The essential guide for students and professionals in advertising, communication, marketing and allied fields – now in its third edition to reflect the growing digital landscape.

In creative advertising, no amount of glossy presentation will improve a bad idea. That’s why this book is dedicated to the first and most important lesson: concept.

Structured to provide both a complete course on advertising and a quick reference on particular topics, it covers every aspect of the business, from how to write copy and learn the creative process to how agencies work and the different strategies used for all types of media. This third edition features substantially revised and expanded chapters on interactive advertising and integrated advertising, and an entirely new chapter on branded social media.

Pete Barry outlines simple but fundamental rules about how to ‘push’ an ad to turn it into something exceptional, while exercises throughout will help readers assess their own work and that of others. Fifty years’ worth of international, award-winning ad campaigns – in the form of over 500 ‘roughs’ specially produced by the author, fifty of which are new to this edition – also reinforce the book’s core lesson: that a great idea will last forever.

Pete Barry began his career as an art director at Ogilvy, London. A former lecturer in Advertising Design at Syracuse University, he now works as a copywriter in New York City.