Once upon a time, I saw a Tex Avery cartoon titled “Symphony In Slang.”<\/p>\n
This short little cartoon was almost entirely in slang (thus the title). When I started studying copywriting and learned the value of using slang in my ads, I looked everywhere for it. I checked video stores, combed the Cartoon Network website and scoured the Internet.<\/p>\n
Nada.<\/p>\n
There were a few sites in the search engines that had it. But when I clicked on the links I’d find it was yanked offline for copyright violations or because the url had changed.<\/p>\n
Tonight I finally found it.<\/p>\n
And yep… it was sitting there on good ol’ Youtube.<\/p>\n
You can watch it (while it’s still up) on YouTube just by typing in the title name in their search engine.<\/p>\n
I suspect it won’t be up long, though.<\/p>\n
So in case you’re reading this and it’s gone… I went through it (for your benefit and mine) and extracted all the relevant slang terms. Depending on what you sell, some of this stuff may be kind of hard to work into your story copy.<\/p>\n
But much of it can still be adapted for a variety of products and services.<\/p>\n
For example, you could treat some of them like “formula headlines” — where you substitute one or more words with words that fit with the story you’re telling in your copy. At the very least they should spark some useful ideas you can use.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I was pretty excited when I found this cartoon.<\/p>\n
I hope you get as much value out of it as I have.<\/p>\n
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\nborn with a silver spoon in your mouth<\/strong><\/p>\n grew up overnight<\/p>\n up at the crack of dawn<\/strong><\/p>\n back to my hole in the wall<\/p>\n beside myself with anger<\/strong><\/p>\n make some dough<\/p>\n beautiful girl stepped into the picture<\/strong><\/p>\n I got goose pimples<\/p>\n clothes fit her like a glove<\/strong><\/p>\n paintin’ the town red<\/p>\n let her hair down<\/strong><\/p>\n she ate like a horse<\/p>\n my money was runnin’ out on me<\/strong><\/p>\n left me in a pickle<\/p>\n I gave him the slip<\/strong><\/p>\n he drew a gun on me<\/p>\n the law was on my heels<\/strong><\/p>\n the judge tried to pump me<\/p>\n put my foot in my mouth<\/strong><\/p>\n sent me up the river<\/p>\n felt myself going to pot<\/strong><\/p>\n raised a big stink<\/p>\n going though a lot of red tape<\/strong><\/p>\n threw myself at her feet<\/p>\n got on her high horse<\/strong><\/p>\n couldn’t touch her with a ten foot pole<\/p>\n guess the cat had her tongue<\/strong><\/p>\n after that I went to pieces<\/p>\n we chewed the rag a while<\/strong><\/p>\n I heard from the grapevine<\/p>\n that burned me up<\/strong><\/p>\n knew he was just feeding her a line<\/p>\n the guy spent his money like water<\/strong><\/p>\n outside it was raining cats and dogs<\/p>\n I was feeling mighty blue… and everything looked black<\/strong><\/p>\n a tear ran down my cheek<\/p>\n hot footed it over to Mary’s apartment<\/strong><\/p>\n I died laughin’<\/p>\n # # #<\/p>\n For a ton more swipe file lessons (including a huge swipe file I personally use to get ideas for my own ads and sales letters), hot foot it over to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n