Copywriting

Without copywriting, there’d be
no advertising. Simple.

It’s how you say it that’s important.
Mark my word(s).

When I started in advertising a good 31 years back, copywriting was an art and I remember looking up to all the amazing copywriters in London – in those days, the city that produced the world’s best advertising - and being mesmerised by it.

Back in the day, the ads that became billboards and inevitably, made the pages of newspapers, were magnificent and garnered awards all over the world. One of my favorites was a newspaper ad featuring a pair of tennis shoes. The headline: “McENROE SWEARS BY THEM”. (If you don’t get it, you’re way too young. John McEnroe was the enfant terrible of the tennis world; the world’s no 1 – and one who swore like a trooper. There was hardly a call made by the umpires that he was happy with, and there were many memories of him screaming at anyone who dared be in his firing line. Hence the (very) clever headline.

Another great ad was for Maggie Thatcher’s Conservative Party, in which the headline “LABOUR ISN’T WORKING’ – showing a long line of unemployed queuing for the dole - succeeded in getting the Brits into the voting booths, propelling her party to victory.

On seeing great work, we creative-types have a saying “I wish I had done that” and in the case of these ads, I REALLY, REALLY wish I had done them”.

Yes, those were the days: of ads made memorable by copywriting that caressed, cajoled and sold. In the 1970s and 1980s, the creative work of an agency held sway and the result was advertising that turned heads.

Today, as a copywriter with 31 years work experience, and as a past part-time lecturer in copywriting, I LOVE to write – and nothing gives me greater pleasure than turning out good work. Like most copywriters who love this profession and have the necessary passion, I aspire to producing consistently good advertising, in the form of work that stands out and gets noticed.

In the meantime, here are some of the ads I’ve written in the past. If they look old, it’s because they ARE old. And not all of them ran. You’ll see some of my more recent work elsewhere on this website.

When all’s said and done, I can write pretty much anything and everything: from a TV ad to a billboard: from a newspaper ad to a radio script; from a website script to a series of street pole posters. Whatever the requirement, I’ll write it until I’m happy with it. And YOU’RE happy with it. (Yes, you can have that in writing). I’m happy to write whatever, wherever. Your place or mine.