Blame it on the way I was brought up in the competitive, back biting, do anything to win an award world of London ad agencies, a decade or two ago. Yes, it’s all different now – copywriters write online communications, because that’s where the (modest) money is. Back then, there were a lot of unwritten rules about what constituted good copy and what didn’t.
In truth, it was all a bit snobby and the emphasis was on being witty and clever. A double entendre was very acceptable, a thought provoking droll comment even more so. The aim was to be ”clever” and witty – ideally both. Lack of cleverness was frowned upon and saying the bleeding obvious would attract sneers from every “creative” agency.
As everyone knows, the original VW Beetle ads created by Doyle Dane Bernbach changed the way we wrote copy forever. Irony, wit and charm were in, the self -congratulatory claim was out. And, as for puns and exclamation marks – they were regarded as the totally unacceptable, the written equivalent of farting in a lift.
This philosophy drove my creative directors, copywriters (including myself) to write to a set of unwritten rules (really, no pun intended, I assure you) that would be admired by award judges and, in truth, other copywriters in the agency. Winning awards attracted more than kudos too – offers from other creative “hot shops” would ensure that you’d earn a higher salary and a more exciting job.
So, there was no shortage of incentives to stick to the “rules”. But that was back then, do any of those “rules” still apply? Nowadays I’m often writing for clients across the country that I’ve never met, clients who have no real knowledge about copywriting but, unfortunately, think that it means lots of painfully obvious puns and screaming exclamation marks to emphasise every headline or sub head.
Do I give them what they want, or try to set them straight? It’s a hard one, because for me, reading a corny pun (how many aren’t?) is like hearing nails being dragged across a blackboard and an exclamation mark often infers “cheap”, rather than exciting. I can write them, but it’s always going to be painful.
Posted by Ian Minter
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
Use a pun or exclamation mark if it sells a benefit or tells the reader what’s-in-it-for-me.