The Copy Scribe's Tale

The Copy Scribe's Tale

I do possess a pen for writing
Which I use also for reference citing
But of course we, on a qwerty keyboard do publish
For modern time requests of our English
To be abreast of the time's direction
And to keep our technology under constant inspection.
Time, of course, waits for no man
And no man will sway its arbitrary plan,
Cant, as they will, in traditional lore tune
Of great expectations and God-sparing fortune.
With this lament begins my Tale today,
Of Prince Ameer from AAA
Whom was a copy scribe like I, and was proud
To proclaim a few compositions aloud
To any he deemed worthy to hear
A given body script or radio ad idea.
He loved his writing so, that did promote a brand
As well as himself to make a name in his land.
But let us not forget the bane of this pride,
That we should seek in our work and divide
What we cherish and what is of promotional function
Lest we crumble at the critique of any conjunction
For it will doom the scribe to unfounded dispair
At the sight of commercial corrections here and there.
But of these things, Prince Ameer was not yet aware
As he wracked his brains and pulled at his hair
For inspiration was sparse at the time
And any idea would seem sublime
To be on-brief and to the inquisitors' liking.
Questioned the Prince, "A concept with mountain biking?
Or what about hamsters that would appear so cute?
Would the inquisitors not think that astute?"
Inquisitors did not look kindly upon such art
Which was conceived during a brainfart
But valued that which celebrated benefits
Be it of clever, referential Monty Python skits


To be continued...

The Best Ad in the World.

On receiving a brief for Handy Andy at college, how can this masterpiece of mine avoid winning a Loerie?

Psalms from the World Cup: Spain vs Germany semi-final

The wrath of the Germans had finally been dashed to pieces, and the South African hosts sounded their vuvuzelas with greath mirth and merriment. The non-believers countenanced not the abysmal German performance. The heathens wept and called out to the Germans in the departing tourbus. "What shall come of ye in the conflict of the 3rd-place?" inquired a non-believer of a German player. He who is named Schweinsteiger replied, "We shalt gather the remains of our dignity. We pray that we produce victory lest we fall to the Uruguayans." And to this the heathens replied, "Godspeed thou, for thou hast struggled to retain possession against the Spaniards. We fear thou shalt suffer similar hardship at the feet of the Forlan the Conquerer". "He is but a great leader and striker," exclaimed Mueller the Young. "Confident word of us dominating the Uruguayans are rightly thus reduced to dung from the bull." And all were in agreement of the truth uttered from the youth.

Spain did triumph over their oppressors, and they saw that it was a great victory. And lo, the German car flags and mirror-socks did doth disappear. "Behold the Spanish victory", cried the happy people of South Africa, for they celebrated that all was well again in their land. But all was not yet well. "Heed the Dutch, for they have vanquished Forlan the Conquerer," proclaimed David Villa to his followers. "Let us harken unto our great striker's words, for they are wise words," said Xavi. And, at the behest of their prolific goalscorer, the Spaniards knew to prepare substantially for the world's greatest battle.

It's copyWRITER! With a "W".

When I did Media studies and English, it annoyed me when people asked me "what's that?" and "what job can you get with that?" Now that I'm studying Copywriting, a far more specialised field synonymous with the job name, I find it much more annoying that people assume what it is.

"Oh, like with law and that" and "Oh ja, intellectual property. Great stuff". No, that's not what I do. That's Copyrighting. R-I-G-H-T-ing. I write copy for adverts. I've learned to answer simply that I write adverts. Of course, the title is way oversimplified as it involves brainstorming advert ideas, working with an art director and formulating campaigns for radio. We also make sure that the marketing element is in place for the advert so that we can actually sell the product for the client/brand. Otherwise, the great ad would be great in the same way Anna Kournikova is a great tennis player.

What is even more confusing is that the rights to the adverts, copy, visuals, concept etc. play a major role in the field. The intellectual property of the copy, and the rights of the advert are all vital to the process of publishing an advert. So yes, copyrighting is involved in copywriting. Kapish? Oh, and FYI: The agency/college gets the rights to the adverts, and not the bright spark who thought of the idea. At least we can put the ads in our portfolio. Sweet.

From my internship at an ad agency (that provided the free time from which this blog was relaunched) I see we're not safe in the industry either. Junior copywriters are assumed to be dictionaries because "words are our thing". Nevertheless, I press on through the questions and assumptions by family, old friends and new people I meet. It seems that the annoying homophone (write) and the equally annoying homonym (copy) will continue to team up and haunt the description of the job and industry. Unless, of course, it is spelled out (literally) to those who ask. What's in a name?: Confusion, assumption and frustration.

Dilbert: Take some time out of your day to worship Scott Adams' genius.

I've just got hold of the first 2 seasons of the Dilbert TV series, and watching it after spending some time interning at an advertising agency, I now appreciate its genius.

In the same way South Park is precise in satiring everyday-life, such are the masterpieces of Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, in satiring the corporate environment. The short-sighted logic of bosses, the evil indifference of the human resources department and the marketers' faux friendliness are all humourously ridiculed almost to the point of utter poetry. It's sheer brilliance. Every single character is representative of a concept in reality and Dilbert himself is a medium through which these common experiences can be portrayed.

As a teenager, I bought The Dilbert Principle, The Dilbert Future, and Dilbert's Joy of Work. To me, they were sort of reference books because they were non-fiction and only referenced the actual Dilbert strip after explaining each concept. I liked this about them because they weren't just a collection of funnies. They were a collection of true-to-life ideas that were explained through a few strips. They revolutionised the way I think of things; most notably my cynicism and sense of humour. After that I delved into The Way of the Weasel, which also gave me insight into the ridicule of the corporate environment. I applied this in my final years at high school which was very rewarding as high school is run exactly as a business (at least the one I was at), except for downsizing I think. Then again, I've heard of pupils being "suggested" to other schools and of course, students changing schools. As a result, I didn't find it difficult to convert the corporate satire into academic institution satire. What an eye-opener.

Working in the agency I'm at, I can see how the satire works in essence. The way marketers are portrayed in Dilbert are so precise to the way they generally behave that I think the hyperbole can be applied to practically any marketer. The way I've seen marketers behave in both the real world and at advertising college had me canning myself with laughter at the way they behave in the TV series.

Get something Dilbert now, be it merchandise or a watch if you can't get a book. Even try and bend your tie upwards to work or something, because homage must be paid to an oeuvre this phenomenal.

My Guitar Setup

Should we still respect Zinedine Zidane?

Not often do we come across a player who transforms an entire footballing nation from apprentices of Europe into the monarchs of a generation. Zinedine Zidane was certainly such a player.

The French hosts of World Cup '98 were a seemingly mediocre team leading up to the finals. Even their home advantage of the finals didn't give the world much expectation of what was to come. Zidane pummelled in two headed goals against the Brazilian kings of football in the final to be crowned World Champions. They subsequently became champions of Europe at Euro 2000 as well, lead by the respected Zidane. For the time being, Zidane had erased the glory and hype around the Brazilian footballing way of life, and transferred all focus on the French flair. They were unstoppable. Players like Lillian Thuram, Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka were suddenly at the helm of football, rapidly being transferred to the club giants of European football. Zidane was the hero of French, and in many senses, world football.

Things fell apart at World Cup '02. France left the group stages without scoring a single goal. They were shamed. But, they returned will full force at World Cup 2006, reaching the final beating the Brazilians on the way again. The French looked strong in the final until the incident. When Zidane headbutted Materazzi and was sent off in the World Cup final, he had lost all respect. This was the hero's grand exit from the game he had changed. Zidane watched his flourishing work crumble as Italy beat France on penalties in the 2006 World Cup Final.

The events leading up to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 shamed France even more, as France knocked out Ireland with an obvious hand ball goal to take them to South Africa instead of the Irish. The French team were booed more often by the French than any other "supporters". Their performance was abysmal, not looking like a team at all. This was life after Zidane. Should we excuse Zizou? Should we still respect a great player despite a horrible retaliation on the world's greatest footballing stage? I, for one, respect Zidane as a footballer despite the incident, as musos respect Kurt Cobain despite his suicide.