In ‘Is nostalgia for long copy an indulgence in this digital era?’
(Campaign, 5 October) a new breed of copywriter, Paula Jackson, says
she would rather switch to MTV than read a 500-word ad.
Golly, gosh. Better put away your quills then, David Abbott, Tim
Delaney, Chris O’Shea etc. You’d better face up to the fact that the
ability to write long copy has about as much relevance to advertising as
basket-weaving.
If you want to keep up with Jackson, you’d better get into the new hi-
tech thinking fast. Why, she even has the support of a couple of
industry sages.
Did you not read that Patrick Collister has now decreed that the quality
of your literary skills are ‘no longer relevant’? Were you not aware
that John Hegarty himself has said that ‘long body copy is an
indulgence’?
It’s all there in the article, in case you missed it.
And it contains another big point you’d better take to heart, too.
According to the article, it’s ideas they’re looking for these days. You
didn’t know that, did you? You thought it was all down to a bit of
crafting, didn’t you? Silly you.
Thank goodness, after all these years, there’s a new breed of Beano-
reading creative, untainted by nasty old traditional skills and values
and able to tell us how it is - and that’s despite the efforts of old
kill-joys like Adrian Holmes banging on about ‘yobbish’ advertising
and Tony Brignull, who even dared to criticise Tony Kaye.
Geoff Horne, Maidenhead
