One copywriter to another.

A few years back, this is what landed in my mailbox.

Hi.


This letter is from one Copywriter to another.

I was going through the results of the award shows this year and
was saddened to notice a death.

The Word has almost disappeared.

In most ads, there are just one or two. (There are a few
exceptions though, and the outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes gives me
hope.)

In many, there are none at all.

I was wondering what happened to the Copywriter.

When did we stop writing Copy? And when I say Copy I do not mean
the long copy masterpiece that we all set out to make at least
once in our lifetime.

When was the last time we wrote a good, full-bodied headline,
even? Was it because the Client had rejected the picture-only ad
so many times that we had no option left but to do a headline
ad?

This email is an initiative to 'Save The Word'.

If you would like to join this movement, contribute by doing the
following:

1) Do your next five ads or campaigns with headlines,
irrespective of brand guidelines.

2) Pick an old One Show/D&ADA Annual and photocopy copy-led ads
and paste them up all over the agency.

3) Dnt wrt lke ths.

4) If you are a Creative Director, ask your writers to show a
headline, with every visual-led ad that they show.

5) Hire writers who have at least ten headlines in their
portfolio.

6) Spread the word. Send this email to all the copywriters you
know.

You can add more to the list.

The only way, we are going to Save The Word is by getting
together and ensuring that we see more Copy in the media. For
that to happen, this email needs to find legs and travel far and
wide. So, please forward this to as many Copywriters in the
world as you can. Please do cc to me, so I know how many
Copywriters are out there who still love Copy.


Sincerely,



I did reply back to it.

Now, before the salt-less tears drop too low and spoil the
small-logo-on-the-pocket branded shirt, here is what happened to the
copywriter.
30% are writing
main()
{
int SalaryinSoftware
int SalaryinCopywriting
var Infosys

if SalaryinSoftware>
SalaryinCopywriting
goto Infosys
else recheck SlaryinSoftware

}

50% are speaking "Hi, sir. At 17 you can self-finance your dreams, would you be interested?"
The rest 30% are busy preparing "How to manage my next cruise vacation.ppt"
Now, forgive me for being as vague as politburo's demands. But, the truth is
da Vinci coded in the last few lines.

You don't need to be a cryptologist in NSA to decipher it. So, let me decrypt
it for you.

30% are in software industry.
50% are in call centers.
And the rest 20% are in management.

So, who gives a fuck? And, that's exactly the reason, while the rest of
the industries are getting their fair share of talent, advertising has to be
contend with, well, people like me.

But, how do HLL, Infosys and Convergys do it? By advertising. And what do
people in advertising do to attract talent? Err, umm, nothing. We expect
the best talent to land up at the agency's doorstep. When there is not
even a board atop the agency announcing their name. We do nothing
to get that talent. We do nothing to nurture that talent. And we do
everything to write a letter mourning the death of a copywriter. It's the
bling in our own attitude that's blinding us. And while we were busy
asking the mirrors in our ivory towers "Mirror, Mirror on the wall who has
the maximum lions of them all?" all the other industries were busy erecting lighthouses to guide talent to their shores.

So, in short, that's what happened to the copywriter.

But i never did get back a reply.

Anyone then?