The unwritten rule.

Every ad person has 'that' ad.

The one that made them want to work in advertising, or stay in advertising. Or made them want to be better at it. I have about a hundred of them, and while I'm not going to list them all, I am going to talk about something that virtually all of them have in common.

They don't sound "written".

To me, they almost seem like the writer overheard someone say something really smart, and they had the good sense to write it down. It didn't happen that way of course, but it sounds and reads like it did. I love it when writers write like people talk. Their words just roll off the tongue and slide effortlessly into my brain.

Here's my "that" ad. When I first saw it, it killed me. And only partly because the shirt was telling me to go f*&# myself.

It was for Daffy's, a discount clothing store that at one point had stores up and down the East Coast of the US. The original store was in New York City and their work channeled a very unique and very, VERY New York vibe.

The writers of this campaign said "We'd like to thank New York City cab drivers for the inspiration behind this ad." And doesn't this line sound exactly like what a grizzled NYC cabbie would say to someone selling a shirt for what was then, a half-week's wages? Talk about giving a brand a voice.

The writers wrote like a New York City cab driver talked.

Here's another Daffy's one. (And Exhibit A to any young writer who thinks you can't do a good ad with a huge price in it. This one had two.)

Again, I can almost hear a cabbie muttering that to himself as he's throwing his cigarette butt into the street waiting for the light to change.

Which isn't to say writing like people talk is easy.

It just looks easy. Kind of like how Caitlin Clark makes nailing a three pointer from near the logo with her opponent's hand in her face and no time left on the clock look easy. She's so good, the sublime looks almost doable to you and me. (Until you try it of course, and you don't even hit the rim once after 50 tries.)

And speaking of Caitlin Clark, this social post from Nike commemorating her breaking the all-time NCAA scoring record (for men and women) blew up about a month ago. The headline is not flowery, deferential or even, congratulatory.

But it's perfect.

It sounds like what an athlete would say to another if they saw it happen. It's almost as if the writer overheard Michael Jordan sitting in his BarcaLounger watching her drain the three that broke the record, and shrugging to himself: "Yeah, well, you break it, you own it."

And as much as I like that line, I liked this next one even better.

WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu said it herself, live on TV after she and NBA shooting legend Steph Curry had their three point contest during the 2024 NBA all star game. (Curry edged her by two shots, but Ionescu shot her three's from the longer NBA line, so I'm calling this one a draw.)

"If you can shoot, you can shoot." If anyone has written a better line about women athletic's deserved and long overdue place in nationally televised sport, I haven't seen it.

And before you think I'm just a shill for Nike, here's a line that got a lot of ink last year, that didn't work for me. It was posted the day after 20 year old Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in a 5 set thriller at Wimbledon 2023 to win his first title there.

This one felt 'written' to me. It's just trying so hard to be important, that it misses the unique joy, athleticism and creativity that Alcaraz brings to the game and makes him so appealing as an athlete.

I can't imagine Alcaraz ever saying "Don't belong to an era, start your own." He's too humble for that kind of talk. And he's also keenly aware that while he now has 2 Major titles, the guy that he just beat has 24 of them, so it's a little early to be declaring that he's starting his own era.

So, does every good headline need to sound unwritten? No, of course not.

This spot that Under Armour did to commemorate Michael Phelps last Olympics is incredibly powerful and the line at the end that anchors it - "It's what you do in the dark, that puts you in the light" - is pure poetry. It captures the drudgery and commitment and utter loneliness of being an elite swimmer perfectly, making me admire greatly what Phelps has accomplished, but at the same time, wonder why anyone would subject themselves to that kind of torture.

Yet I would bet no swimmer has ever uttered those specific words. But you know what I bet they've said to themselves a hundred times before facing yet another 5am training session in the pool?

The ultimate unwritten line: Just do it.