Advice for copywriters: Fill yourself with a reservoir of ink, not a desert of sand – Prathap Suthan of Bang In The Middle
Advice for copywriters by Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Bang In The Middle
I’ve never been this harsh.
But Rajesh, you leave me with no choice.
One of the most glaring issues in young copywriters is the limited resource library in their heads.
Minds echoing with their constraints, filled with noise and tinged with a sense of entitlement.
It’s a sad, metallic state of affairs.
This intellectual starvation stems from a lack of curiosity—a hunger smothered by complacency.
It’s not that I haven’t met a young Piyush or Balki here. I have, but sadly, there just aren’t enough.
There aren’t enough ‘copywriter minds’ going around.
Minds that crackle with the energy of ideas, that light up when challenged, that are endlessly curious.
Being a copywriter is far more than crafting a clever line or a catchy slogan.
You need a different mind. You need a sparkling mind.
In this digital age, even when knowledge is just a click away, too many young minds wallow in shallow pools of sludge.
They skim, scroll, and swipe, but rarely leave the beach.
They don’t venture into the deep, where depths wait to be explored, where oysters transform grit into pearls, and where Kraken bathes in molten lava.
Instead, I see a generation of interns bloated on French fries.
They’ve become surface-level champs, experts at critiquing everything, whining about trivialities, and wiggling bodies to music.
But the reflexes of a true creative can’t be reduced to rap lyrics, garish colour palettes, or the quick, lazy tap into AI platforms.
Effective advertising has to be distinct. You can’t end up creating photocopies of work. You have to create original ideas.
Come on, young writers.
Your mind should be rich with ideas, inspiration, and influences. Ready to rock and roll with just a paper and pencil.
Zero mobiles. Zero internet.
Read voraciously, question fearlessly, seek relentlessly, and explore endlessly.
Fill your mind with raw material.
Collect trivia like a magpie, and hoard nuggets of wisdom and insights.
Wade through books, poems, novels, essays, theatre, stories, music, films, museums, libraries, streets, malls, and landmarks.
Plus devour everything you can on advertising – the best of it, the worst of it, the old, the new, the experimental, the unknown, the classics, the awarded, etc.
And when you stumble upon something unfamiliar, don’t just pass by, dive in.
Also know about fruits, asteroids, planes, birds, eggs, plants, jams, cheese, nuts, tribes, jungles, bells, thieves, bodies, jokes, art, bulls, infinity, fish, oysters, and even mountain oysters.
Because the more you know, the more bricks you will have with you to build.
Unconnected things will collide and spark new thoughts.
If you’re a young copywriter, soak in stories that stir your soul, with knowledge that sharpens your nib, and with questions that keep you awake.
Rajesh, fill yourself with a reservoir of ink, not a desert of sand.
Ink writes. Sand doesn’t.
(While Rajesh does exist and I told him I’d dedicate a post for him, I realize that he hasn’t woken up from his Sunday night yet: Prathap Suthan)