Theodore Levitt: The Ultimate Writing Machine

Abstract

Professor Theodore Levitt is widely regarded as the Poet Laureate of the marketing academy. His seminal, occasionally controversial, articles owe as much to their racy writing style as their provocative content. Although the content of Levitt’s publications have been debated at length, his style has attracted much less academic attention. Academics, however, are writers. They publish or perish. Placing compelling words on a page is a core scholarly competence. This article examines the great guru’s published work from a literary perspective. It specifies his signature stylistic device, shows how it pervades his manifold publications and, in the belief that everyone can learn from Levitt, reveals the inner workings of the ultimate writing machine.