Part 1: My “Productivity at Work” ad campaign for Southwestern Bell business phones, 1985

I came up with the “Productivity at Work” tagline and “productivity enhancers” as a positioning strategy for the company. I then supervised the work of an outside agency, DMB&B, for the creation of the final ads. Here are two in the series.

“Tales of the Unproductive Office #23: Voices from the Unknown.” Lou Brooks, artist. One of a series of double-page spread magazine ads that ran in five states through Southwestern Bell’s territory in the 1980s. The pulpy comic book-style approach dramatized real-world problems with business phone service and often SWB as the solution.

“Tales of the Unproductive Office #19: Brave New Whirl.” Lou Brooks, artist. This one addressed the confusion of trying to integrate business phone systems, and offered Southwestern Bell Telecom as a “one-stop shop.”

The campaign exploded, sales spiked, and even magazines ABOUT advertising leaned in to recognize the “Productivity at Work” campaign. Here are two pages from an article celebrating the campaign by author Bernard Sloan, as published in IN PRINT Magazine from 1986. It’s headlined, “The baby Bells are ringing.”

Says author Sloan in this IN PRINT article about our Southwestern Bell “Productivity at Work” ad campaign: “Daring, rule-breaking and imaginative ads that make the advertising of some of our most established corporations look archaic.”

Well, thank you!

Part 2: My “Let Freedom Ring” ad campaign for Southwestern Bell cordless Freedom Phones, 1987

When the new line of cordless phones was branded “Freedom Phones,” I was tasked with conceiving and crafting the advertising and marketing for its national rollout. Here is a trifold brochure I created to offer the phones at a discount to thousands of Southwestern Bell employees. My tagline: “Let Freedom Ring.”

The brochure opened to reveal some of the products offered, and extended the freedom metaphor with the headline, “Freedom of Speech.”

“Get set to get set free,” read the opening line of my copy. “With sophisticated cordless phones that free you to move.” The body copy concluded: “Increase your freedom. And save money. Put a Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone in your home. And let freedom ring.”

The gatefold opened again to show the full array of products, with the headline, “Freedom of Choice.”

The bold, red, hand-illustrated font of the headline contrasted the stark, black-and-white photography. Tony Patti is the graphic designer here.

To convince electronics retailers to carry the Freedom Phone line, I created from scratch the business-to-business magazine CONNECTION, which offered articles and photos promoting the benefits of selling Southwestern Bell products. I wrote and edited the magazine, down to the tiniest caption. It was distributed to electronic retailers nationally. Here’s the cover to the first issue in 1985.

CONNECTIONS #2 Magazine cover, 1985.

This cover was the result of a photo shoot with a “Santa” reading magazines that were carrying our national advertising for the brand, to prove to retailers we were supporting them with marketing. My headline: “Christmas Presence: the national presence of Freedom Phone in holiday issues of consumer magazines will make Santa’s job a little easier.”

Here are the interior spreads to CONNECTION promoting Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone cordless phones in 1985.

CONNECTIONS interior spread. Headline: “Christmas Presence.”

CONNECTIONS interior spread. Headline: “One Store’s Story.”

CONNECTIONS interior spread. Headline: “Telecommitment.”

Part 3: My “True Fax” direct mail campaign for fax machines, 1994

This 4-page direct mail piece was sent in phone bills to hundreds of thousands of Southwestern Bell customers to promote the then-newfangled line of fax machines. Tony Patti was the designer and illustrator. I was the writer and creative director. Cover copy reads: “Fact: with a fax machine from Southwestern Bell Telecom, you can send copies of a document in 12 seconds.– with a single touch!”

Part 4: My radio campaign for Southwestern Bell cell service, 1995

Later, in the 1990s, as the writer for Paul & Walt Worldwide, I got to co-create national radio commercials for Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems’ launch of what was then called “cellular service.” For this campaign, I created “The Cellular Guy,” a dryly funny spokesperson tossing one-liners about his ability to “get around.” The song “I Get Around” punctuated his points.

Here’s the script.

SCRIPT • Cellular Guy Spot #1 • “Crystal Clear” • :60 Radio

MUSIC: A modern version of “I Get Around,” a song originally recorded by The Beach Boys.

CELLULAR GUY (extremely deadpan throughout:) I get around. When I talk on a Southwestern Bell Cellular Phone, my voice is crystal clear. That’s amazing, considering it’s not really that clear in person.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

CELLULAR GUY: I put a Southwestern Bell phone antenna on my head and walked into a crowded restaurant. Forty-two attorneys tried to “dial out” on me.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

CELLULAR GUY: Southwestern Bell cell service is so clear, when I’m talking to my girlfriend, it’s as if she’s right next to me. I can actually hear her withdrawing.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

CELLULAR GUY: Southwestern Bell has cell service that’s trouble-free. But then, trouble is always free.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

ANNOUNCER: No wonder more people go more places… with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems.

CELLULAR GUY: Someday, Southwestern Bell will be able to break us down molecularly and send our bodies through cellular phones. This might be a long way off, but just in case, I’m getting a haircut.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Spot and script © Paul & Walt Worldwide

More Southwestern Bell ads and goodies coming soon!

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Walt Jaschek is a writer and creative director of many interesting things.

Paul Fey and Walt Jaschek of Paul & Walt Worldwide, pitching “Must-See TV” to CBS Television in 1992

What promo writers first came up with the network promo tagline, “Must-See TV?” The answer might surprise you. (Hint: it was us.)

In the 1990s, our creative agency with offices in Hollywood (Paul) and St. Louis (Walt) was producing promos for CBS-TV on a daily basis: show promos, line-up promos, radio campaigns, on-air campaigns, you name. It was constant stream of network approval of exciting, funny and big ideas and creative executions that made the network one of our favorite clients ever.

Here, example, is Paul & Walt’s 1992 on-air holiday promo for the network, starring dozens of CBS stars of the day.

Read the script to this spot.

As part of that great relationship with the equally great CBS promo department, we also pitched concepts for entire Fall Launch campaigns. On March 2, 1992, we faxed a stack of ideas, including one we were calling “MUST-SEE TV.”

Here’s how that one-page proposal looked as sent.

And here’s a transcription of that proposal:

CONCEPTS

Client: CBS Television
Project: Fall Kick-Off Campaigns
Media: Radio and more
Date: 3.31.92

NAME OF CAMPAIGN: “MUST-SEE TV”

CONCEPT: A YELLOW HIGHLIGHTER streaking across a TV Guide program grid — picking ONLY the new CBS shows and bathing them in bright yellow. A visual metaphor for “Appointment TV.”

AUDIENCE APPEAL: It provides a fun CALL TO ACTION. (Some people actually already use a highlighter to schedule their TV viewing. Now millions will.)

PROMOTION TIE-IN: WE PRODUCE AN ACTUAL YELLOW HIGHLIGHTER emblazoned with the CBS logo and the phrase, “Use this to highlight your favourite, must-see TV on CBS.” We SHRINK-WRAP this highlighter to the OUTSIDE of the FALL PREVIEW ISSUE of TV GUIDE in the top ten TV markets. (And St. Louis so Walt gets one.) You buy the issue, you get the highlighter to keep; you use it to mark CBS shows; you tune in; we love you.

ALTERNATE DISTRIBUTION FOR HIGHLIGHTERS: K-Mart or 7-11 point of sale.

RADIO CREATIVE: A funny guy take you through a copy of TV Guide, telling you exactly what to highlight. “Now, Monday night. Page 23. Got it? Okay, you’ll want to highlight CBS at 10… the season premier of Northern Exposure. That’s must-see TV. Let’s mark that right now! FX: The “squeesh” of a highlighter on the page.

RADIO MEDIA: Two phases. A “Must-See TV” campaign PREVIEWING the fact that you can get the highlighter — then the second phase, as described about, telling you how to use the highlighter.

ON-AIR TIE-IN: A series of promos with the yellow highlighter streaking its way across the screen. In fact, this and “Must-See TV” could be the “signature graphic” in all of the CBS Fall one-air promotions.

PRINT TIE-IN: Two-color “Must-See” TV Guide ads! Black type — close-ups of program grids — with yellow highlighter streaks across them.

P.R. TOP SPIN: Off-charts high.

That was the proposal. But CBS didn’t buy the “Must-See TV” ideas. Instead, they green-lit one of our other Fall Launch campaign ideas: “The CBS Get-Ready Weekend.” We spent months writing and producing dozens of radio and TV incarnations of that idea, utilizing stars from CBS shows, and spokespersons Jack Buck and Tim McCarver.

In the Fall of 1991, CALL LETTERS magazine reported on the resulting ad campaign:

Paul & Walt Worldwide created a “huge radio extravaganza” recently, including appearances by the Temptations, Candice Bergen, Connie Chung and the stars of Designing Women to help client CBS-TV score a major upset, winning its first Fall Sweeps ratings victory in Southern California in six years.

The radio “theatre of the mind” – which recently won a SUNNY for best television promotion – featured a cast of thousands and two CBS-TV sportscasters describing the action with Connie Chung playing the saxophone and the Temptations executing simultaneous backflips. The spots also featured the stars of Designing Women in a dazzling exhibition of synchronized swimming.

To tie in with the television campaign, CBS-TV saturated Southern California radio over Labor Day weekend. Paul & Walt produced eight related radio spots built around a fictional event: the “CBS Get Ready Weekend.” Read the rest of the article.

So after CBS passed on the “Must-See TV” fall launch campaign idea, what became of it?

Wikepedia reports a promo writer at NBC came up with same idea in a group brainstorm in June, 1993 — a full 15 months after our proposal, above — and on-air commercials with the “Must-See” theme began air on NBC in August, 1993.

How to explain? The most likely scenario, Paul & Walt kindly suggest, is, in a word, “coincidence.” Or perhaps, “Great minds think alike.” It’s probable that two different, creative promo writers in two different places pulled the phrase “Must-See TV” out of ether and pitched it to a network; but only one went ahead with it.

It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility, though, that staffers at the CBS promo department in 1991, or the agencies in orbit around the promo department, absorbed the line, tucked it into the subconscious, changed jobs to one in the orbit of the NBC promo department, and innocently recalled it months later. Not saying that did happen. But, you know, it could have.

Alas, the CBS “Must-See TV” campaign never happened.

Mock-up of what the CBS logo would look like with “Must-See TV” added. Proposed but never green-lit or used.

But for NBC, “Must-See TV” did happen. And the network created fantastic promo campaigns using the line for years. TV promo history was made.

But every history has an alternate timeline, a “What If?” This time, it was ours.

And every team of writers has seen an idea that got rejected pop up later, coincidentally, by a competitor. This time, us.

See more about Paul & Walt Worldwide here. And take a look at Paul & Walt Worldwide Greatest Hits CD on eBay.

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This 2010 print piece was distributed by Enterprise Bank & Trust in Clayton, Missouri, to its customers and prospects as a self-mailer. Measuring 14” x 7.5”, the colorful brochure’s oversized shape and arresting cover image/concept made it a striking departure from typical bank collateral. Here’s my interior copy, expanding on the “Don’t settle for half” idea:

Your business banker only touches half your life.

You can do better.

If you’re like most business owners and professionals, you focus far more on your business finances than personal ones. And so does your banker.But when you shift your thinking and sync your business goals with your life goals, you reach them faster. And wealthier.

You deserve more.

Your bank should be giving you guidance that results in a lifetime of financial success. That takes a team skilled in every aspect of business building and wealth building — business financing, succession planning, estate planning, maximizing business value, cash management, tax planning and more. If you’re not getting help in every stage of your business and personal life, and if that help isn’t fully integrated, then you’re being shortchanged.

Reach your goals faster. And get there wealthier.

You’ve worked hard and it has paid off for you. You probably have many financial “pockets” now —business holdings, market investments, real estate investments, IRAs, 401(k)s, etc. When you get them to work together, using the right products and strategies to maximize their value, you can create an integrated program that carries you to success and wealth.

Go one road. You’ll get there faster. And wealthier. With Enterprise Bank & Trust.

Credits:
Idea and copy: Walt Jaschek. Designer/creative director: Paul Maring. Agency: Maring Weismann, St. Louis, Missouri. Client: Enterprise Bank & Trust, Clayton, Missouri.

This is The Waltfolio, an archive of ideas and copy by St. Louis writer Walt Jaschek, intended to inform, illuminate and inspire. The completed work throughout the site is of course the property of the original clients and is used here purely to preserve Walt’s concepts and words in digital portfolio format. Hope you dig it.

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1. Study creative brief.

2. Ask for clarifications.

3. Research

4. Feel sorry for myself and vow to quit copywriting forever.

5. Sit butt in chair and finally write for 3-4 hours.

6. Rinse and repeat until the copy is fantastic.

7. Get genuinely excited about presenting and producing.

8. Do so.

My point of this almost-funny admission is this: procrastination (and even feeling sorry for yourself) can actually be part of the copywriting process. Because you are working during that time in the "red." The subconscious is working. Always. So that when you return to the page, you've made more progress than you think. This tip can be boiled down to one thing:

Trust your process.

Walt Jaschek promises more process charts soon. Let's hope his short-term memory holds out.

More!

The group laughed...

But didn't buy it.

Oh, well. Truth is, when I rediscovered this pencil layout and the Anheuser-Busch name badge still stuck to it, I remembered: Even when not every idea we pitched was bought... we were having too much fun.

As for The Cooler Heads, they deserve to appear somewhere. Beer clients? Water clients? Cooler clients? Gimme a shout. This idea has legs!

Latest from the Blog

This is Care. Tagline for Central Baptist Hospital of Lexington, Kentucky. Agency: Maring Weissman. More.

“Have a Grain Day!” Tagline for Hodgson Mill, makers of whole grain pastas and cereals, available in grocery stores nationally. It's the theme of the website I wrote, and included on almost all marketing materials. More.

Care. Right. Now.™ Tagline for Nurse Response, now NurseWise, the 24/7 health hotline service, a division of Centene Corporation. I also wrote the website content.

Support Smart. Tagline for a fundraising campaign for St. Louis College Prep Charter School in St. Louis.

Worry Less. Tagline for St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors, University City, Missouri. Agency: Chuck Hart Design.

Take the Parkside Path.™ Tagline for Parkside Financial Bank and Trust of Clayton, Missouri. I also wrote the sliders on website home page, expounding upon the “path” metaphor. Agencies: Studio X, Behr Consulting. More.

Not a Bank. Better.® Tagline for CEFCU Credit Union in Peoria, Illinois. It’s anchored every piece of marketing communications since 2011. Agency: Maring Weissman.

My point again: taglines are engines. They drive. And can pull so, so much.

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Teamed with designer Chuck Hart and photographer David Stradal, Walt and his collaborators rebranded the network of independent living communities, assisting living centers, and memory care centers, simplifying the benefits of all of them into the phrase "Worry Less." That core benefit organized messaging for websites, advertising, signage – even employee name tags.

Here's a representative trifold brochure by Walt, Chuck and David. It's used and displayed at more than a dozen St. Andrew's locations in St. Louis. It also shows how a powerful brand promise, embraced and well expressed, can ignite creative marketing for senior living.

Cover headline: "I'm so worried about Grandma. She doesn't get around as well as she used to." | Tagline: Worry Less™

Inside page headline: "I'm so worried about my husband. He's not interested in anything anymore." | Tagline: Worry Less™

Inside spread copy:

There's enough worry in the world. You need less of it.

Since 1961, St. Andrew's Resources for Seniors has reduced many of the anxieties that swirl around care for elders. How? Through highly desirable senior living communities where older adults can live healthily, live well – and live it up.

Through the dedication of expert staffers who empower elders and empower their caregivers. With options that foster vitality.

And through a family of exceptional services that take burdens from your shoulders and frown lines from your face.

As a faith-based non-profit, our vision is a world where all elders are respected, productive, secure and fulfilled.

Our mission is making that vision real. Every day.

Worry less about where to live.

The joys of life are many. Start embracing them. You deserve it.

At the senior living communities of St. Andrew's, worry is checked at the door.

Whatever you need, we have amazing amenities. Live independently. Enjoy assisted living. Or benefit from skilled nursing.

Our uniquely caring staff is trained to pamper body, mind and spirit. We're here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Leave the work to us, while you enjoy life's timeless pleasures. Fun events. Interesting activities. And what's that feeling?

Oh, yes: relaxation.

Concept and copy: Walt Jaschek

Graphic design and art direction: Chuck Hart

Photography: David Stradal

The Parkside Path... is the most direct route between where you are and where you are headed.

The Parkside Path... is like a fingerprint. Never the same for any two individuals.

The Parkside Path... is, no matter the destination, always best traveled with a knowledgeable guide.

The Parkside Path... is not about paperless statements, countless ATMs or online bill paying. It is about meeting you halfway, being your partner and seeing you through.

The Parkside Path… is the most direct route between where you are and where you are headed.

"Take the Parkside Path."
Client: Parkside Financial Bank & Trust, Clayton, Missouri
Creative collaborators: Michael Kilfoy, Mike Behr, John Edwards
Writer: Walt Jaschek

Contegix: Posters, Ads, Merchandise | Designer: Drew Margolis | Agency: Spoke Marketeing

Arco Construction, St. Louis: Print and Banner Ad Campaign. Agency: Maring Wiessman

St. Louis Health Institute: Flu Shot Campaign. Agency: GoBrandGo

SSM Joint Replacement Center: Outdoor Campaign. Agency: Maring Weissman. Designer: Paul Maring.

Omni Health Club: Print Ad and Poster Campaign. Agency: Spoke Marketing. Designer: Chuck Hart. Photography: David Stradal.

St. Andrew's Resources for Seniors: Print Ads and Posters, "Worry Less Campaign" Designer: Chuck Hart. Photographer: David Stradel

Cynthia Behr Real Estate: Print Ad and Collateral. Designer: Chuck Hart. Photos: David Preston

St. Louis College Prep High School: Brochures, Direct Mail. Agency: EyezOnline Marketing

The Crescent in Clayton: Brochures, Direct Mail, Print Ads. Agency: Moosylvania

Center for Emerging Technologies | Brochures, Ads, Direct Mail | Agency: Maring Weissman

Walt Jaschek provides many services and invites contact.