, we need to invent new moves and strengthen basic skills that play best in a changed game.
Branding and sales still seem to count as keywords in the marketing arena. So as a freelance copywriter, I go on delivering the copywriting services that score those points for my clients…And, of course, a couple of points for myself when I can. I mean, what’s a copywriter to do?
Being Just a Copywriter, I had No Idea How Easy It Is to Write 30-second Radio Ad Scripts
Posted by dan in copywriter, Radio on April 16, 2011
I just learned from eHow that writing 30-second radio ad scripts is “deceptively easy.”
Well, I guess it is in the same way that attaining everlasting world peace is deceptively easy…
How to attain world peace:
Simply gather every individual on the planet into a comfy room and convince everyone to see things through everyone else’s eyes. A group hug seals the deal forever.
How to create 30-second radio ad scripts:
Just come up with a brilliant, compelling concept that dramatically conveys the listener’s problem and how the advertiser’s product solves it.
After that, all you have to do is animate your revelation with clever dialogue after you take a few minutes to develop a keen sense of humor and some verbal wit. Then start typing the 60 or so words that will naturally flow out of you.
Now ehow easy was that? Writing great radio ad scripts may be a little more complicated than attaining everlasting world peace, but still, a piece of cake.
As a freelance copywriter, I only wish I’d realized all this sooner. I might have chosen an alternative career path, perhaps more in the direction of Best World Leader Ever.
Get the rest of the easy details here and plug this approach into every goal in your life…
How to Write a Script for a 30-Second Radio Spot
30-second radio ad scripts tell a story—will your script make it one worth remembering?Hey you! Wanna discover the incredibly simple secret to writing a script for a 30-second radio spot? What?! You’re asking me, “Why should I want to write effective scripts for 30-second radio spots?” Many consider 30-second radio spots the bread and butter of radio advertising. Most radio ad scripts play for 30 seconds. Longer ads lose the listener’s attention (or cause her to change the dial). Shorter ads don’t have the time to accomplish anything other than brand-name recognition. If you can write an effective script for a 30-second radio spot, advertisers, producers and businesses will come knocking at your creative door.
Read this article and you will uncover the deceptively easy and popular method to writing successful 30-second radio ad scripts. What is it? Simple, you just tell a story in 23 seconds. Here’s how…
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About Freelance Copywriter Dan Goldstein
I write copy to get results.
But flat-footedly asking for those results doesn't always work. You have to get your customers' attention, convince them you understand their problems, needs and desires, and then present a compelling solution in a memorable way. I offer copywriting services in all media, including the Web, that jump through all these hoops with enough style to enhance your image while scoring sales.
I spent the first part of my career as a copywriter at major advertising agencies.
I worked for a wide range of clients on everything from food and beverage accounts to financial services to travel, real estate, restaurants, and much else. Along the way, I picked up numerous awards, including a Clio.
I now offer my copywriting services directly to businesses as well as advertising agencies and design firms.
You can contact me with questions about copywriting or to get to work on your next piece of powerful communication.
You can also subscribe to my blog for hopefully pithy and entertaining insights on advertising copywriting and the creative process.
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