Posts Tagged: copywriters


19
Aug 09

Neil French – XO Beer

One of the greatest copywriters of all time is Neil French. He’s a great fan of the print medium – he even started the World Press Awards. And he usually writes long copy ads – which I simply love – that grip you from word one. I also find his work to be very up market and classy. I suppose its probably because he’s been choosy about his clients.

Some words of wisdom by Neil French himself:

Anyhow, here’s a look at a print campaign which was done as an exercise to prove the viability of the print medium. You can read more about that here.

You can view the full campaign here.


18
Sep 08

Out off work? Cover guide

“Dude, Damn right! Absolutely free, like the guy under the bridge. It rocks! I’m chilling now.” Ok, so you’ve heard that one before. Nothing new. In fact, something you might have said to a friend. It’s real easy laying it out like that for someone. Leaving them with all the mess. To dig out the gravy from the chicken. They might have the chicken but no gravy. No gravy means – well, hmmm… rubber in their mouth. So, why do we do such a thing? Is it comforting? Or does it give us easy escape from all the rigmarole. I guess we all have our little reasons. Please, their is no big reason for such a floozy; only small. Now keeping it small makes it refreshing. Like a tequila shot, one quick, single gulp makes all those presentations and figures on the screen look like visualizations. Keep it on “Random” for best results.

So you’ve given the boner and moved on. Is it all that simple? Well, let’s find out. In my opinion… It’s simple all right. But somehow, we manage to complicate things. “No, it’s complicated. It’s not so simple. There is so much on my mind.” In addition to all this there would be a “time has changed, I’ve changed. Things are not the same.” I certainly think it’s a load of bull crap. It just tells you one thing clearly and that is ‘Get Lost’. It sure is the sugary way. Beating around the bush makes the world a better place; so does ignorance and irrelevance. It just gives us something to do, cause otherwise, deep down inside, we will always remain the same.

Layering the old defecated, out of shape mills with steel does spruce up and cover up. It’s what we do all the time, feel terrible and lonely on the inside but on top “Yippee, I’m on top of the world. Rocking. Party on guys.” We all are certainly good at those. I’m sure you can tell me a hundred ways of covering up, which are better and far, far realistic. Don’t be proud of it. I wouldn’t be. Inside we are all quite alike, we all want love and something to fit into that huge emptiness. Like Lego; piece-by-piece dreams come true and experience is all we get out of it. Let’s not forget memories, a wonderful piece of the pie called life.

Those darn politics we play. Some of us think, that people are fools. They may do as they please. It’s that package we discussed earlier. For those who try be to be nice and do good things, only face a certain kind of music. I can reassure you that the music is horrid. All right! I’m taking a break; time for some coffee and fresh air. Let’s meet in 15.

You see all this above; it’s all bullshit, and nonsense. It’s like the fake things people tell you when all they really want to say is “I am lonely.” You really have to be eager to get deep down inside, to find out the truth. Not everyone wants to know. Who cares? It’s the one that do, which matter. Did we ever think or come to realise that; the fake act could be the reason for the emptiness.

As time passes by, I do wish things could be as simple as the early days. All I had to worry about then was, my homework. Now, every little task comes with it’s own baggage; like this one, full of meaningless and endless paragraphs. Has anyone seen ‘Gia’? If not, it’s a must see. Angelina Jolie has done justice. At first, I was enjoying it for reasons to believe but later, from climax and beyond. The movie did give out a clear message, which I will not mention here. I certainly do not want to spoil the climax.

Being an out of work copywriter is similar to being a dog with no leash. You can take the free time to do as you please, write as you feel and even roam about, doing your business. You can put freedom in your speech cause otherwise; you have to do what the client wants. We all know what the client wants. Let’s not discuss that further for humanitarian reasons. It gives you the time to re-cooperate your senses. It’s like that feeling, when you run for your life to get on a running train or bus. Once you finally make it, you can take it easy and enjoy the journey.

You can do many things with your free time. Sleeping and watching movies would be one of the best. Never mind the world; people are sheep anyways. Take this opportunity to be with yourself and explore the darkest corners of your mind. Be true to yourself, if not others. You may stumble upon things and surprise yourself. Keep a notepad nearby. It’s for jotting ideas that you may meet along the way.

You can walk down to your local mall and grab some goodies. Food and alcohol will make the time pass like a cool breeze. Once you have all that in place. You may end up writing something like this. Don’t worry; I’m new at this myself.


13
May 08

Why short copy is boring…

Yea that’s right. You read the heading correctly. You also did make a judgment subconsciously of what this article would be, but you didn’t expect it on this BLOG, did you? Confused? Voila! I do a fine job, I know. If you do know me personally this article will do anything but amuse you. So it’s better you stop reading and do something important with your life. Gardening perhaps! Ok maybe not that challenging. Figure out something for yourself, I am not your babysitter. For the rest of us who do have a life don’t get insulted, continue and entirely ignore the statuary warning.

All this while I had been away from life, detached from the world and the so called rat race. It wasn’t as if I was missing out on something, I was happy doing things at my own pace. Life was like a BMW & I being the blissful driver, in complete control. For those who don’t know BMW. Open your eyes to the world of beauties at http://www.bmw.com/. You see that’s how you do a nice brand placement. If any creative director is reading this my contact is on the homepage. Life was ok or at least it seemed that ways for a while. Only till the day when all my friends departed on the celestial ship of careers and sailed into the lucid waters, headed straight for the islands of achievement, I felt the Goosebumps on my spine. The feeling was quite perplexing. At the time I didn’t realize the cause for such a feeling. They made me think a lot. Well I did have a lot of time since I was in my so called detached world.

Day after day I would sit alone with my thoughts, reaching a dead end, almost like a copywriter’s mental block. They suck don’t they!? I agree with you buddy. For the extra punctuations you just saw, enjoy them. Daring people challenge the orthodox to achieve the unparallel. Yes I enjoy writing such lines; they should be simplified for the layman. Repeated blocks led me to believe that maybe I needed a third opinion, like a subtle counseling. In order to put some rest to my mind I prepared a set of questions that I would ask all the people who had even the slightest bit of wisdom. Yes I should have asked you “Oh Lord Mighty”. I know that you would have offered me full on ‘Gyan’. A journey started person after person… almost like mission to solve the mysteries of the unquestionable. For those who have gotten this far, congratulations! Take a minute to look away from the screen and relax yourself, even a quick stretch would be heavenly. You give me your time; I will certainly take care of you. For those who didn’t follow, reconfirms that I am one good writer. For the feeling that last line gave you, please re-read my domain name out loud. Yes that’s right!

The process of questioning was not exactly what I had imagined it to be; simple and effortless. Rather it was a much more tedious process, like when you have to scratch that one corner of your foot when standing at ‘attention’ during PT class in school while the teacher is watching with a stick in hand, out in the sun. Concluding a painful long month of questioning and hunting, I came to a conclusion; that if you’re confused, just ask yourself with an honest and straight face. The person inside will have all the answers. You don’t need other people to give you answers. It’s really that simple. Ok maybe not for everyone. For everyone has their own person within them. A soul you can say. That has all the answers. It’s true what they say about how God is within us. Any atheist reading this, you don’t get a refund, better luck next time buddy. To talk with the person inside will give you an escape from the rat race world to a new but clear paradigm where you are in control, you make the decisions. It’s like being in the BMW seven series. Love that creature.

It does take me an awfully long time to get to the point. The point being about the headline I have given to this article. Beating around the bush is something only a few master. So our headline is not a statement that will change how advertising is done, definitely not part of the lyrics to a song that plays in a true copywriter’s mind, I do contradict this last line sometimes. Rather an expression of how brilliance goes to waste if one short line does the job. You must be wondering? Has this guy gone mad? Has he lost it? This doesn’t sound right. I beg to differ. After all the years of experience, late hours at the office; carefully crafting, snipping, editing, molding one’s language so as to make it big one day. For what would all that hard work go if short copy was the order? If only we all enjoyed copy as much as copywriters’ do. Life would not be so boring…