ORIGINS / COPYWRITING
The Ad That Started It All
I will forever love this ad. It was my first copywriting assignment, and it takes me back to a time when I knew I loved to write but had no idea where that could take me.
I was out of college, trying to figure out what to do with my life, when someone said, “You’re a good writer. Why don’t you become a copywriter?”
“Oh,” I said. “That sounds great.”
He knew a business that could use some advertising: The London Cleaners, a Milwaukee institution approaching its hundredth year in business.
So I went in and started asking questions. I wanted to find an angle that captured the character of this place. Something interesting. Something people might not know.
Then the owner mentioned shoe repair.
Wait. I could bring in my dry cleaning and get my shoes repaired? I’d had no idea. That little discovery became the idea:
“We Can Save Your Sole.”
My friend James Kloiber, who helped create Milwaukee nightlife magazine Info, photographed the model. Together, the image and headline gave this historic business a little unexpected attitude.
Looking at it now, I remember the feeling of finding that idea—and then seeing it become something real. Something that had started with a conversation and a question.
I’ve done a lot of work since. This one will always have a special place in my heart.
