Copywriting is like Poetry

Every word counts. Just look at that sentence. Short, yes. But effective. Every word counts when writing a poem, particularly those in form, with meter and a rhyme scheme. When writing an advertisement, you need every word to carry its weight. You can’t turn a blind eye to boring or over-used words. Because, let’s face it, people don’t like to read. Well, most don’t. And copywriting often takes a back seat to design, splashy landing pages and photography. But words—every one of them—matter. Just like in poetry.

I remember a college assignment given to me by Alfred Corn, poet-in-residence. It was one of the first assignments of the semester, and I mulled over it with great interest. I wanted to impress him. Call me an eager student, if you want. At that time, poetry and the writing of it was everything to me.

The assignment was to write a four-line poem in response to another poem. I chose Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” still one of my all-time favorite poems.

Sylvia Plath penned, “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.” At that time, a day without writing was like death. I wrote endlessly, most certain I would be accepted into a prestigious MFA program.

In any case, here is the poem I wrote:

“Dying As Art”

I eat men, not like air but like steak—deliberate, my fingers to pull
the meat apart, test the texture of words. Don’t say manducation
when you mean consumption. Don’t say parturition for resurrection,
Sappho for poet—deliberately woman, the risen phoenix.

This exercise was a study in brevity. More so, it was a study of word choice, spoken out loud. Nobody can deny the lull of the tongue, when words mix to create an impact. And like copywriting, poetry relies on every word, every punctuation, every line break. We are communicating not only with our words but also with what we don’t write. Writer’s, when looking to edit and revise content, look to trim, to toss out words that, let’s be honest, wouldn’t attract readers. Design doesn’t have to fight for attention. With color, interesting text treatments and images, design can flaunt itself easily. Words, on the other hand, caught in a one-dimensional existence, need to shout without screaming, pound fists without flinching and capture a reader’s attention without gimmicks (no offense to design or designers).

So, I think in order to excel at copywriting, a writer should read and understand two core elements of writing poetry: the economical choices the poet makes and the laborious chore to pick the very right word, when no other word would suffice. After all, haven’t you ever read an advertisement and felt a certain zing? That’s the energy of exceptional copywriting. And it’s the same zing created by poetry.