Copywriting Blog
Scoring Deflation in Scrabble? Count Me Out
/1 Comment/in News /by Dan O'SullivanI’m a proud, long-time Scrabble nerd. And now the forces of evil are trying to mess with my game. I first got into Scrabble as a teen. I started with the standard fold-out board before upgrading to the deluxe model, which rotated on a base (no more looking at tiles upside down!). I later picked […]
Beam me up an ice-cold Bud, Scotty
/in Media /by Anna GoldsmithLast night my husband and I went to see the new Star Trek. Yes, it was great. And no, I was not a fan going in. In fact, I was about as far from a fan as you could get, having never watched a full episode in my life. Not that it matters because this […]
This Cinco de Mayo, Let’s Party Like Mexican Rock Stars (If They Existed)
/in News /by Anna GoldsmithIf you’ve ever wandered the aisles of your local CVS looking for that perfect card to apologize for extensively underlining your friend’s copy of American Psycho, perhaps you’re just looking in the wrong place. That “perfect” card belongs to the subversive online greeting card company Someecards, along with cards about hernia operations, accidentally stealing your friend’s […]
‘The Men Have Been Flying Around Me Like Honeybees!’
/in Media, The Writing Life, Writing Tips /by Dan O'SullivanPart of our job as copywriters is to advise our clients on what not to do. Don’t make the subject line for that email so long. Don’t make users hit the Scroll Down button eight times to reach the bottom of that Web page. And one of my personal favorites: Don’t include anonymous testimonials in […]
What Copywriters Can Learn from the BBC
/2 Comments/in News, The Writing Life /by Anna GoldsmithThis morning a design friend of mine sent me a great article called “World’s Best Headlines: BBC News” written by “usability guru” Jakob Nielsen. As the title suggests, Web writers could learn a thing or two from BBC’s headline-writing pros. Nielsen writes, “For several years, I’ve been very impressed with BBC News headlines, both on the […]
Bats Looking for PR Boost Could Learn Lesson from Squirrel Community
/in News, Public Relations /by Dan O'SullivanA strange illness is devastating bat populations throughout the Northeast, and few people seem to care. Some wildlife experts believe the lack of research dollars going toward the problem is due to the fact that, well, people generally don’t like bats. In a recent Boston Globe article, Beth Daley writes: Despairing bat biologists want to […]
Answer key for mix-n-match movie taglines
/in News /by Anna GoldsmithAnd here are the answers from the previous post, where we invited readers to see how many famous movie taglines they could correctly identify. 1. “They’re young … they’re in love … and they kill people.” (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) 2. “This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.” (The Graduate, 1967) 3. […]
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
/1 Comment/in Branding /by Anna GoldsmithAs a copywriter, I spend a lot of time thinking about taglines. The best ones are both memorable and also manage to summarize the company’s brand essence in a few short words. Nike: Just do it. Apple: Think different. The Hired Pens: We choose your words carefully. You might not have known ours, but I’ll […]
An Open Note to an Anonymous Client
/in The Writing Life /by Dan O'SullivanI freely claim to be bad at a lot of things. Dancing, gardening, communicating with people who have a thick foreign accent, fixing just about anything around the house … the list goes on. On the other hand, I don’t claim to be good at much. Writing is one of the few categories where I’d […]
Bostonist.com Plugs Our Web Spots
/1 Comment/in News /by Anna GoldsmithWe were really psyched to see a mention today in the Bostonist.com about our new Web spots for Down:2:Earth. See below for a snippet, or read the whole piece here. With MBTA hiking fares and the threat of rising gas prices, everyone could use a shorter commute to work. But living in your office? Down […]
