Today's advertising has become visual lead. Striking images with just an explanatory jot and the logo. The reason for this trend is, they say, all too obvious. People no longer have the time to read ads. They just see it. Because, life itself has become faster and people have lost the patience to spend precious time on trivia. And so, that fine art called copywriting is dying a silent death.
Are images enough to sell a brand or convince people to buy something? Does imagery evoke emotions? Very much so. But the problem is, imagery can evoke a number of feelings or emotions within the intended target. The objective of advertising is more specific and focused. It usually plans to evoke a single desired response rather than a number of emotions. In simple terms, advertising can never be vague. If it were so, advertising needn't have art directors; instead artists can create and play around with the brand. The result could be a creation that transcends every conceivable benchmark of what is considered to be exemplary in art. But then, it will not serve the advertiser’s purpose.
So what could be the solution? To me, it seems all too simple. Learn to write with joy. Your target will sense it and read your ads. Every word of it. And if at all possible, try and make your ad look like anything but an ad. If it’s a typo ad, why not make it look, perhaps, like a chapter out of Garcia’s ‘general in the labyrinth’, all the while making sure that every line you write is actually advocating the client’s objective.
And don’t try and tell me that people don’t read Garcia.
