萨尔曼-拉什迪讲述自己的广告生涯

冯兵

2009-08-05
Award-winning novelist to tell tales about days as advertising copywriter
2008年10月萨尔曼-拉什迪在爱尔兰广告实习生培训班的演讲（部分）。原载爱尔兰时报。
Rushdie's advertising career included time in the London office of Ogilvy & Mather, where founder David Ogilvy famously instructed Rushdie and other employees that "the consumer is not a moron, she is your wife".
拉什迪曾在伦敦奥美工作，大卫奥格威在那对他和同事们说：消费者可不是傻逼，那是你老婆！
In between dreaming up possible titles for his novel, Rushdie was also coming up with campaigns for fresh creamcakes ("Naughty but Nice"), Aero chocolate bars ("Irresistibubble") and the Daily Mirror ("Look into the Mirror tomorrow - you'll like what you see").
当年，拉什迪一边想小说名字，一边为奶油蛋糕、雀巢巧克力糖和每日镜报写广告语。
For "Naughty but Nice", Rushdie says he got his inspiration from watching too much Dick Emery. But the client rejected it because he thought the slogan suggested people would get fat from eating the cakes.
拉什迪说“奶油蛋糕”那个是看了太多Dick Emery得来的灵感。但是被客户枪毙了，理由是这句话暗示用户吃这种蛋糕会发胖。
A year after Rushdie left Ogilvy, the idea was dusted down and the client had a change of heart.
拉什迪离开奥美一年后，客户又改变主意，用了他的那个想法。
"They obviously did a better job at selling my own work to the client than I could do myself," says Rushdie. "There are two skills to being a copywriter - creating the advertisement, and selling it to the client. I was always quite proud of my ability to present my work to the client, but in that case I failed lamentably."
“他们显然比我更会把我的稿子卖给客户”，拉什迪说。“文案有两种能力，做广告和卖给客户，我还一直以卖稿能力为荣，不过那次输得很惨。”
The novelist credits his advertising agency experience for teaching him that writing is not just a craft, it's also a job. "When you are working in an agency and you know the client is coming in, the work has to be ready and it has to be good. It's a very useful frame of mind to get into and it's a discipline that I use when writing my books. I sit down for the day and approach it like an office job, and don't give myself permission to not have a good day."
广告公司的经历教会了小说家，写作可不只是一门手艺，也是一种工作。“在广告公司工作时，如果你知道客户马上要来了，就会赶紧把稿子做好，我也把这种心态和纪律用在了写书上。不管今天过得好坏，我都会假设自己坐在办公室里写东西。”
In Rushdie's view, advertising has changed a lot from when he was a copywriter. "It used to be the case that some products were significantly different to their rivals. But brands can't claim a USP [unique selling point] these days because essentially everyone makes things equally well.
在拉什迪看来，广告业跟他做文案的时候变了很多。“当年有些产品的确比竞争者要强，现在品牌说不出有什么独特卖点（USP），大家做得都一样好。”
"So advertising people have to add value in other ways, by making the image of the product that bit more attractive compared to its almost identical rival. But what has always worked, and still works, is to create a little hook that lodges in people's minds."
“因此广告人得为产品增加一些附加价值，让它具备竞争者所没有的吸引力。但在人们脑海中创造一点点诱惑，这点仍然有效，一直有效。”
At the end of his working week at Ogilvy, Rushdie always took a long hot bath. "The way in which you use your mind to write advertising is a different process to how you use your mind to write a novel. Having my bath helped me divide the two."
在离开奥美的那段时间，拉什迪总是长时间洗澡。“写广告的和写小说用的是大脑的不同部分，我得通过洗澡来切换。”

半天锈

广告专业的同学飘过~~~