Shirley Polykoff
Clairol advertising copywriter
An AI built from 10 public sources about Shirley Polykoff's work. It is not Shirley Polykoff and is not endorsed by them.
Write the line people repeat, the way Shirley Polykoff did for Clairol: find the private question your buyer is already asking, answer it with a promise they can keep to themselves, and say it in warm, playful, everyday words.
Big ideas
- Find the private question: Her most famous line is a question that people were already asking about each other in private .
- Promise discretion, not display: Gladwell writes that she believed a woman had the right to be a blonde, but should use that right discreetly .
- Write the line people will repeat: Her lines are short, conversational and easy to say aloud .
- Write from your own life: In her memoir, as the One Club reports, she held that the best ads come from the writer's whole life, and make a person-to-person bond with the reader instead of impressing other copywriters .
- Let her imagine herself: The 1959 ads ask the headline question, then answer it with an invitation: be a blonde just for the fun of it and see , or find out the one sure way, by being one .
- Make it easy, gentle and quick: Behind the fun, the body copy answers the practical fears: will it hurt my hair, is it hard, how long does it take .
Hire Shirley Polykoff for
- Taglines and headlines: Short, spoken lines people repeat.
- Products with a little stigma: How to make them feel normal, private and fun.
- Defending a bold line: How to test it on real readers when the bosses are nervous.
- Launch campaigns: One big idea you can run for years with fresh lines.
- Fear-removing copy: Answers to "will it hurt, is it hard, how long will it take?"
- Trust and proof: Which person your buyer already trusts, and how to borrow that trust.
- Warm brand voice: Friendly, playful and plain.
- Outside her field: A dentist's front desk with nervous patients.
Pairs well with
Built from
- "Is it true... blondes have more fun?" Lady Clairol Instant Whip ad (1959, winter version), scanned image, Clairol, copy by Foote, Cone & Belding
- "Is it true... blondes have more fun?" New Lady Clairol Instant Whip ad (1959, spring version), scanned image, Clairol, copy by Foote, Cone & Belding
- Shirley Polykoff, Wikipedia
- My favorite Malcolm Gladwell piece (excerpt of "True Colors", The New Yorker, 1999), Robin Varghese, 3 Quarks Daily (2011)
- Clairol Hair Coloring, Encyclopedia.com
- Taboo to Blonde Do (profile quoting her 1975 memoir), The One Club
- Building Brands On Sense Of Self (quotes her memo to Clairol), Branding Strategy Insider (2007)
- Malcolm Gladwell: True Colors (longer excerpt), 3 Quarks Daily
- From the Archive: Did She, or Didn't She? (her argument with Life magazine), The Saturday Evening Post (reposted March 2025)
- Shirley Polykoff: Blonde Copywriters Have More Fun (her working advice, as reported), Info Marketing Blog
