Copywriting is writing. You write stories, at least that’s
what you’ve convinced yourself of, but secretly you know you’re an advertiser. But,
what about a third option, you are both.
The first time I recall the “story” used as a way of rationalizing
(humanizing is kinder) a political agenda (platform is also kinder) was Obama’s
’08 campaign. The Obama campaign was the first to really capitalize on social
media’s marketing network. I suspect they probably had a first class marketing
team on staff. The politicians had officially jumped into the corporate tank.
My point isn’t to say Obama’s campaign was revolutionary, nor the first, nor
the first time audiences (citizens is kinder) recognize politicians had become
corporatized. I mean to point out a specific moment in time when the “story”
became a figurative device used to speak about a political campaign, and thus
acculturated by corporate advertising, the media, and eventually part of the
daily social media vernacular.
Recently, the term “story” switched to the term “narrative.”
This is probably a result of a copywriter, in search of another, more
millennial-esque word to capture the essence of storytelling. And now, as
copywriters, I read in briefs that we’re “creating a narrative,” or I hear
managers proposing, “Yes, but what’s the narrative!” Calling a story, a
narrative, gives an aloof connotation to something that is intimate.
I like telling myself that I’m writing stories. I believe it
too. I write in a voice that is not mine, yet I can put myself in the shoes of
the brand and become them. It must be authentic and convincing, my critics are
not literary, but seriously, have you ever met a literary critic? Calling it a
narrative, de-personalizes the writing. I suspect it’s all gearing up for AI to
do the writing for us. Narrative sounds like something Deep Mind would create.
The world is getting so crazy, corporate slang is slung into
every aspect of life. I was watching First Take, a sports debate show, and one
of the hosts said something like this, “Lebron is changing the narrative again,
in a desperate attempt to preserve his brand.” Let’s break that down: A story
about Lebron James comes out in the media, and he uses social media to thwart
the haters injecting his own story, and he does this to gain
followers-slash-consumers of his “brand,” which is really just him. Narrative,
Brand, Social Media, not to mention the subtext; people understand the Lebron
is a man who is also a brand. This is textbook Marxist warning against the
dangers of capitalism. When this kind of marketing slingo is saturating our collective
consciousness and we become impossible to separate from the machine.
So, as a copywriter in these times, I don’t need to
rationalize and say I’m a storyteller, because I am one. Copy isn’t read; it’s
absorbed. It’s not passive; it’s CTActive.
Our calls to action are not our own; they come as
directives. This is authentic writing. If you’re lucky enough to get a variety
in your daily key pounding, you know the thrill that comes with something
novel. Mostly I smash keys all day writing descriptions, but I get to write an
article occasionally and that is the kind of thing that elevates my repertoire.
It’s in these moments when you’re grinding and grinding and
something pops, you get a slick little task to write an article on something
you know a lot about, then another about something you know absolutely nothing
about and you’re on the hunt to learn as much as you can. And in the middle of
this you get a request via email from a former client to write a guest
blogpost, and it feels like it just can’t get any better than this. You’re
writing for clients in three different brand voices, writing a guest blog for
MyQ, and writing content to keep your own blog up-to-date.
When these moments come, I’ve learned to let them take me as
long as possible, and then, in slow moments, decompress, reflect, and devise my
next moves. But, even in sparse times, the idea that I’m writing text that
people are reading (consuming is probably more accurate) is enough to inspire
hunger/curiosity/energy in my working life.
