When Copy Rebels: Lettuce get it wrong.
Some things are just never ok to get wrong. Like putting more than the teeniest amount of cloves in well, anything.
And some things you don’t think will be right but not only do they turn out to be right, but they also turn out to be way-way better.
Like putting marmalade in a chicken fajita (no really, trust me, it’s incredible).
Copywriting is much the same. It’s all a case of trial and error and a creative license that needs to be used. In other words, it’s your right to get it wrong.
As a copywriter, you know when to cull a sentence, where to put a full stop or where to feature an appropriate apostrophe. You also no doubt understand just how powerful punctuation and grammar are when it comes to semantics, right?
Question is, do you know when it’s right to be incorrect?
Sometimes copywriters are afraid to break out of the grammatically elite mold. Sometimes proofreaders scoff at what they mistakenly believe is an incompetent error. Sometimes clients mistake a deliberately creative error to mean they’ve hired the wrong copywriter for the job.
It’s time to put this confusion to bed because somewhere out there are topnotch taglines and distinctly dapper descriptions that someone kicked out because they didn’t believe they’d ‘fit in’ and frankly, that’s just discriminating.
Getting it wrong the right way
Pity the fool who underestimates the power of punctuation.
Positioned well, the frivolous full stop.
wholly unnecessary line break,
or supercilious, smart arse semicolon is the trick that sets the beat, the bar, the pace. Punctuation is like body language; Seemingly insignificant or inconsequential on first glance, but in reality, 93% of the deal.
And sometimes incorrect grammar and poor punctuation provide the perfect punch to get the message across. Now, in case I’m giving off the sense that I’m some rebellious ‘trendy’ youngster who txts lyk dis n doesn’t take grammar seriously you’d be wrong, I’m at least 80% old fashioned grammarian at heart. (You can tell because I just used the word trendy and I don’t think anyone cool or youthful uses that word, like, ever.) It’s just, I also know when traditional grammar just won’t work.
Take this image for example:
Imagine if it read:
“Give thanks”
Suddenly you’re left with something that sounds more like some group prompt held up in your local community mindfulness meeting. By merely adding a wholly inappropriate line break and a full stop, the entire meaning is changed, and the message becomes clear, concise and far, far more captivating.
Similar to this, flexible insurance company Swiss Life once had a marketing campaign that featured a series of “reverse statements” on their adverts that reflected life’s unexpected twists and turns. This print advertising campaign was developed by Spillman/Felser/Leo Burnett, and the campaign won Gold at the Epica Awards as well as Silver Press Lions at Cannes International Advertising Festival. It went a little somewhat like the below…
Personally, I thought this technique was brilliant. It takes you by surprise, just like the scenario it depicts. The sentence grammatically doesn’t make a lick of sense, yet that’s precisely why it rolls so slickly off the tongue and lingers in mind. Not only is it a contradicting statement, it completely contradicts everything you think you “should” abide by as a copywriter.
If you were all about the grammar being bang on, you might go for the ad below instead:
While technically correct, I’m sure we all agree this one plods lethargically along like a complete load of nothing that nobody will want to waste their precious time on.
Other notable examples of ads successfully rebelling against the rules include:
“Got Milk”: Part of a famous advertising campaign owned by The California Milk Processor Board should really have been “Do You Have Any Milk?” Needless to say, the former is snappier, simpler, and way more eye-catching, which is no doubt why it was such a success.
Staples: “We got that.”
Apple: “Think Different” should technically speaking, have been “Think Differently.”
Mercedes-Benz: “More power. More style. More technology. Less doors.” That should really be “fewer doors”. But you understood it, right?
Sharper. Snappier. Savvy.
And that’s just it.
This playful practice, particularly of getting creative with adjectives and turning adjectives into nouns, has become all too common in the ad industry, for a good reason. Knowing when to get artistic and skilfully skirt the rules can result in punchier, more memorable headlines and altogether more spectacular vernacular.
Snickers are a prime example of spruced up adverts that don’t conform. Their most recent reads:
“SNIKKERS
Oh deer
its hard to spel when your hungry
if you keap making typing mistakes
grab yourself a snickers fast”
For this unconventional ad, Snickers actually ran a paid search campaign exclusively targeting common misspellings of the top 500 Google-search terms and used ads directing all the searchers to http://you’renotyouwhenyou’rehungry.com/. Their campaign was a buzzing success, producing over 25,000 keywords and generating over 500,000 clicks. Which just goes to show, intentional mistakes can be some of the best ever made.
This doesn’t mean grammar is out the window altogether. Not in the slightest.
You’ll need a grounded understanding of grammar first to know how to play effectively with the rules. If you change the word “affect” to “effect” because you prefer the way the “e” looks, then you’re going to run into trouble, but if you affect your choice of words the smart way, you could end up with a text that reads more effectively. A creative copywriter knows all the essential rules of grammar but also knows when to dish out something more daring, provided it improves the clarity of the message.
Of course, there’s a sweet spot. Just like cloves, it should be used sparingly and only when it works, lest you end up with copy that reads like your Mum trying to text, a cat that’s just stepped on your keyboard, or like something snatched from the comments section of The Sun.
You don’t need to look far to discover what happens when grammar is played with poorly, left out in error, or ignored:
Take NASA and the 1962 case of America’s first interplanetary probe, the Mariner 1. The mission was to get a closer understanding of the planet Venus. Only, a hyphen was missing from the coding used to set trajectory and speed, and that single missing hyphen led the craft to explode mere minutes after takeoff. Yes, a single hyphen.
Of course, accidentally missing punctuation isn’t likely to lead to such dramatic consequences in the copywriting world, but it does have the potential to severely damage a brand.
Old Navy once had to return a whole shipment of t-shirts after omitting an apostrophe before the "s" in “Lets Go.” Clearly, despite the intended sentiment, their t-shirts didn’t get far.
In 2011, Victoria’s Secret dropped an accidental apostrophe into their Secret Body campaign with “You’ve never seen body’s like this!”
Mistakes like that are enough to damage any brand.
Why does any of this matter, you might ask.
You only need to look at the myriad of ways a seemingly subtle full stop can alter the entire meaning of a sentence to realise it does:
I have diarrhea. I wish I could eat. (You poor thing).
I have diarrhea I wish I could eat (I beg your disgusting pardon?)
Sometimes the full stop is like the blissful brain pause between delicious bites of writing. Sometimes it’s the bloody bicycle down a country lane that stops you getting to the point on time. If the latter, it needs to be out of the way. Full stop.
So to sum it all up: If you’re a copywriter, branch out. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination and try out ideas, even if you’re worried they might be too daring. For proofreaders or clients, let us do our job and try and relax. Take the time to gauge whether a mistake is there for beneficial effect or whether it really is there due to poor copy and if you’re not sure, ask!