The life of a copywriter

Being a copywriter for an ad agency has its own advantages and disadvantages. When the whole team rushes to meet the deadline, you laze around on a bean bag, sipping coffee, catching up some English flick on HBO, in the lounge area. You have the comfort of doing so because you have already put in your share of efforts and the concept’s ready long back. Now it’s up to the graphic designer to execute it. You are called just once from your state of self induced repose, for the final reading, once the design is ready to be sent to the client. Without your go, they can’t send it to the client and you know that. So you arrive like a king, walking dreamily, with arrogance as your baggage. You give it a casual look but suddenly at the back of your mind, your conscience yells at you. ‘Damn it, you sucker, this is a part of your job. Moreover if you miss to see that spelling error, you are doomed. So better be careful you moron’. You get out of that momentarily state of licentiousness with a shrug and try to concentrate. ‘All well, except that spelling error in the fine print’. Correct it and shoot it’. You say it with an authoritative tone and get back to the coffee mug.

But sometimes, this relaxed state of affairs gets completely rushed up for a poor soul called copywriter – courtesy ‘the invincible, always right, omnipotent, near perfect client’. If he decides not to like a certain idea, he has all the rights to do that - reason – he is paying for it. So you get back to your desk, exploring for new ideas, scratching your head, occasionally and chatting to friends thinking you might hit upon that ‘wow’ concept, unlimited cups of coffee, eventually leading to constipation the next day, talking to client and even talking to some of the end user of the product. And all this while, the whole team looks up to you as if you have some magic wand to get the idea of the bag. Its not that everyone isn’t giving it a thought but the prerogative and the responsibility mainly goes to the copywriter to come up with an idea or you never would be a creative director in your life.

And once you hit upon the ‘wow’ thing, you are again on the high - again that coffee mug, the TV in lounge area, and the bean bag.

So being a copywriter for an ad agency has its own advantages and disadvantages.