PERSPECTIVE: The power of words could help to revive the copywriter's art.

Sitting in the boardroom at the Volkswagen US headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, senior executives were under pressure. It was the late 50s and they were about to launch the Beetle into the most competitive marketplace in the world. No doubt about it, this motor was small, it was ugly, and - with the Second World War still fresh in the mind - it was German. In a country where big and beautiful are stamped in the DNA right alongside patriotism, there was a problem here.

The advertising brief for the Beetle that soon after hit the desks at Doyle Dane Bernbach on Madison Avenue demanded alchemy. Instead, Bill Bernbach chose honesty. The result was a seminal print campaign that changed the course of advertising - and advertising courses. And the Beetle became the first successful car import in America.

But long-copy writers in the Bernbach mould are a dying breed, Robin Wight says (see page 22). Look at the winners of last year's Campaign Press Awards ... there was hardly a copy line between them. The same will probably be true for this year's winners (unveiled on 26 March, book your seat at the Grosvenor now). The question Wight asks is: 'Should we care?'.

He believes we should.

But back in Bernbach's day (and David Abbott's, come to that) commercial life was simpler. Now we're head-butting well over a thousand commercial messages a day and we're better than ever at filtering them out. So ...