Reverse engineering is a wonderfully effective training device to get brief writers into the right mind-set for writing a real brief. It's a thought exercise you can do everyday, probably in less than a minute. Today, Henry Gomez and I watch a :60 spot for Amazon Prime and then "reverse engineer" the spot and figure out the brief. We don't know everything the agency (Weiden + Kennedy) knows, nor what Amazon told them. But as ad pros, we know a thing or two and can make more than a few educated guesses. The bigger point it that, as an exercise, this is a great test of your critical thinking skills and hones your brief writing skills. Make this a regular part of your daily professional life, whether you write briefs, review them or work from them.