Image: Esther Moreno, Canva
The copywriter writes a headline.
It’s too short, says the creative director.
The copywriter writes a longer headline.
It’s not inspiring enough, says the creative director.
Now the copywriter writes a headline with active verbs to make it more rousing.
Maybe what we need is more of a narrative, says the creative director.
Confused, the copywriter writes a longish headline that tells a story.
Maybe what we need is more of a narrative.
Is it ownable by the brand? asks the creative director.
The copywriter scratches their head. They look up previous advertisements of the brand to find out what feeling they own. They write the feeling down.
Yeah, but what should they own now? asks the creative director.
The copywriter becomes angry. Their thoughts, they think, are tied together like knots.
How about this? they say a little later.
That’s better, but it needs to be punchier, says the creative director.
This gets to the heart of what they’re about, they say an hour later.
The creative director considers the copy. It’s still missing the spark for me, replies the creative director.
Their thoughts, they think, are tied together like knots.
The copywriter walks away. They go outside of the office and smoke two cigarettes. They think about the easy problem they need to solve, which feels like a conundrum now. At the last drag, before they butt out the second cigarette, they experience a slight rush of confidence, which they consider to be inspiration. They go upstairs and send the creative director their original headline via email. Two minutes later, they receive a response:
Sharp, punchy, ownable!
The copywriter sighs with relief.
They place the headline into another email and send it to the account director. The account director copies the headline and pastes it into Facebook Ad Manager along with an image of the brand’s product. Then they publish the advertisement to 33,560 people aged between 31 and 39 who work full-time in business management, live in the inner boroughs of London and enjoy ethically non-monogamous relationships on the weekend.
This is a short story from Ennis Cehic’s debut collection Sadvertising. Sadvertising is available now at your local independent bookseller.
