Barely South Review » Disappointment at Shiloh
Posted: April 19, 2011 Filed under: Literature, writing | Tags: Barely South Review, Fiction, writing Leave a comment »
A writer can’t write advertising all the time. Here’s a little short story of mine just published by Old Dominion University–online.
Barely South Review » Disappointment at Shiloh.
Wordcracker: Copywriter
Posted: January 4, 2011 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, Wordcracker, writing | Tags: Advertising, business writing, Copywriting & Creative, creative, freelance writing, marketing, Origin of copywriter, writing 1 Comment »An advertising writer is called a copywriter. But why? Why “copy?” The story starts a long time ago, even before advertising as we know it. While “copy” can mean an imitation or facsimile, it can also refer–according my trusty Oxford English Dictionary–to the thing being copied. A copy, then, can be “the original writing, work of art, etc., from which a copy is made.” We can find this usage as far back as 1481.
So what does this have to do with advertising writing? Plenty. Fast forward to the moveable type printing press and the printed newspapers it spawned. The manuscript written (and later typed) by the news writer was called a copy because, we can now deduce, it would soon be copied by the typesetter and printer. In fact, a “copy boy” was often employed to run the manuscript from writer to editor to typesetter. Eventually, the “a” was dropped, so a copy became simply “copy,” used in much the same way we use the word “text.”
So, you keep asking, what does this have to do with advertising writing? Everything! To pay the journalists and the pressmen and make a profit, newspapers sold advertising (why do you think advertising courses are so often buried in our colleges’ schools of journalism?). Someone had to write the verbiage–the copy–for the ads they sold. And the copywriter–and a title that differentiated him from the journalist or news writer–was born.
The unfortunate similarity of “copywriter” and “copyright” causes consternation for many. You’ve got to be a lawyer to deal with copyright issues, and that I am certainly not. In fact, I have a hard enough time just coming up with a company name or a snappy slogan that has the potential to be copyrighted. Try coming up with an original website domain, for example. It isn’t easy. Because of this confusion and because not that many people know where the word “copy” comes from in the first place, I prefer to say I am an advertising writer or a marketing writer. And when I am feeling particularly smug, I simply say that I’m a writer, knowing that it will evoke all sorts of romantic notions in people’s heads. That, of course, often backfires, and they ask, “Oh, anything I might have read?”
Probably not. Not yet, anyway.
Wordcracker: Ground Zero Mosque
Posted: August 24, 2010 Filed under: Dysphemism, Ethics, Euphemism, Language, Publishing, Wordcracker | Tags: ground zero, journalism, media, mosque, writing 8 Comments »
What do you call a phrase like “Ground Zero Mosque?” Loaded language, for sure. Actually, there is a word for it: dysphemism. Dysphemism is roughly the opposite of euphemism. While euphemism is the softening of language or ideas to make them less offensive, dysphemism is all about making the language or idea more offensive. That, of course, has been the motive of “journalists” who have used the phrase “Ground Zero Mosque” in their headlines. You can read (and listen to) more about that here at OnTheMedia.org.
What makes it dysphemism? For starters, when you put those three words together, it sounds as if the mosque is going to be right at Ground Zero. There is nothing separating the word “Mosque” from the words “Ground Zero.” In reality, however, there are two New York City blocks separating Ground Zero from the mosque building site. A word like “near” would certainly have helped preserve the truth: “Mosque Near Ground Zero.” But the news writers chose to be less precise and more sensational.
This is no basic form of dysphemism, however. An example of regular, run-of-the-mill dysphemism would be calling a printed paper edition of a periodical the “dead tree edition.” There’s nothing untrue about it. It merely seeks to create a negative reaction in the reader by focusing on what might be seen as a drawback of printed publications when compared to their online counterparts. But “Ground Zero Mosque” is more diabolical because it also makes use of hyperbole. It exaggerates the truth. It dispenses with those two blocks and puts Ground Zero and the Mosque within one typed space of each other.
This is much the same sort of dysphemism as “snail mail.” Compared to email, the postal service is slower. But is it really as slow as a snail? Of course not. Exaggeration. The difference here, however, is that nobody really believes mail is delivered by snail or that it is really that slow. “Snail mail” is dysphemism in search of humor. “Ground Zero Mosque” is dysphemism in search of division and fear.
Whether you are for or against a mosque being built two blocks from Ground Zero, I hope we can all agree that it is irresponsible for news agencies such as the Associated Press and Fox News to use “Ground Zero Mosque” in a headline. Both did. And it is equally irresponsible for the public to allow itself to be manipulated by such headlines. You may say that sticks and stones will break your bones, and that words will never harm you. But it is most often words that start the sticks and stones to flying.
I am afraid that “Ground Zero Mosque” just may be ground zero for something that threatens this free country even more than terrorism. The slow death of objective journalism and, even scarier, our ability to recognize it when we see it.
For another great example of dysphemism check this out, which chronicles the transformation of the “estate tax” to the “death tax.”
Naming your shade of green
Posted: April 8, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, writing | Tags: Advertising, advertising strategy, business writing, Copywriting & Creative, creative, green marketing, marketing, sustainability, writing Leave a comment »
When a person is born, the first thing we do is give her a name. A name formalizes the baby’s existence, gives us an easy way to make reference to her and provides a gateway to understanding and communication. Proper names are often given to inanimate objects, as well. It’s a way of humanizing them and making them seem more “knowable.” Give your third-quarter sales initiative a name, and people know you mean business. Suddenly, everyone has a name to rally around, a cause to champion, an identity to share.
The name of the game lately has been sustainability. Companies have been establishing their green initiatives and then formalizing them with a name or at least a theme.
That means some good, yet challenging, work for writers like me. Here are three such projects for high-profile companies.
1.
The first one is is for FedExCup and their effort to bring more sustainability to the game of golf, which by its very nature (or lack of it) isn’t particularly eco-friendly. Basically a golf course is a vast monoculture of grass and a lot of fertilizer. However, through this program, FedEx is working with an organization called The First Tee whose mission is to “impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.” It’s a noble goal. Even if a golf course can’t necessarily create a full-fledged sustainable ecosystem, it can help sustain something at least as valuable. Successful children. So how do you combine golf and the future in a name? Like this.
FedExCup Fore!Ever
2.
This next one is for the chemistry company Buckman. It is, no doubt, a challenge for a chemical company to go green. But Buckman is doing a lot to reduce its own environmental footprint and to help their clients do the same, reducing energy usage, water usage and waste in a variety of industries through advanced technologies. Buckman’s corporate color has always been green, so the name and theme for their sustainability initiative was a natural. Here’s the cover line and first page of copy from their just-published Sustainability Report.
3.
This last one is for International Paper. They just released a whole website based on this idea to showcase their sustainability efforts. Three of the sections there were written by yours truly: Carbon Footprint, Paper Sourcing and Recycled Paper.
There’s nothing unique or proprietary about “Down to Earth”. But it fits the general objective well, which is to provide straight talk on environmental issues and set straight some commonly held myths about pulp and paper. As I have said before, finding a unique name for your green campaign gets increasingly hard as more and more companies stake their claims. Better hurry.
New Charmin commercial wipes some the wrong way
Posted: February 11, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Advertising, business, Charmin, commercials, Copywriting & Creative, creative, marketing, Slogans, toilet paper, writing 6 Comments »Medical commercials are bad enough. The ED commercials embarrass the devil out of me even as I wonder why anybody would have two separate bath tubs side-by-side. In a field, no less. But the new Charmin toilet tissue commercial? It just grosses me out. I’m talking about the one in which the bear mom examines the bear cub’s rear with a telescope. (Looking for asteroids, I assume.)
I have always disliked the overly cute bears and their butt-rubbing antics, but the newest spot is even worse. It goes into detail about how Charmin is stronger so it doesn’t leave bits of tissue you know where. Have any of us been all that concerned about it? Do you bring up this sort of thing to your friends? Can we not have some decorum? Can we not infer that a stronger tissue is good without going into details? Do we have to “draw a picture” for everything? On national television? Well, you might argue, it is a problem and they are in the tissue business. But something tells me they enjoy it just a little too much.
In fact, that’s where I really draw the line–at their new slogan: Enjoy the go!
Enjoy the go? Call me anal retentive, but that’s the last straw. And the last roll. Turn the other cheek? I don’t think so.
I’m switching to Northern.
Spreading the joy with a video Holiday eCard
Posted: December 16, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Christmas, eCard, Holiday, video, writing 3 Comments »Click here to see the Holiday eCard I wrote for the talented folks at Oden who put it all together and made it just right. A word of warning: you might want to get a tissue.
What is writing?
Posted: October 28, 2009 Filed under: writing | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, graphic design, writing Leave a comment »What is writing, anyway? Every once in a while I have the opportunity to speak to a class of design students at the University of Memphis about writing and about how writers and designers interact in the world of advertising and marketing. I always ask that question. What is writing? One student replied, “words on a page.” Typical but wrong. That would be typography.
Writing is connecting disparate ideas. It is organizing information to tell a logical story. Writing comes from recognizing the complex relationships between words and how your choice of words affects meaning and understanding. It is controlling and manipulating language to achieve a desired effect. It is communication.
But most of all, writing is thinking made accessible to others. You can’t really write until you learn how to think.
What I have tried to impress upon the students is that writing doesn’t necessarily involve a lot of words. In the advertising business we engage in an activity called “concepting,” in which we come up with the big idea and invent just the right vehicle for communicating our message. Sometimes that concept is 50% headline and 50% visual, but it is always 100% writing. Here’s an ad I just wrote for FedEx that hardly has any “words on a page.” Its mission is to remind Memphis Grizzlies fans that FedEx is the official sponsor, and that FedEx is as enthusiastic about the team as they are. The thinking, in this case, is being conveyed by the photograph. What better way to show FedEx fanaticism than bobbleheads in the cockpit?
That’s Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo, in case you can’t make it out in this small rendition. Bobbleheads in the cockpit make for an arresting image and convey the idea that FedEx isn’t just a monetary sponsor; they are dyed-in-the-wool fans. These days the hapless Grizzlies could use more of those.
Making something look good is aesthetics. Making people understand? That’s writing. Whether you use words or not.
So what is a Wordnut, anyway?
Posted: August 31, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, writing | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, Language, words, writing Leave a comment »Certainly, you might infer that a wordnut is one who is nuts about words. But when it comes to my business, I like to think of it another way. The word is a kind of nut, the seed of everything. The beginning of thoughts, ideas, and opinions. From words come sentences, claims, and promises. Out of words grow respect, trust, and understanding. Sure, I am nuts about words. But I am also a planter of words, sowing them in rows so that they grow large in the consciousness of the customer. I plant the seeds from which success can spring. Who wouldn’t be nuts about that?
Short words
Posted: August 1, 2009 Filed under: Language, Vocabulary, writing | Tags: Gelett Burgess, Language, short words, writing 2 Comments »
Gelett Burgess, a technical drawing teacher turned writer, penner of silly poems, and editor, published an essay back in the 30s called “Short Words are Words of Might.” He wrote the whole thing using one-syllable words. It reminds us of the power of our own Germanic language roots and how early words seem to have evolved from emotion itself. Come to think of it, some of the best words we have are four-letter ones.
Big flowery Latinate words are quite stupendous in their place, but as my 11th grade English teacher would tell you, never use a 50-cent word when a nickel word will do. Burgess demonstrates that our nickel words really are our most valuable by far.
Here are some excerpts:
“Short words must have been our first words when the world was young. The minds of men were raw… Their first words were, no doubt, mere grunts or growls, barks, whines, squeals like those of beasts. These rough, strange sounds were made to show how they felt. They meant joy or pain or doubt or rage or fear…
“But these sounds came, in time, to grow more and more plain as real words. They were short words, strong and clear. And these first short words, used by our sires way back in the dark of time, still have strength and truth. They are bred in our flesh and bone. We may well call such words the life blood of our speech.”
“Short words, you see, come from down deep in us — from our hearts or guts — not from the brain. For they deal for the most part with things that move and sway us, that make us act… That, I think, is why short words tend to make our thoughts more live and true.”
When a seasoned freelancer is your best choice
Posted: May 18, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, writing | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, freelance writing, hiring a freelance writer, marketing, writing 3 Comments »No matter what time of day it was, a certain wiseacre client would call me and invariably ask “Did I wake you?” Ha, ha, ha, (sigh). Little did he know (or care) that I got up at 5:30 am. He was joking, of course, but that kind of stereotypical view of freelancers is pervasive. The reality is, to be in business for yourself, raise a family, and supply them with decent shelter, food, and transportation, you’ve got to be pretty good at what you do and serious about it too.
So, in this difficult economic time when your company may be struggling, it might be worth noting that there is a solution to mediocrity, dwindling profitability, and high overhead: the seasoned freelance writer.
Here are four times when a career freelancer is your best bet for quality, speed, and affordability.
1. When you want experience and skills you couldn’t otherwise afford. The best freelancers are independent for a reason; they can make more money freelancing than they can working in a salaried position, and they have more freedom and flexibility, to boot. They’ve worked for the broadest range of clients and delved into the greatest variety of subject matter. Chances are they know how to best meet your communications objectives because they’ve been there before.
2. When you want a writer who welcomes the work. The harder a freelancer works, the more he makes. That makes for a happy worker. Throw extra work on a salaried writer and what happens? Oppression. Irritability. And if it doesn’t result in reduced productivity and lower quality, then it results in covert job searches. And, really, when you think about it, if you were going to make the same money whether you took on another project or not, wouldn’t you be tempted to work at your own comfortable pace and say, “I’m working to capacity?”
3. When you want a writer who doesn’t cost a dime. Sometimes it’s hard to know who works for whom these days. If you are looking for work to keep your salaried employees busy, then you are working for them! A freelancer requires no upkeep, no desk, no space, no benefits. You don’t have to pay him to chit-chat with co-workers, keep up on Facebook, go to the bathroom, or pick his nose. Think of all the time an employee can waste. Think of all the time YOU can waste making sure he doesn’t waste his!
You can use a freelancer only when it will be profitable for you, when there’s a budget for it, or when you can bill the time to a client. In the end, a good freelancer doesn’t cost you money; he makes you money. The ratio of “hours actually worked” to “hours paid for” is always 1:1 with a freelancer. What is it for a salaried employee?
4. When you want a lasting, long-term resource. Some people see freelancers as the option of last resort, folks who can’t get real jobs, who are unreliable and sleep until noon. I am sure this type of hippy-go-lucky writer exists. But he won’t last long. Having been in business for 23 years, I can tell you that a reliable independent writer can be found. The trick is to find a good writer with whom you can form a lasting relationship. That way he looks to you for ongoing projects, and you can look to him as a reliable source of creative services. It’s a nice symbiotic, permanent relationship. The company account stays balanced. The quality of the work is high. Deadlines are met. The boss or client is happy. And you get peace of mind. What’s that worth?
Your marketing and communications materials are like a three-legged stool supported by writing, graphic design, and production. If any one of those is weak, the whole piece collapses. A seasoned freelancer can help make sure your communications stand up and stand out.
