Guess who made this statement.  "If you get up in the morning and go to sleep in the night and in between do what you like, consider yourself a successful man".    Interesting?  Familiar?  In case you haven't cracked it yet, it is Bob Dylan. A singer of my time whose profundity is a far cry from the profanity that we are being subjected to today.  To get back to our original promise of success, it is worth remembering that success in copywriting or life , will come if you like what you are doing.    So the question to ask yourself before you even contemplate a career in copywriting is this.  "Do I like writing?"  And that is a big question.  Remember it's a big step that you are taking.

The world of copywriting.

Many of us like to write and do so with varying degrees of success.   And yet, there is an important point of difference between literary writing and advertising writing.  Its easy perhaps to write a clever piece for the college magazine or write a poem that goes on to a website, or even write an evocative love letter that gets the desired response (and prepares us for a career in direct mail!)  It is important in my opinion to reiterate that it is not easy being a copywriter.  In a sense you have to unlearn some of the literature that we have so carefully assimilated over the years and forget that books like "Six weeks to words of power" exist.  We need to remember that the average English vocabulary of our consumer extends (at best) to a few hundred words.  And very often in India , we must talk to the consumer in her own language.  Which may be Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi and so on.  So an English idiom will not work nor will an essentially foreign (read alien) thought.   So it is not about style nor vocabulary, nor mere proficiency in the English language (though it helps), but about the power of ideas.  Ideas that will strike a chord in consumers' minds and make them reach for their handbags.  So it calls for discipline.  Hard work as you have to keep a mental picture of your consumer, get under her skin and into her mind to enable her to put your product in her shopping bag.

All around us are images, incidents and happenings.  Any one of these can be the trigger for an idea, an ad or a wonderful television commercial.  The Oxford dictionary describes serendipity as the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident.  Soak yourself in life, books, movies and you never know when it will come in handy.  One of the most famous lines and stances of my days was "we don't see Tamil pictures.  We only see English pictures".  (And see where we are now!!)  Your audience is watching Upendra, Kamala Hassan, Rajnikanth (I do not need to tell you on Shivaji- the movie) and Shah Rukh Khan and idolizing them.  So why are you still stuck with George Clooney?  Now I do not wish to sound extreme or parochial but try not to get into the mental blocks that many of us have, that anything foreign is superior, that Indian movies are down market and that the whole world knows and loves English (Just ask the Japs or the Germans).  I think good copywriters have their head on their shoulders and do not have too many hang-ups. They also think visually.  And they also know that even if a picture paints a thousand words, it needs words to say so.  Readers see the ad as a whole, and not as copy and visual.

Training before the job.

You may have the ability and yet not get an opportunity, as jobs for copywriter trainees are not all that many.  Yet, smart people are always prepared for the opportunity that comes their way.  They keep writing; adding to their portfolio.  They live, think and dream advertising.  They watch TV avidly and read newspapers and magazines for the ads.  They look at ads (good or bad) and try to figure out how they would have rewritten those published ads had they been given a chance.  They analyze the campaigns they see.  They know that practice makes perfect.  And basically, whilst any degree will do, an arts or a humanities degree helps.  Although I do know of a couple of guys from management school too who have made it big as writers (exceptions though).  And my friend R. Balakrishnan (Balki) the Executive Creative Director of Lowe is (hold your breath) an MCA!  So its not what you are, but how you write.  And boy can he write!

Think different.

The whole business of advertising is all about being different. How does your commercial stand out from the clutter?   How do you get noticed? Somewhere along the line, people get confused about "thinking different" and "looking different".  So they assume that you must have a ponytail, earrings and smoke beedies (at least they used to).  That's one of the biggest myths that you will ever be exposed to.  Your thinking can and must be different, but your dress and demeanour needn't be.  And a fact that (some) creative people fail to recognize is "airplanes arrive, people don't".  (I said this once at a seminar and a guy in the audience said, "Are you referring to Indian Airlines, by any chance?").  But seriously, as a budding copywriter, try to remember that each one of us has miles to go before we sleep and whilst the truth is that advertising writing can bring money, success and recognition, success can also be a bit too brief.  And there is one more sobering thought, "today's great press ad is tomorrow's wrapping paper".

Money, money, money.

If you are a good copywriter, the chances are that you will make money.  As someone said, "you can lead the life of an artist and have the income of a foreign exchange dealer".  Now that's not something to be sneered at.  But here's an interesting comment that's relevant to all writers aspiring or already in the business.  "If you want to be a well-paid copywriter, please your client.  If you want to be an award-winning copywriter, please yourself. If you want to be a great copywriter, please your reader".  Sound advice because the reader is your ultimate consumer.  I have a simple philosophy in copywriting and in life.  "Chase success and not money".  For chances are, if you chase success, money, recognition and all that jazz will follow.  Let me end with a statement made by Dr. Samuel Johnson, way back in 1759, "The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that its not easy to propose any improvement".  Well, 248 years later, its no closer to perfection.  It is waiting.... For young talented people like you to enter it and transform it.

‘WELCOME TO THE MADHOUSE". 

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO brand-comm, which offers public relations advertising and brand consulting.   Feedback can be mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Issue BG76 July07

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