Hasta La Creative!

“Advertisers are the interpreters of our dreams — Joseph interpreting for Pharaoh. Like the movies, they infect the routine futility of our days with purposeful adventure. Their weapons are our weaknesses: fear, ambition, illness, pride, selfishness, desire, ignorance. And these weapons must be kept as bright as a sword.” -E.B. White, “Truth in Advertising,” The New Yorker

So begins The Happy Soul Industry, by Steffan Postaer. I’ll circle back around when I get time to read the advance copy. But what of E.B. White? The above sentiment takes no prisoners.

According to this biographical sketch, White graduated from Cornell University, after which he took several reporter’s jobs–for United Press, American Legion News Service, and the Seattle Times. In 1924, he returned to New York and went to work as a production assistant and advertising copywriter. Two years later, he discovered that the allure of the slick new New Yorker proved to be greater than the security of advertising, and White went to work there.

I find it interesting that so many real writers work their way through advertising.