People with limited advertising experience are naturally eager to appear to be professional. Unfortunately, they base their image of professionalism on how well their ads conform to the sameness of all of the other ads.

Advertising professionals will tell you that the message comes first. The presentation always comes second. Its sole purpose should be to reinforce the message. The choice of medium should come later, too – perhaps even last.

Good ads resonate in the minds and hearts of the buyers. Bad ads puff up the ego of the sellers. You will recognize a bad ad by the unmistakable sucking sound as dollars are flushed over and over every day.

Here’s an interesting tool to guarantee bad advertising.

This is a parody of a useful tool. Use it. If you find ANY of these phrases in your advertising copy, fire your copywriter. If you’re the copywriter, hire someone who can say something your potential customers want to hear.

My only regret is that its focus is on-line copy. There’s a massive amount of bad off-line copy, too.