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.