This is the age of the slightly better TV ads
Now that September’s Business Matters has been polished off, zipped up and sent to the printers, I can pack in being a journalist-stroke-editor for a few days and do a bit of copywriting. There’s quite a bit to do, too, and not much time for blogging, but I thought I’d share this video with you.
It’s a British Rail TV ad from the mid-15th century. Not sure about the exact date, but definitely some time shortly before the fall of Constantinople. Check out Jimmy Savile, who was cracking on a bit even then:
I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about the ad. I just love the tagline: this is the age of the train. It’s perfect.
Why? Well, leaving aside any meaning it might carry, as a short piece of copy it’s technically brilliant. The balance is beautiful. Say it to yourself and listen to the weight of the words: this is the age of the train. It almost sounds like a Psalm verse from the King James Bible - simple, short, Anglo-Saxon words bound together in a rock-steady rhythm. That rhythm is doubly glued together by the assonance of age and train.
The copywriter (the late Rod Allen) could have opted for all sorts of variants that said the same thing in exactly the same number of words: the age of the train is now, the train’s time is now, this is the train age and so on. None of them would ever have been remotely as memorable.
Comment by sean — September 4, 2008 @ 11:20 am
Interesting Bill. I think you are right in that the rhythm is the key. The DUM da da DUM da da DUM (dactylic something or other I believe, its been a while!) onomatopoeic to the sound of the diesel train as Auden’s “Night Mail” was to the sound of the Steam locomotive (which I believe was written for a Post Office docuprop film)
Comment by Bill — September 4, 2008 @ 11:25 am
Cheers Sean. You’ve now given me an excellent excuse to wheel out the terminology I thought would be a bit over-the-top for the original post.
It’s trochee (DUM-de), iamb (de-DUM), anapaest (de-de-DUM).
What I’d completely missed is the onomatopoeia, but you’re right - it’s definitely there, and just like “this is the night train crossing the border…”
Clever chaps, these copywriters.