Creative Differences Between Copywriters and Art Directors

ABSTRACT

This paper reports findings from a telephone study conducted among agency art directors and copywriters about their attitudes and beliefs about television commercials. The study finds significant differences between these two groups. Art directors appear to be more sensitive to the visual look and feel of TV commercials and attach more importance to the originality and attention-getting power of the execution. Writers, on the other hand, are more concerned about issues of relatability, believability, and persuasiveness of an advertisement. Importantly, a significant number of creatives believe that writers have more control than art directors do over the kinds of commercials that get produced. And, in particular, one-third of the art directors in our survey are concerned that recall and other traditional verbal research measures may be shortchanging visually creative advertising. This suggests the need for more balanced methods of advertising measurement which can give full weight to the visual power of television advertising.