Rob Morrison: Why buy a dog then bark yourself?

I reckon I first saw it in 1989. It went viral before the internet. It was a meme before memes were a thing. It looked like this:

Centred on an A4 page was the typeset headline: “Human’s core driver isn’t sex or money, it’s the need to change someone else’s copy.” Then someone had crossed out “change” and handwritten “amend”. Then, in a second handwriting, “amend” was changed to “tweak”. “Tweak” became “improve”, “improve” became “fix”, etc, etc, until the page was covered. The final word was amended back to the original “change”.

I had a version on my office wall for years.

So, having people take a red pen to copy that’s been carefully crafted isn’t new. It’s been an issue for the 30+ years I’ve been a commercial writer. But it’s definitely getting worse.

Let me give just three examples.

I have a pro bono client who runs a single issue not-for-profit. I firmly believe in their mission. Recently I wrote a recruitment campaign for them. I found the perfect free media which captured their prospect audience. I even called in a design favour. In short, the whole campaign cost them nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Imagine my delight when I was sent the final ‘media ready’ artwork which had been completely re-designed and mostly re-written.

I have another client who insists on using Google Docs for all conceptual work. A page per idea. Good in theory. But then every review becomes a torturous, slide-by-slide re-work of every headline. Then every phrase, every sentence and every word. As a result, the simplicity of the idea gets lost in an avalanche of paragraphs.

Finally, I’ve been doing brand strategy work recently. You know, mission statement, business purpose, value proposition. Then carefully phrasing brand pillars and EVPs. The all-too-familiar, strategy-on-a-page. Where every word has to earn its spot. Where there’s no room for the verbose. Yep, you guessed it. Constant battles to keep 10-words from exploding to 30.

So, why is it getting worse? I blame Mark Zuckerburg.

See, before social media arrived, we had a very limited list of where to buy eyeballs. TV, radio, press, outdoor and some retail wobblers. That was it. Spaces were regulated – 30sec, full page, 48 sheets. Every inch of every ad was valuable. Clients wanted the maximum impact every time.

Did you spot the other difference?

There was no DIY version of communicating in any of those. We didn’t write a lazy 30sec TVC to each other. We didn’t record a radio ad highlighting our current holiday. And we definitely didn’t put a photo of last night’s entrée on a 48-sheet poster.

So, clients hesitated before reaching for the red pen. At least a little.

Today, clients use super-cheap, blast-everyone media. Everyone writes emails. And posts on social media. More and more people are editing videos with supers and music and effects. They’re formats the ‘non-Adland’ population creates and publishes in. Daily. Even hourly. So, clients feel comfortable doing it themselves. Everyone’s an expert, right?

Wrong. There’s one, enormous difference. Money.

When you create and post for yourself, you’re not looking for a commercial outcome. You’re not changing anyone’s mind or behaviour. It’s like driving. Jumping in the SUV to go get milk is not the same as Oscar Piastri on a flying lap at Silverstone. Both are technically driving but the skills and purpose couldn’t be more different.

So, next time you get a butchered list of track changes or a marked-up PDF, take a breath, and remind your suit/planner/client that you could do exactly like they ask. Or you could remind them they’re paying for your advice and then ignoring it.

Woof. Woof.

Rob Morrison is a rarity in advertising – a grey-haired creative. Rob’s experience includes time as a Creative Director at Ogilvy, BWM (now Dentsu Creative), George Patts (now VML), Campaign Palace and Wunderman. He now runs his own consultancy – morrison.collective.

Here are two more opinion pieces from Rob Morrison: