Death of the Copywriter

It’s been a while since here at WAS we posted something that actually had something to with advertising, so here goes…

Copywriters are no more. We are a dying breed, if not dead already.

Hold it, let me back up.

The role of the advertising copywriter is what is dead. It has evolved exponentially so that copywriters no longer actually write. Today’s copywriter is not a writer per se, but an idea engineer. Sure, he or she will write a witty headline and, if the client is lucky, maybe 35 words of body copy, but the copywriter’s main responsibility today is coming up with The Big Idea.

I say this because, ever since making a slight career shift years ago, I’ve managed to distance myself enough from the process to see it as an outsider. Also, in my current line of work, I am doing an insane of amount of actual writing on a daily basis, the very same writing process that I oh so dearly missed from back in my journalism days. And, because I work next to a group of “award-winning” copywriters, I am often asked to fix their writing screw-ups.

It’s simple really: today’s copywriters aren’t good writers in the technical sense, such as with syntax and grammar. They suck. However, they are very smart idea people. To the point of genius, I would even dare to say. And, coming up with good ideas to shell your client’s products or services is much more difficult than writing something cool, so I give the upper hand to today’s copywriters. For me, writing a 2,500-word essay is a cinch. However, writing an effective headline can take me days… and most often than not, the result sucks big time.

Today, a talented copywriter must subscribe to the school of Less is More. It takes tremendous skill to be able to say so much using the least amount of words as possible. I tip my hat to you, dear 21st Century copywriter.

Take a look at ads from 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Loads of text! I remember print ads with almost 800 words, indistinguishable from a magazine article. Advertising writing was a process. Today’s print ads are lucky to have two words as a headline. Pick up the latest issue of Archive or Communication Arts and see for yourself.

The fact of the matter is that today’s agencies look to copywriters not for their writing skills, but for their fresh ideas. We all know that the client or lawyers end up writing the body copy, so why not let our guys do all the big thinking? It makes perfect sense and kudos to them. It’s a nice gig if you can get it.

So maybe an “advertising copywriter” is a misnomer. Maybe they should be called something else, like… oh, I don’t know… let a copywriter come up with that.

Old-School Ad:




















New-School Ad: