Steve Jobs.













From his 2005 address at Stanford University:

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Smart man.

Poor Nan.

A menu from an Indian restaurant came through my letterbox the other day. I’ve tried them since, and their food is great. But as you can see from their menu, the in-house entertainment is a bit sadistic.

There's often confusion between proper and common nouns. And the difference can be important, (especially to Nan). If you’re talking about a particular person, place or thing, then use a capital. If it’s just any old object, (something there are many of, hence the phrase ‘common noun’), then don’t use a capital.

So if you’re talking about a naan bread – which is a common object - it’s lower case. But if you’re talking directly to your parent’s mum (a particular nan), “Hello Nan” for instance, then it’s capital. Talking about a nan indirectly it's a common noun, because there are lots of nans. So for “It looks like someone’s nan knitted it” then it’s lower case.

Remember, you can put a naan in the clay oven. But you can’t put Nan in the clay oven.

 

Grey isn’t good.

A lot of my site is about tone of voice copywriting, because I think its important and missing from a hell of a lot of corporate writing. But tone goes beyond writing – it’s the whole attitude of a brand or company. Take dress codes, for example. Plain suits or dresses, plain ties, black shoes. Corporate policies vary, but the implied emphasis is usually on the drab and dour. I could think of only two other times when people dress like that: court appearances and funerals. Is that really the image businesses want to project?

And here’s why I think it’s a bad thing. Companies spend so much time – and money – trying to get into the shoes and heads of their customers (financial services folks, I’m looking at you). Yet their work environments are as far removed as possible from everyday lives of normal people. They dress differently, speak differently (corporate jargon is the language of evil) and even behave differently. How is that empathising with the customer?

Clients are often surprised by the apparently relaxed attitude taken by advertising agencies in their approach to everyday working life. Jeans and t-shirts are the norm. Meetings are kept to a manageable number. And people usually speak the same way they would to a friend in the pub. Most clients I’ve met go out of their way to arrange time with their agency, probably just to get away from the grey for a day.

My point is, it doesn’t have to be that way. Old school rules don’t apply any more. With the advent of social networking, we’re starting to understand that people want to be listened to. And if you’re going to start a conversation with a customer, it pays to be speaking their language, not yours.

 

I'm still here.

Yes, I’m still here and I’m still a copywriter. I’ve been busy writing for lots of different clients (I’ll try and get some of the work I’ve been doing up in the portfolio section, non-disclosure agreements permitting).

 

I’ve mainly been working on tone-of-voice website copywriting – it forms the bulk of what I do these days. So if you need a copywriter to write some web copy, then I’m at the other end of an email.

 

Anyway, apologies for writing so infrequently recently, but like I said, I’ve been busy writing words. And thanks to those of you who were bored/kind/unhinged enough to email me and ask for more entries. In an abusive kind of way, admittedly, but I suppose the thought was there. As for the person who keeps asking for more monkey-related entries - you know who you are - you really need to get out more. Accept this entry, call it quits, and I won't have to call the police.