CHAPTER 2
Three key
thoughts
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S
o far I’ve described the role of writer and sketched out
what the job of copywriting entails on a day-to-day basis.
Now let’s go deeper with three key thoughts that crop up
again and again throughout this book.
Thought No. 1 – Don’t be dull
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from Brilliant
Copywriting it’s this: don’t be dull. If you forget everything else
here (and I sincerely hope you don’t) then let this one thought
remain lodged in your brain.
Boring is bad because boring doesn’t work. According to Howard
Gossage, an iconoclastic copywriter and adman from the 1950s,
‘No one reads ads.They read what interests them.’ I’m sure that
with enough repetition (which usually means money) even the
most moribund message will ultimately produce a modest
upturn in sales or awareness or whatever. But believe me, most
clients would rather outthink their competitors than outspend
them, and most copywriters would like to help them do it. And
that’s where making stuff interesting comes in.
Here’s what Bill Bernbach, one of US advertising’s most
celebrated and influential figures, had to say on the subject:
The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t
believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t
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20 brilliant copywriting
know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t
listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting
unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.
That’s pretty much this whole book
in a paragraph. Interest is an essen-
tial prerequisite for understanding
and action. Only when an idea is
presented as relevant and engaging
will a reader really connect with it.
Another Bernbach aphorism was, ‘No one is waiting to hear
from us.’ On the contrary, most people view most marketing
messages as unwarranted intrusions into their day and automat-
ically screen them out. Actually, that’s putting it politely – many
people reserve a particularly potent kind of loathing for the ava-
lanche of ads with which they’re assailed on an hourly basis. To
get around this, our copy needs to justify its existence pretty
damn quick. It can work: genuinely effective, interesting, enter-
taining, dramatic copywriting not only gets people’s attention, it
can also earn their affection. But only if it’s interesting.
interest is an essential
prerequisite for
understanding and
action
brilliant
tips
Three quick anti-boring techniques
One: The truth sets you free
How do you banish boredom and overcome objections? One way is
to be disarmingly honest. Quentin Crisp remarked that, ‘Everyone
who tells the truth is interesting’, presumably because we’re so used
to being surrounded by routine duplicity and double-talk. Crisp’s
sentiment is echoed in yet another quote from Bernbach (sorry, he’s
just so quotable), ‘I’ve got a great gimmick – why don’t we tell the
truth?’ Obviously this advice doesn’t cover how to actually express
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Three key thoughts 21
the truth in a way that will attract the right response (that’s
something we’ll look at later), but as a starting point it’s hard to
beat.
Two: Believe in your subject
It’s sometimes said that there are no dull products, only dull
copywriters. I’m not sure it’s quite that simple, but this does touch
on an important anti-dullness technique: if possible, avoid writing
about products and services you’re not personally interested in. OK,
that won’t be easy a lot of the time, but some subjects – like sport
and music – demand real passion in their writers, and it’s very hard
to fake that kind of fervour. One agency I worked for had the FA
account. I knew nothing about football and cared even less, so I
lived in fear of being asked to write about the new England away
strip or whatever. Get this stuff wrong and it’s easy to sound like
someone’s dad trying to be down with the kids. So if you’ve any
choice at all, only write about high passion subjects you’ve some
acquaintance with (or at least don’t actively dislike).
Three: Life is short, copy is long
As you write I recommend you regularly apply what a friend of
mine calls ‘the nursing home test’. Here’s how it works. Imagine
yourself old and frail, spinning out your days in a comfy, overheated
nursing home, pleasingly befuddled on prescription drugs and
disturbed only by visits from doting grandchildren. As you reflect
upon your career as a copywriter, can you honestly say that you’re
proud of what you’ve done? I don’t mean, ‘Did I create great art?’
What I’m talking about is making sure each piece of work was as
good as it could be under the circumstances of its creation, and
that it had a kind of internal honesty that gave it integrity. Try
applying the nursing home test to everything you write – it won’t
all pass, but the more that does, the more you’ll create copy that
deserves to be called brilliant.
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