“It is spring and I am blind”

• February 27, 2013
• 4 notes
• #storytelling
• #ogilvy
• #david ogilvy
• #copywriting

Ad man David Ogilvy came across a beggar holding a sign which read, “I am blind. Please help.”

The brilliant copywriter took hold of the sign, pulled out his sharpie, and wrote, “It is spring and I am blind.”

The cup was swiftly filled with change.

Ogilvy had transformed the information and action-oriented appeal to a powerful emotional story which worked.

That’s storytelling.

This is one of the keystone stories used to illustrate advertising as storytelling.

I am paraphrasing the story from Teressa Iezzi’s fantastic book, The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era