Cliche Quicksand (The Copy Chronicles 3)

Unloading. Don't read if you don't want to hear today's "heartbroken"tales.
If you happen to be my officemate or my colleague or my client and you read this blog, please be forewarned that I don't want to talk about this in person.


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I am a copywriter and I would like to believe that I'm good at what I do (good, not very good, not exceptional. just okay). But this belief got totally totally shattered this morning. I was browsing through a site called Modern Copywriter and I saw those sample projects of big time copywriters from all over the world.

Then something hit me.

Have I done something at par with these?

Here I am, a copywriter for almost a year now, and I could not think of any projects that I have done that was really really exceptional. I could think of three projects that stood out, but they weren't exceptional enough.

Then, a conversation at the office even compounded this feeling of inadequacy.

We had those "can we change this tagline?" type of conversation again. One colleague suggested that we use *insert cliche tagline here*. I quickly replied, "no don't use that!" And then he replied, "why not? that's what the companies have been using blah blah blah

Okay, two things. It doesn't mean that since other companies have been using that tagline we should use it as well. And second, the mere fact that thousands of other companies have used it means that it was a tagline that any shareholder would not want to see again, if they have a choice.

I would not feel this way if not for the incident the previous week. The very same person who told me to "be more creative, don't use these kind of cliche taglines" last week was this same person who said it was okay to use *insert cliche tagline here* today. Talk about double standards.


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You see, cliche are double-edged swords. It could very well be a cure for any company's conservative point of view. Give them cliches, those are tried-and-tested, everybody knows them. They have seen them everywhere. Yeah. Conservative companies would accept that. But what does this speak of us as professionals in the creative business? We are paid to think creatively for those companies who ask for our professional advice. Isn't it a disservice to them if we would just insert some cliche in their projects?

And of course, not all companies are conservative. One day, some companies who champion creativity would see our cliche-laden projects and would look down on us. We call ourselves Creatives but we do not live up to that label.

I know this because I have churned out cliches, too. We produced cliche-laden projects in the past. The clients were satisfied. I wasn't. 'You're bound for heartbreak', a friend told me. Indeed I was, and still am.



***

I still believe that someday, I would be able to break the mould.
Deviate from the status quo.
Risk.
Do something way way out of the box. Or eliminate the box altogether.
I just hope that some people are brave enough to do it with me.

I still believe that creativity can be learned.
I believe that we can pull ourselves out of this cliche quicksand if we choose to.
I know that there will come a time that clients would get out of their own boxes and be brave enough to risk, design-wise.



I believe that one day I would be proud of my work and I would see my name in a website that lists the best copywriters of our generation.
Then I would open this blog and laugh about my so-called hearbroken tales here.