Your Words Are Ugly. So Are Mine.

I was a copywriter for many years. As the guy that writes the headlines, there was always one thing you hated to hear a client or teammate say. “Nobody reads the copy.” You hear it a lot. Almost everyday. It hurts to hear your hard work dismissed as an evil necessity that’s only there if the beautiful layout grabs the readers attention.

Like many things, it hurt because it was true. We tried to deny it but deep down we knew that rarely would a headline be the reason a person stopped to read the ad.

It’s not our fault. Compared to images, words are uninviting, boring and ugly little marks messing up a nice clean surface. Of course the art is going to get peoples attention. Of course a great design is going to get them to look at it. And, according to an old adage, the art director’s picture is worth a 1,000 of our ugly little words. Read more