Everyone’s a copywriter. Right?
Clare Barry makes the case for why Jean from accounts needs to stop chiming in on where the full stop should go in your latest piece of creative.
There’s a joke in the creative industry that “everyone is a designer”, making light of how infuriating it is to have someone (without a visual background) tell a designer how things should look.
It’s a huge and common problem, caused by a “client is always right” attitude— something we’ve all experienced, and all must endure. There is a point where you can actually see the lights go off in a designer’s eyes as their soul tries to escape their body—and that point is usually the 10th round of amends.
Anyhoo.
Great piece. Love it…
Ah, Clare, I loved your post. (But I have to break it to you: everyone’s a marketer too, sadly.)
If I counted the number of times a client’s said, ‘a sentence can’t start with And, or But…’
I. WOULD. BE. RICH.
(I know the rules, dammit, but it just reads better that way!)
No competent writer think a sentence can’t start with “And”.
thinks*
Agreed! There is no rule saying you can’t! I say, bring back the And at the start of sentences
Clare: This. Is. Wonderful! I worked as a magazine sub for years and the thing that annoyed me most was other copy editors who seemed to believe there was a right and wrong and that was that. It’s a subjective business and you’ve got to let writers write. Anyone can be a smart arse, but the best editors and clients are smart enough to trust the professional’s judgement.
Yes, you can (and probably should) break the rules sometimes. But only if you know the rules and can clearly articulate and defend why you’ve done what you’ve done. As ECD I once had an angry client on the phone asking why he was paying $200 an hour for copywriting and looking at a procession of basic grammar errors his Year 10 daughter wouldn’t make. The following week I found myself renegotiating creative head hour rates and a six-figure-salaried copywriter was looking for a new job.
You probably shouldn’t have employed him in the first place. You did employ I take it?
And then you left?
Agree with this. And if we’re saying writers aren’t accountable for grammar errors and typos then who is? Jean from accounts? I don’t know of any agency that has a full-time proofreader on the roster.
Agreed Paul. I recently received an emailed thank you from the CEO of a health food company. I had pointed out to him that their $5,000 newspaper advertisement was riddled with errors in both grammar and punctuation, which was not a good look. He also advised that they were changing their agency.
And I was taught that great copywriters were able to convey the maximum meaning with the least words and the maximum emotion.
Very enjoyable read.
Oh Clare. You had me at “They’re an idiot.” Thanks for the belly laugh. Too well said.
Agreed!
And then there’s this…
https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/stylebooks-single-they-ap-chicago-gender-neutral.php
(I don’t see Jean from Accounts dealing well with this bit of news.)
Great read.
Brilliant! Now I need you to write a piece on Everybody is a Marketer.
Absolutely agree. One of the most frustrating parts of my job is constantly having non-marketers give their (very vocal) opinion. While I’m open to ideas from other people, just remember that no-one would ever tell an Engineer how to build a bridge.
Hear, hear! (Or is it ‘Here, here!’…? I guess it doesn’t matter…)
Here, here!
This is a subject that has me chomping at the bit, but for all intensive purposes I couldn’t of expressed it better.
Unfortunately the errors in your comment cannot be defended. It is ‘hear, hear’ and ‘couldn’t have expressed it better’.
I believe that was the intent, my dude
From a copywriter who knows the rules, when to apply them and when to break them – this reads like an excuse from someone who’s been caught out a few times and doesn’t like being corrected.
Jean from Accounts could well be better educated and better-read than you.
Stop being a stuck-up, over-paid, sensitive creative and learn from your mistakes.
Did you read this, or just jump to the comments? Nowhere does she say an accounts person cannot be a descriptivist writer. She’s using Jean from accounts as an easily-understood prescriptivist example. That’s all.
… written like a true Jean.
‘Overpaid’ isn’t hyphenated.
Better read isn’t hyphenated either…
I love this article. So much I could hug it.
Leave me alone, Jean. Dammit.
Delightfully sardonic. Sending this to (some) of my colleagues.
Great article. A corollary to this is that everyone is also an art director / photographer.
This seems to be related to the comparative cost of semi-professional still and video cameras coupled with Photoshop-sequence apps and Canva.
The words “I’m a keen photographer” from a client send a chill through many a pre-pro or shoot.
Absolutely brilliant piece, Clare. Hear hear! As a copywriter, it’s great to see it’s not just me facing these never ending challenges!
Collaboration is the key, feedback and its implementation is what creates great results!!
Words of Art is best to leave to the creative to people with the training! great article. Thank you for sharing. #shamaltennakoon
Beautifully written. I’d like all the art directors who ‘can also write’ to read this. A couple of headlines does not a copywriter make.
Best. Article. Ever.
This is a brilliant article. Reminding those with no valid training or experience,they may havd their say but it should be ignored. I often wonder if a client had take on a barrister would they ask for three different defence strategies?
What an excellent well. Written article.
The same is very much on client side too, with every man and his dog giving their two cents on your marketing. Often role or seniority trumps everything. You end up with dog’s bollocks work that nobody is proud to stand behind, except for said stakeholder(s) on the client side who insisted they knew best.
Lovely. Dopamine for my soul. I envy your style, Clare.
Clare, thanks for this brilliant piece of writing. It was quickly shared within our office and sparked much laughter and debate. No one is owning the prescriptivist label (but we know who they are). We have already designed the ‘Shut up Jean’ tee-shirt, now we just need to agree the punctuation before we order.
I am one of these board people who have to deal with volunteers telling us they can do the job themselves and thus save money. I really love this article. Thinking of buying your T-shirt!
Is that how Annabel Fribence ended up standing in front “BE MORE KAYNE” in letters a foot high? She was hungry? She should have partaken of the product she was promoting!
So true – we’re all copywriters in a way. Just some of us get paid for it!
Don’t forget us UX writers 🙂