Copywriting #1: The Bengal Tiger of Advertising

Great copy is one the most valuable and effective tools in advertising.
But as a craft it's under threat.
There are a number of different reasons for this.
Here's a few of them...

The incorrect assumption that because people lead fast-paced lives these days, flicking channels and pages faster than a speedy thing, quick, visual-led ideas are always better.

The incorrect assumption that no one can ever be arsed to read copy.

Creatives entering the business are increasingly coming from advertising courses, where they are encouraged to be ideas people but not pushed to become excellent at specific craft skills.

A lot of creatives aren't that interested in copy. I've heard of examples where some creatives let the account manager write the copy. Mental.

Everyone fucks with the copy. So good writers are discouraged from spending the time to do copy-led ideas.

Creative directors are obsessed with visual-led ideas, partly because of the first point, and partly because generally that's what wins creative awards these days.

The perpetual cycle of all of the above points over the last 10-15 years.

As we continually crap on about, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to all advertising problems. We are huge fans of using great copywriting and great copy-led ideas here, when we think it's the best thing to do. So we're going to cover this crisis in copywriting more in the next couple of weeks.

But for the time being here is a great post on writing by Suzanne Pope, Group Creative Director of Toronto-based ad agency john st. to get you started.