By Sean Averette.
One copywriter's attempt at an outlet. Sometimes thoughts on advertising. Sometimes thoughts on culture. Sometimes thoughts on travel. Most of the time blather.
Monday Morning
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Monday morning.
Whizzing fantastic blur of cars
Destination pre-determined
Motivation un-motivated
Bitter, coffee-fueled rage of road
Emails, texts, calls, calendars
Punch in to punch
A ticket to anywhere else
9 a.m.
I first took the train to visit my sister in Memphis. From my house in Baton Rouge, the drive is a seven hour straight shot north. But by train, it's only an hour longer. Call it my millennial weakness for "experiences", but Amtrak's City of New Orleans train seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a little something extra out of this weekend escape. I boarded at the train station in Hammond. As I approached the ticket window, I was excited from the simple fact that the station smelled well-worn, like a museum. It reminded me of the smells of old wooden pews and choir loft hymnals in the churches that adorn small Southern towns. Spending a Sunday on the train is worship in its own right. Like the congregations gathered outside their churches, all kinds of Americans, all shades, all origins are brought together on the train. Everyone has a different reason for riding. One lady I spoke with stopped flying altogether after her plane was subject to an ...
Before you stick your hands up or roll up your sleeves in preparation for a lengthy diatribe on the justice system, keep in mind that I try to stick to themes of copywriting and creative writing. Today I want to make a case for contrarian copy. Let me give you a second to roll your eyes. This should be a no-brainer. I know, I know. But I've noticed a concerning pattern in the messaging clients want and, in turn, what accounts expects from their copywriters. Utterances like, "Say something positive" or "Can we make it sound positive?", "The headline is too provocative" or, my favorite, "People might ask questions" frequent the conference room (or Zoom/Hangouts/Facetime/Skype call) all too often. We could scream hollow positives of no substance until we're as blue in the face as a suffocating Smurf, but there's no way our audience will actually believe it. What's the point in running an ad if it's not to get someone...
Behold, the open-office concept at its best. No walls, no doors, no place to hide from the nausea of advertising's many fatal flaws. No barriers to prohibit the common collective collaborative process all in the name of productivity. If this sounds like your office then you will appreciate this malarkey. Comrade, I too work in one of the modern-day sweatshops we call the ad agency creative floor—rows of desks and monitors and keyboards and perfectly aligned. Even the break-rooms are positioned away from the "shop" floor so as to promote efficiency and discourage the thing they were designed for: breaks. Well between sessions of mundane meetings, other creatives and I will scurry over to the kitchen to top off our coffee. The dilemma? That scurry takes us through and behind a space for accounts. Mind you, the hallways are open, and it cuts the time to the kitchen in half. Sounds harmless, right? If only that were so. We received a quick "word....
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