If you believe anyone can write copy, punch yourself in the face
I’m off to the dentist. Not for a check up. Not even to read outdated magazines about celebrities who look fat on the beach. No, I thought I’d just pop in and tell the dentist how they should go about their root canal procedure.
That of course would result in an agonised, blood spattered scene of tears and recrimination. I would, in all likelihood, not be invited back. And nor should I be. I know nothing about dentistry or teeth, the saliva of other people makes me uncomfortable and I look decidedly sinister in white clothing.
What you may have noticed in my sledge hammer subtle analogy is a remarkable similarity between my interfering with skilled medical professionals and untrained people altering a copywriter’s words.
Now, a realigned sentence here and there is not going to leave someone picking up the remnants of their shattered teeth but in its own way it is just as damaging.
Copywriting, probably more than any other form of the creative marketing process, is subject to an unwelcome spirit of ‘Contributionalism’. In other words, everyone likes to contribute something to the process, regardless of how qualified they are to do it and how well they understand the thought process behind the copy.
The foolish notion that ‘anyone can write’, as well as being naive, also tends to mean input to a piece of copy is spread out far and wide. Wording is a subjective thing and the way one person may like to communicate or receive any given message will undoubtedly be unique to that individual.
A copywriter’s job is to recognise this subjectivity in what we do and ensure the message is as clear, consistent and as broadly accessible (within the confines of our target audience) as possible. We are not in the business of ticking off your list of favourite phrases and eliminating your pet peeves.
The joke about copywriters is that they are aggressively, ferociously resistant to changes to their work. This is a little bit true. But the bigger truth is that copywriters recognise the need for objectivity and empathy more than anyone else in the process.
The vast, overwhelming majority of what we write are not the words we would choose to express that message ourselves. But they are the words that our research, experience and thought process tell us will be the best way to communicate that particular message to a particular audience.
I sympathise entirely with clients who like to gather many perspectives on the marketing work they have commissioned. For many, the creative marketing process is unfamiliar and what it produces can at times be challenging. To seek assurances from colleagues that what you have been presented does the job it was asked to do is perfectly reasonable.
But that harvesting of opinion must be conducted under a strict caveat. The copy you are reading, the design you are looking at and the strategy behind the whole thing has been created by experienced professionals. There are probably a million things those marketing professionals could not tell you about your business but this is one thing where you need to trust their judgement.
If a word or a phrase bothers you, you must ask yourself why. If the answer is not that you know for absolute certain that it is the kind of language that alienates your customers then you need to seriously question whether your objection is valid.
Copywriters aren’t always right. For a long time I tried to crowbar the word ‘verisimilitude’ into copy which in its pretentiousness is bad enough, but is made substantially more idiotic by the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant.
But on the whole they are the right people to find the right words for your brand. However they are not, I can assure you, the best people to examine your molars.
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Andrew Boulton is a copywriter at Together Agency. He displays a great deal of verisimilitude. He thinks.