Copywriting calamity

First thing today I got a Google News Alert from a fellow copywriter – he of the advertising persuasion – clearly discomfited by the pace of change in today’s marketplace.

He was bemoaning the shortening of people’s attention spans and the subsequent necessity to write for a less focused audience.

Yes, it does change things. Yes, this is perhaps not what you entered the industry to address. But the simple fact of life is that everything moves on.

We move on as workers. Thankfully with change comes challenge. And anyone in the creative industries should be by the very nature of the discipline, in a state of high alert and positively responsive to flux.

We covered the necessities of 21st century advertising in a recent WAM post.

I’ve repeated my words of compassion (and a brutal reality check so it’s a balanced response!) below.

Let me know what you think. Are you a classical copywriter with contemporary issues, or have things worked out for you a treat?

Jaded, despondent and disillusioned – the clarion call of a classical copywriter in this modern maelstrom of life.

While I indubitably concur that progress renders much of yesterday’s strategy for copywriting excellence redundant, I find the pace of change incredibly inspiring, challenging and refreshing.

I strive to stretch my creativity and thirst for versatility any which way to sate client and consumer impartially. This ‘evolution’ towards a constant craving for the quick hit sometimes takes me way beyond my comfort zone and into new realms of creativity unmatched by copywriting efforts in days of yore.

Much better to seize the bull’s horns than to lament the passing of days of yore.