Just One – the occasional triumph of a great one-word advert
Whimsy. Skulduggery. Nipples. Three entirely satisfying words, although perhaps not the most appropriate way to start a blog.
But if on, say, a Nandos date with Taylor Swift, she were to ask me what the most satisfying aspect of the job is (aside from the fact that your fingers perpetually smell like pencil dust and Monster Munch) I would say a glorious short-copy ad.
That’s right. Short copy. It’s the way I like my Jennifer Aniston films and it’s the way I like my copy.
That’s not to say I still don’t take delight in a long copy effort – if for no other reason than to persuade anywhere between 2 and 40 ‘decision makers’ that long copy is actually still a relevant and engaging medium.
But, on the opposite end of the scale, there is something entirely gratifying about delivering a compelling line with the fewest possible prods of the keyboard.
The economy of copywriting can often be dismissed as the mechanics of the process – the bit where we squeeze our beautiful words into someone else’s annoyingly miserly boxes. But, in many instances, the pithiness of the writing is itself the beauty. And, at the end of that alphabetical rainbow, is the goal to which most copywriters I know eagerly aspire – the brilliant one-word headline.
There are inspired adverts of course with no words on them at all. But for writers, however extensive their involvement in the concept, there is something churlishly unsatisfactory about work, however impactful, that doesn’t even contain the nibble of a word.
But the one-word advert is a mighty and daunting challenge. Scout around the internet for the best adverts of the day and you’ll be hard pressed to find any one-word contributions. Still more elusive are the great ones.
Even researching this piece I found it hard to add to the two or three examples I turn to each time I force this point on an unwilling and/or uncomfortable audience.
There is the Lego advert (pictured above) where a single white brick pops up from the blue like a sea monster’s head – the headline ‘Imagine’, a perfect encapsulation of a toy whose sustained existence relies entirely on the capacity for make-believe.
Or, there’s the Heinz advert that depicts a plate of steak and chips made entirely from corrugated cardboard. The headline, ‘Without’, in its extraordinary fullness is more impertinently disdainful of un-ketchupped food than could have been said in a hundred words.
But, aside from these (and perhaps a VW ad or two) the difficult trick of one-word advertising is too often seen as, well, too difficult. And, like most seemingly simple acts, the accompanying effort, craft (and simple good fortune) are far more elaborate than most people will appreciate from a single word on a page. The anxiety that comes with not only the question of whether a reader will ‘get it’ but how quickly they will can, and often does, undermine anything that a half-alert brain cannot slurp up like cold tea.
But perhaps it’s the scarcity of these taut and lustrous monoliths that makes them, when delivered well, the very definition of clever copywriting. Perhaps it’s better then that only the truly perfect ones are allowed to slip past the guardians of commercial sense and sensibility. Otherwise what do we have? Nipples. That’s what.
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