Reality in Advertising

Reeves decided to write a book, Reality in Advertising, in 1961 to explain his ideas of great advertising. Shortly following, David Ogilvy also wrote a book that sold millions of copies. Fairfax Cone another advertiser wrote a memo observing Reeves' book:

Perhaps it will be most interesting to any of us because, using the same basic principles, we make advertising that is usually as different from the Bates product as day is from night. Bates advertising is built upon what Mr. Reeves calls the Unique Selling Proposition, and he believes in delivering this without subtlety and without concern for anyone's gentler feelings. He also proves that such advertising works.
That it may annoy a great many people, he dismisses as being beside the point.

However, Cone goes on to say that the other advertising agencies made advertising that has held it's ground without annoying or upsetting the consumers. Few agreed with Reeves advertising techniques (O'Toole, 1980).

Reeves attacked several philosophies in his book. He ridiculed Vance Packard's book Hidden Persuaders that claimed that advertising played on the masses' unconscious motivations. He battles that people spend fortunes and years on analyst's couches to understand their own deeper motivations, so how could an advertising copywriter understand the subconscious motivations of millions of people. He also attacked John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith said that advertising's 'central function is to create desires-to bring into being wants that previously did not exist' (Twitchell, 1996). Reeves combated, "if the product does not meet some existing desire or need of the consumer, the advertising will ultimately fail" (Reeves, 1961). Reeves quoted Pat steel, 'People don't really need art, music, literature, newspapers, historians, wheels, calendars, philosophy…All that people really need is a cave, a piece of meat, and possibly, a fire' (Twitchell, 1996).

Along with the USP, Reeves mentioned several other theories of his including; video vampires, the pulled and unpulled, the law of calculated risk, and the two faces of advertising, among many others.

Although Reeves was inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame, his main focus throughout his book and his career was to stay away from fancy copy. He despised creative copy and he even half jokingly threatened the new copywriters hired into Bates and Company that if they won any creative awards he would fire them (Fox, 1984).

Reeves' philosophy toward creative copy writing was such:

Let's say you have $1,000,000 tied up in your little company and suddenly your advertising isn't working and sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family depends on it…Now, what do you want from me? Fine writing? Or do you want to see the goddamned sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?