Dave Trott is a creative director,

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...

, and author. Trott studied at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in New York City, majoring in advertising before going on to found the advertising agencies Gold Greenlees Trott, Bainsfair Sharkey Trott and Walsh Trott Chick Smith. In 2004 he was given the

D&AD Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organisation that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London. ...

President's Award for lifetime achievement in advertising.

Career history

Dave Trott trained in New York at Carl Ally Inc. He then moved back to London in 1971 as a trainee copywriter at

Boase Massimi Pollitt Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) was a British advertising agency which operated between 1968 and 2004 before being renamed as DDB London. It was purchased in 1989 by the US marketing services conglomerate Omnicom. Its lineage can be directly traced ...

where his campaigns included

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

's "Lipsmackinthirstquenchin" and

Courage Courage (also called bravery, valour ( British and Commonwealth English), or valor (American English)) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in ...

's "Gercha" with John Webster. In 1980, Trott founded the advertising agency GGT with Mike Gold and Mike Greenlees. GGT was behind

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

's " Hello Tosh gotta Toshiba", Holsten Pils, Cadbury's Flake, Red Rock Cider, Cadbury's Creme Eggs, LWT posters, and Ariston's "Ariston-and-on-and-on". GGT was voted Agency of the Year by '' Campaign'' magazine, and Most Creative Agency in the World by ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...

'' magazine of New York. In 1990 Trott left GGT and set up Bainsfair Sharkey Trott, which he left in 1993, He then set up WTCS with Amanda Walsh, Murray Chick, and Gordon Smith. This morphed into CST and in 2011 merged with The Gate London, Trott was the Chairman of The Gate until August 2014 when he left the agency. In January 2017 he appeared on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

The Museum of Curiosity ''The Museum of Curiosity'' is a comedy talk show on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It is hosted by John Lloyd (producer), John Lloyd (Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham, and later at Solent Unive ...

''. His hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a ploughman's lunch which "traditional" dish, as he noted, was invented in the 1960s as a marketing campaign for British cheese.

Published works

In 2010 Trott wrote ''Creative Mischief'', a book which detailed the things he had learned in his 40-year career in advertising. This was followed in 2013 by the release of his book ''Predatory Thinking: A Masterclass in Out-Thinking the Competition''. In 2016, Trott's third book ''One + One = Three'' was released.

References

External links

Dave Trott's Twitter Account Dave Trott's Website Dave Trott's Blog at Campaign Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trott, Dave British copywriters Living people Date of birth missing (living people) 1947 births Businesspeople from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Trott, David Pratt Institute alumni British advertising directors Writers from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham