Category Archives: Advertising headlines

Word to your mother

My mom and me—future luxury destination copywriter—on Sanibel Island

Ever wonder whether copywriters are made or born?

No, I hadn’t wasted any time thinking about it either.

Honestly, I thought I just sort of fell into copywriting. It was a zig-zaggy path that started with a degree in psychology, followed by a pit stop in market research, and a good chunk of time in ad and PR agencies. But I had some confidence that whatever copywriting skill I had was honed through years of agency experience.

Wrong.

Behold Exhibit A, my mom’s recent letter to me.

Copywriting gold from a copywriter's mom

Sent in advance of my birthday, she thought a coupon for a frozen dinner (really Mom?) would get me out of cooking on that day.

Here’s an excerpt:

You won’t have to cook on that day using this excellent coupon. By adding an additional $4.00 in cash you will be able to purchase the largest frozen entrée Stouffer offers.

If that is advertising copy gold, I don’t know what is.

But sadly, she wouldn’t be able to hold onto the Stouffer’s account for very long:

Never, never buy Stouffer’s meatloaf. Completely inedible.

So in honor of Mother’s Day, thanks Mom. I think it’s pretty obvious who has the copywriting talent in the family… and where I got my snarky edge.

Love you, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day.

800 Headlines

I’m pretty much a “one and done” copywriter. My clients rarely come back to me with edits, and sometimes, with tight deadlines, my copy goes whoosh into layouts before I can even ask, “Any changes?” When it comes to headlines, I usually develop 5, 10, maybe 25 if I’m really stretching myself. And my clients always find one that works. I was feeling pretty smug. Until I read about Sally Hogshead. She’s the author of Fascinate, about seven triggers that help marketers break through the clutter. On her website, she writes about her days as a copywriter on the BMW account. Her rule of thumb: write 100 headlines for every 1 you need. For the new BMW campaign, the client needed 8, so she wrote 800 headlines. Yep. 800. Pretty brilliant, I thought. And it inspired me, too. While I probably won’t be churning out 100 headlines for every headline assignment, it’s made me rethink how I approach developing names, taglines and headlines. Quantity doesn’t equal quality, but I do think that as you develop lots of names, sometimes you’re taken in new directions along the way. Thanks for the lesson well learned, Sally.