Did you know Fernando Pessoa was a copywriter?

“Primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se” (a phonetic game that only works in Portuguese but that would translate as “at first is weird, then bows in”). This is a sentence widely used in Portugal by Portuguese people. This was written by Fernando Pessoa as an ad for Coca-Cola.

To give a little bit of context, for many tourists Fernando Pessoa might be known as the iconic statue at Brasileira, a coffee shop at Chiado. For Portuguese people he is one of the greatest poets of Portugal. He is one of the most quoted authors on social media. What many don’t know is that, even though there is so much of his work published, only one of his books was published while he was alive. Therefore, he was holding many jobs, one of them as a copywriter, and he was a good one, too. He worked for two different agencies, writing advertising but also demonstrating the importance of advertising in the marketing context and suggesting rules to determine the conception of the ads and, therefore, developing new forms of advertising.

He is also well known for his heteronyms. Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis. He was many writers in one, each one with a different name, a different personality and even a different horoscope. Doesn’t this make more sense once you know he was copywriter? He definitely could adapt to his audience.

As a creative writer myself, Fernando Pessoa is one of the writers I look up to. One of my sources for inspiration is his book “The book of disquiet”. There are many theories about this book and Pessoa’s intention with it. For me, it looks like his note book, with notes and excerpts of texts, not really connecting with each other but where you can really feel his sadness, his happiness, his dreams. No one expresses feelings as Fernando Pessoa.

There are no doubts that Fernando Pessoa work can be very inspiring and creative. For those looking to boost their creativity, you can now find some of his work translated to many languages by lisbon poets & co. If you are willing to get to know more about Lisbon culture and other poets, I would highly recommend the book with the same name of the publisher, which includes poems by Fernando Pessoa, Florbela Espanca, Cesario Verde. English, French, Spanish, Japanese, you can find this book translated to many languages and enjoy the written part of Lisbon’s magic.