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Moments That Make Us, trailblazing women in advertising & copy resource of the week

Author

Kimberly Houston
September 22, 2024

Hey, hi, howdy, and welcome to Issue #26 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

In today’s edition:

✨ This week in freelancing

✨ Moments That Make Us

✨ Trailblazing Women in Advertising: Phyllis K. Robinson

✨ Copy Resource of the Week: Newsletter Landing Page Library

✨ Just for Fun

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This week in freelancing …

Ah, that back-to-school, fall energy … can you feel it?

It has me fired up to get back to consistent marketing & outreach/client acquisition activities, after taking the last 2-3 weeks of summer to chill and simply enjoy doing the work that was already on my plate.

Which sort of felt like slacking off, but also, felt like exactly what I needed.

But now it’s time to sharpen the pencils and get back to work!

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Moments That Make Us

I recently learned about Melinda French Gates’ new YouTube series, and I am over-the-moon excited to watch it.

In it, she interviews iconic, accomplished women of all ages, including Billie Jean King, besties Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, Reese Witherspoon, Megan Rapinoe, Ava DuVernay, and Michelle Obama.

Here’s the description on YouTube:

To celebrate turning 60, Melinda French Gates sat down with iconic changemakers of all ages to talk about their biggest life transitions for a special series, “Moments That Make Us.”

Check it out here:

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Trailblazing Women in Advertising: Phyllis K. Robinson

Phyllis K. Robinson was an advertising copywriter and Copy Chief at Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). When DDB opened its doors in 1949, it was rare to find a woman in a senior management position at an advertising agency, as Robinson was – and she was only 28 at the time.

Robinson was considered a key player in launching what’s been called “the creative revolution” in advertising, i.e., advertising copy with a conversational, relatable voice. Which doesn’t seem all that revolutionary now, but back then, most advertising copy was, to quote Robinson, “artificial, sleepy and sometimes pretentious and schmaltzy.”

On the other hand, DDB ad copy, under Robinson’s purview, “had a clever tone, unlike the bombast, sentimentality and hyperbole prevalent on Madison Avenue at the time.”

Robinson wrote for iconic brands like Polaroid, Volkswagen, and Clairol, among many others. The DDB crew she managed and inspired “helped to chart a new pathway for ad makers. Thanks to their trailblazing contributions to the form, the best ads then and now are endowed with intelligence, and their makers take risks and have fun doing so.”

Another innovative approach DDB and Robinson pioneered was assigning copywriters and art directors to work together, instead of having them complete their tasks separately. (Having worked in two ad agencies, one as recently as 2018, I can tell you this does not always happen, even now. And yet it’s a brilliant way to create memorable ad campaigns. Go figure.)

You can check out some of Robinson’s legendary ad copy for Accutron watches, Ohrbach's Department Store, Polaroid cameras, and Clairol Nice’n Easy here, and Levy’s Jewish Rye and Chemstrand Hosiery (“A lady isn’t dressed unless her legs are too.”), here.

Robinson resigned her job as copy chief at DDB in 1962 when her daughter was born, but continued to work for the agency three days a week. She left the agency in 1982 to launch her own consulting company. In 1999, Advertising Age magazine named Robinson one of the 100 most influential figures in the history of advertising.

Robinson died in 2010 at the age of 89.

You can learn more about Phyllis K. Robinson at the inline links above, and / or check out:

About Phyllis (Source: Doyle Dane Bernbach)

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Copy Resource of the Week: Newsletter Landing Page Library

If you’re writing a newsletter, you likely already know that one way to increase your number of subscribers is through a compelling, conversion-focused landing page.

I’ve shared newsletter landing page copy resources with you previously, but here’s a new one I recently discovered that I think is pretty darn stellar.

What I love about this resource: you can see conversion rate data and even the main traffic source for each landing page. How great is that?

Get inspired by 300+ landing page examples from top newsletters. Including screenshots, easy filtering, and conversion rate data!

But don’t stop there!

There’s a treasure trove of other newsletter resources on this site as well, including monetization examples, a paid growth library, free growth methods, and more.

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Just for Fun

Here’s a fun test for ya – see if you can look at one piece of art for 10 minutes, uninterrupted. This exercise is meant to help you practice your focus muscles.

I managed to do it, but oh my goodness, was it ever challenging! I wanted to stop after the first 90 seconds, but ultimately spent 10 minutes and 7 seconds with this unicorn. 😊

Give it a shot at the gift link above and see how you do.

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That’s it for this week, my friend.

As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate you!

Be well. Stay curious. See you again in two weeks, on October 6.

Warmly,

Kimberly