Poetry For Sale?

Available for over a year

Why are so many brands using poets and poems to sell their products now? Does it work? And is it new? Through poems, interviews and archive material, poet and copywriter Rishi Dastidar explores the long relationship between poetry and advertising. From the poets who have worked in advertising and those writing new poems for brands; to the companies which have used classic poems in their marketing; to the language itself and how poetic techniques work on us. Why might advertisers want to use them? Rishi finds recordings of Clive James, WH Auden, Allen Ginsberg, Fay Weldon and George Orwell in programmes from the BBC Archives. And to bring things up to date, he speaks to: • Portland-based Matthew Dickman, author of four poetry collections and copywriter for some of the biggest ads for brands like Nike and Chrysler. • Poet Jo Bell (Kith; How to be a Poet), who has written for Nationwide's advertising campaigns • Jim Thornton, Deputy Executive Creative Director of advertising agency VCCP, who commissions poets to write for Nationwide's ads. • Poets Will Harris (Rendang, Mixed-Race Superhero) and Clare Pollard (Incarnation; Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation) who talk about why some poets don't feel comfortable writing for ads. Producer: Mair Bosworth First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2020.