A weasel, as all good copywriters know, is a word or expression that gives you a misleading impression of something, usually good, without actually lying. Common ones are “virtually” and “up to”. Anyhow. yesterday the one I love brought me …
Read MoreAuthor: Gerald Woodgate
Fashionable drivel with helpful advice from 400 years ago – plus your advice, please
I’ll tell about the picture in a minute as it may interest you. But first, I am often amused by the way, at regular intervals, people tell you everything has changed, customers are getting smarter etc., etc. Only this morning …
Read MoreHow NOT to write copy. This writer swallowed the wrong dictionary – then vomited all over the page.
In my talks about copy I always suggest three pretty steadfast rules: 1, What you offer matters far more than what you say. 2. What you say matters far more than how you say it. 2. The headline matters far …
Read MoreWhat kind of customers do you have? New audio series, Virgin’s banking plans, Spain and Northwestern – and an old video
If you want to persuade people, you’d better understand them. So here’s a tip: read the correspondence. Many years ago I wrote copy for a pain reliever called Cephos. The fact that people used put it in warm water to …
Read MoreAnother up his own arse show-biz loon gets carried away – this time in Sydney. And some thoughts about the BBC’s betrayal of trust
Over here we have a man called Moyle (or Moyles – can’t remember which) who gets paid far too much for blathering away in the morning on BBC radio. His chief characteristics appear to be homophobia, anti-semitism, an ability to …
Read MoreIf they can’t write English, how good d’you suppose they are on investment advice? Plus a bizarre sense of priorities that mystifies me
Eileen McCarthy of UK Auctioneers in Chester got a message from the Financial Times who wanted her to advertise. It read, “As a number of global dynamics play out, investors are still airing on the side of caution and sticking …
Read MoreA little self-promotion – and what the Bliar and McToad started, Cameron and Osborne look set to finish
I’ll get to the bit all about Me, glorious Me in a minute, but the chief reason why I have to bray so loudly is because of what successive governments have done to me and lot of old codgers like …
Read MoreIs a slum really the answer? And how to become a famous author, speaker etc., in two shakes of a lamb’s tail
I took the picture outside Bristol Cathedral, which I walk past pretty much every every day. They show the camp set up by the people who are protesting against the excesses of capitalism – something I too feel pretty strongly …
Read MoreThis morning’s haul: an illiterate “holistic” miracle worker, another bloody legend and another sure-fire formula. Will it ever end? And does it work?
Someone clever once observed that if the tray tables on your aircraft aren’t clean you start to wonder how well they look after the engines. In much the same way, I wonder about people promising miracles who can’t write decent …
Read MoreHow the Greeks will solve their debt problem. An old, but good parable
It is a slow day in the little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. A rich German tourist, name of Merkel, is …
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