On Mediocre Copywriting.
At least they tried.
Sorry, Millennials, it’s just a fact: Your generation is just not as good at ad creativity as previous gens. I don’t know why. I worked closely with a big newsroom full of crackerjack Millennials for 18 months @BuzzFeed—most whip-smart, sharp-witted.
Maybe: they just don’t want to be ad copywriters. Which, fair play! You gotta abandon part of your soul to write shit to sell shit. I did it back in the 1980s, a bright-eyed journalism-degree-holder who tried for six years to be a truth-telling reporter: getting paid $5 an hour plus 25¢ a mile.
Then, in my mid-20s, I reconnected with my best friend from college, Peter (goalie on the hockey team, I was a right-shot left wing), a philosophy major who also became a reporter, post-graduation.
He had switched to “The Dark Side”, getting a CW job at O&M, NYC. We met up at an NJ Bennigan’s. He showed me his paycheck. I almost immediately enrolled at the School Of Visual Arts in NYC.
More about Peter: He wrote his philosophy final 10-page paper on “Justice In The Soviet Union” (the night before it was due) by using the story told by Neil Peart in Rush’s awesome “2112” album as his linchpin. He smartly took up several of the 10 pages by reprinting Peart’s lyrics from the epic song.
His professor responded thusly: “Do they not have guitars in Russia? C+”.
Peter was born insane, so a perfect choice for a hockey goalie. And, he was a damn good goalie, a damn good writer, a damn good CW.
Peter died from COVID complications in January 2021. I lost a big part of my life that day.
Sorry for all that. But this my Substack. My story. My pain.
So, let’s look at a new UK OOH campaign that’s all copywriting. I got to write a couple of all-copy OOH/billboard NYC campaigns in the late 90s-early 00s. It is the most fun assignment for a CW.
The writing on this campaign is…OK. But…
My writing lessons are never free.