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07/03/2004: "Clients Who Shoot Themselves in the Foot --- Duh of the Day."

We copywriters spends long years learning our craft. We don't get it out of a book or an article or a course we find on a matchbook cover. No, we learn it in school and on the job. We learn it by trial and error. And by the time we have 20 or 30 years under our belt, we damn well know what we're doing.

But every copywriter has many clients who don't value that experience and think they know what's best. So when the copywriter turns the copy over to the client, said client will change the copy. Oh, maybe only a word here and there or the offer or a headline. Seems like every cat needs to leave it's scent behind.

So what happens to the copy. Well, it's a piece of shit --- that's what happens to the copy. See, the thing is, when a copywriter writes copy for a radio spot, a sales letter or anything else, every word is put there for a reason. Everything is done for a reason. So when a client comes along and screws with the copy and fails, he deserves everything he doesn't get. Which is all the business he would have gotten if he would have used the copy that was carefully written for him.

Sometimes a clients doesn't like what a copywriter writes. But if the god damned thing sells, that's all that counts. So what the client likes matters less than what the client's prospects will respond to. That is unless a client just wants to waste their time and money and, as I said, shoot themselves in the foot. Hey, it's their foot.