Hey Whipple, Squeeze This

Welcome back to ~Dylan’s Book Club~ In this second edition of DBC, we will be covering the first half of “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” the 5th edition by Luke Sullivan and Edward Boches. I had planned on going over the whole book this time, but life happens, and I only got through chapter 6 of 21. (YIKES!) This might be a 3-part series, but hopefully only 2… we’ll see! Now this book is truly an amazing read so far. In the first 6 chapters, it has covered topics from the history of why everyone hates advertising all the way to the virtues of simplicity.

First, let’s start with the name of the book “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” probably makes no sense to you, just like it didn’t to me. However, that is the first thing Sullivan address in the book. Whipple used to be the main character of Charmin ads back in the day, he was a store owner who would yell “Don’t squeeze the Charmin!” Which apparently Sullivan hated the commercial so much (even though it worked wonders for Charmin) he named his book after it out of spite (I think.)

The book starts off with the chapter “A brief history of why everybody hates advertising.” Which is pretty much on the mark, if you think of it on a surface level. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard my Dad say “Goddamnit another Ad! I can’t believe you want to do that stuff, Dylan.” However, I’ve also heard him say “Oooh another thing to add to my Christmas list.” While watching TV, so really, people don’t hate advertising they just hate BAD advertising. Which is Sullivan’s main point in this chapter; everyone hates advertising until they either don’t realize it’s an ad or it fits consumer perfectly.

Chapters 2 and 3 of this book cover very different people who work in advertising. The creative and the strategist. Now even though creatives and strategists view life a little differently, most of the time, they do work together to reach the same goal. To sell whatever product your client is selling, whether that be kid toys, brand loyalty or in some cases a PR stunt after a terrible oil spill. In chapter two when Sullivan is describing the day in the life of a creative, he talks a lot about how most of your day will be spent staring at your partner's shoes. Or anything around the office while you aimlessly try and think of something fascinating. The 3rd chapter about the strategist is more about what a creative needs to do before they even start the creative process of staring at shoes. A strategist needs to do the background work of understanding the client’s business, while also somehow staying stupid. They need to listen to customer’s talk, think of the buying process, look at competitors' advertising (because you don’t want to copy something) and make sure what you have to say matters.

The 4th chapter the “The Sudden Cessation of Stupidity” is basically chapter 2 on steroids. It goes deeper into the creative process and into what makes a good ad great. A lot of the tips in this chapter are: be simple but not too simple and try anything and everything to come up with a great idea. The 5th chapter is titled “Write When You Get Work.” That’s what this entire chapter is about; write down everything, no matter how bad the idea is or when you have it, write it down. Keep writing stuff down and if you’re done writing go back over everything you have already written. Then write some more, write out 100 ideas. Pick the best one and then write 100 ideas better or close to that one and hopefully somewhere in there is a good idea or two you can use.

Finally, chapter 6 is titled “The Virtues of Simplicity.” Basically, just keep it simple. If you look at an ad and see words or pictures that don’t need to be there take it out. That’s it.

I really recommend reading this book if you want to learn more about advertising and how some of the best of the best go about their work. It is honestly an inspiring read that I’ve caught myself when I feel burnt out this semester with everything going on and no breaks. Next time there’s a ~Dylan’s Book Club~ we’ll be at least tackling chapters 7-13 of this book! And who knows maybe I’ll actually read the whole thing by then! If you have any questions about this book or anything really don’t hesitate to reach out to me at ddevries@huskers.unl.edu. Also, if you have any ideas about what the next book should be after this let me know! Thanks for reading. See you next time ;)