The copywriting blog

We just love all the one-sided communications that pop up around election time, and  there’s nothing more dodgy than newspaper editorial.

Here’s a link to a brilliant comparison of two articles in the Scottish and English version of the Sun – Obviously neither are famous for their integrity and amazing writing, but it’s still funny to see how brazen the (English) Sun is when it’s talking about politics. 

Our favourite line is:

‘Can there ever have been a more squalid spectacle than this discredited loser scrabbling on his knees to stay in No10?’

Sorry, we shouldn’t mock, but as copywriters we’re used to using emotive language to persuade and influence people, and this is far from subtle. To paraphrase Alastair Campbell’s in his recent run in with a Sky reporter, ”Calm down, have some dignity”   

http://www.dracos.co.uk/scribblings/sun-2010-05-11/

bad copywriting

Here’s an example of some dodgy writing we’ve looked into recently and it nearly made us cry. It’s copywriting for a job advert (quite a dull job actually) , but there’s not reason why a dull job needs a dull advert.

Have a look at this paragraph and see if it makes you want to apply.

The achievement of significant improvements in environmental protection through the systematic identification of operational implementation requirements will be a fundamental outcome of the Environmental Compliance Manager’s activities, as will the leading on identification of cross University process requirements and supporting their implementation. 

“Operational implementation requirements”? Seriously?
HR departments have a habit of using this weird jargon, talking in the third person and thinking everyone else is interested in their boring waffle. Well there’s no need for it, and thats where we come in. With some major tweaks, a bottle of a tipp-ex and a computer screen coverd in tipp-ex, we changed it into an interesting and attractive job advert. We’ll pop a link up to it when it’s published.

copywriting squid

A new list of annoying words was published today, and we love it. It’s from a book called “Damp Squid” that’s full of the most infuriating phrases that make life annoying, from”at the end of the day” to “shouldn’t of”.

While these phrases are most often found in speech rather than copywriting, as writers we’re well used to being annoyed be words. It made us think, as website copywriters, what are our most annoying phrases we come across when we’re editing other people’s copywriting. A quick chat around our copywriters, and here’s our top 3 annoying words

1. “utilise”
2. “welcome to our website”
3. “click here”

Grrr, it’s made our website copywriters angry just thinking of them, and if you send us any copy with them in, they won’t be there once our website copywriters have finished.

It’s for your own good, honestly!