Poppy Copy, freelance copywriting

I’ve always been interested in the mechanics of copywriting. By that I mean the crafting of words to set the tone, engage the audience, sell them the benefits. I think the best copy comes when you are genuinely enthusiastic and engaged yourself. That doesn’t mean that you must personally believe that Mr.Woof is the yummiest dog food available (having personally sampled it) but that you must believe that Mr.Woof is yummy for dogs, that Mr. Woof’s makers want it to be yummy and appealing and that the dogs getting their chops around Mr.Woof’s will agree that it was a good job their owners read that piece about Mr.Woof as it is a yummy, yummy dog food.

This is how I was able to get through years of creating competitions for people to win S club 7 albums. I didn’t think S club 7 were the best band on the planet but the people who entered the competitions certainly did and so I wrote copy that encouraged these people to enter and the record company appreciated that we weren’t belittling their market. I put myself in the place of the young girl/guy who really wanted to have S club’s album before everyone else (I suffer for my art), listened to the album (really suffer) and wrote the copy accordingly. And, in the end, I had to admit it was kind of fun. I can still hum the songs now.

Yet everyday I am amazed by the adverts and thinly disguised magazine pieces that cater for the mythical single girl (and by that I mean not settled with children, really) with spare cash and the brain power of Kerry Katona divided by Jordan. I refuse to believe that girls of my age (I’m not that old, a sprightly 27) are truly suckered in by promises of ‘fighting the guys off’ and ‘countless annoying admirers’. There’s currently a trend for showing women fighting off men, Lara Croft style, as some strange contortion of empowerment, the latest of which can be found at live-academy.com.

I cannot believe this is the primary way to communicate to an audience of young women in their 20s. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is how guys in their 30s like to think of girls in their 20s, possibly to rationalise how many women fought them off when they were in their 20s! Maybe I’m wrong and most women love the idea of blatantly turning down admirers left, right and centre but my personal experience is the positive empowerment of young girls in the 90s has been subsumed by a culture of sexual prowess as queen in advertising. Many adverts no longer sell the attractive benefits of having a hair colour that makes you look good and boosts your self-confidence but instead sells it as fast track to being a great pole dancer (just a hobby, obviously), celebrity dominatrix and the ability to drink a bottle of tequila while turning down every man in the room. That is not empowerment. That is a very drunk Saturday out which inevitably results in a dreadful hangover and much regret. Who wants their product to have that lasting legacy?

I’ve just ordered the book ‘Inside Her Pretty Little Head: Branding And Marketing To Women’, written by two actual live women called Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts, that argues companies who target women as their main consumers, and presumably target them as women rather than pole dancers and lap dancers in waiting, do best. It should be a fascinating read. Of course, if they do suggest that all women want to be lap dancers I’ll just have to suck it up and write copy with nipple tassels on. Just to get into the right frame of mind. At least it won’t be listening to S Club 7 again.