You might be surprised by who started out as a copywriter and where they ended up. Alec Guinness, you say? Have a look through our literary slideshare to find out who started out writing copy. Got any of your own to add?

1. 8world
famous
copywriters
Rule of Three • Sept 2015
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2. Alec Guinness.
Alec Guinness is one of the
most treasured performers
England has had.
SStarring on stage and in such films as
Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the
River Kwai and Star Wars among many
other classics. However, he began as an
advertising copywriter, before his acting
career took off.
The muThe much-loved actor certainly had an
eye for business. He only agreed to star
in a peculiar picture called Star Wars,
because he was given 2% of the gross
royalties paid to the director, George
Lucas.
Essentially, I'm a
small-part actor who's
been lucky enough to
play leading roles for
most of his life.
— Alec Guinness
“
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Great copywriting
requires real talent.
Where does
an idea come
from?

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Don DeLillo.
Donald Richard DeLillo has
made his career writing
challenging, innovative fiction
that fearlessly examines and
satirizes American culture.
HeHe worked at Ogilvy & Mather for five
years, before moving on to write works
such as White Noise, which gained him
success and respect in equal measure.
...

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Writing is a concentrated form of thinking... a
young writer sees that with words he can place
himself more clearly into the world. Words on a
page, that's all it takes to help him separate
himself from the forces around him, streets and
people and pressures and feelings. He learns to
think about these things, to ride his own
sensentences into new perceptions.
— Don De Lillo
“
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6. Joseph Heller.
CatCatch 22 is now a widely used phrase,
denoting a situation with no easy
solution, but it began as the name of a
widely acclaimed satirical novel about
war, a book memorable for far more
than just its title.
Its authoIts author, Joseph Heller, was working
at the Merrill Anderson Company in
New York, when he began writing
Catch 22, his groundbreaking work on
the madness of warfare.
HeHe went on to write several other
novels including Something Happened,
Good as Gold, and Closing Time.
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7. I happen to go for the simplest, most ordinary
things. The extraordinary doesn't interest me.
I’m not interested in psychotics. I’m interested
in the person you don’t expect to have a story.
— John Hughes
“
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John Hughes.
The maThe master of the 80s teen movie
began his career selling jokes to
performers such as Rodney
Dangerfield, and Joan Rivers. He used
his talent for comedy to land a job as
an advertising copywriter at Needham,
Harper & Steers.
HeHe went on to become a treasured
filmmaker in Hollywood, directing
seminal 80s hits Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,
The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.
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Where exactly is an
idea conceived?
We may not be able to answer these
questions, but we can be glad these
creative people never stopped
being creative.

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Terry Gilliam.
Terry Gilliam is a much loved American
born, British filmmaker, animator,
comedian and writer, who has been
telling weird and wonderful stories since
the seventies.
GilliamGilliam worked at an agency in America. When he
became disillusioned with American society and
police oppression, he decided to leave his job, only
to be fired before he could quit. He headed to
England and began an incredible career. He was an
integral part of Monty Python, and directed many
classic films including Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear
and Loathing in Lasand Loathing in Las Vegas.

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Hugh Hefner.
Hefner left his job as a promotional
copywriter at Esquire in 1952 when
they refused to offer him a raise of $5.
He then gatheHe then gathered $8,000 from 45
investors, which included his mother,
to launch a magazine you may have
heard of. Its name is Playboy.
Hefner is also a World War 2 veteran
and political activist and
philanthropist.
Creating my own world in
a comic or selling my first
penny newspaper aged nine
was a way of gaining
recognition and acceptance
by my peers.
— Hugh Hefner
“
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Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie worked as a copywriter at
Ogilvy and Mather, then at Ayer
Baker, creating the ‘irresistibubble’
tagline for Aero, and ‘That’ll do
nicely.’ for American Express.
He leHe left to become a full-time writer, and
essayist, his most famous novel being
Midnight’s Children. Rushdie was knighted
in 2007 for services to literature.

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F Scott
Fitzgerald.
When writing The GWhen writing The Great Gatsby,
Fitzgerald said he wanted to
create “something new –
something extraordinary and
beautiful and simply and
intricately patterned”. He was, of
course, successful in his
endeendeavor.
Born in 1896, during his
twenties Fitzgerald made use of
his writing talent at the Baron
Collier Ad Agency.
He lived in a single room on
Manhattan’s west side, frantically
working on short stories in his
spare time. When Zelda Sayre
broke off their engagement, he
moved back in with his parents
and completed This Side of
PaParadise, an instant success.
He ended up marrying Zelda after
all, and his writing has appealed to
many generations ever since it first
captured youth and American
culture.

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