Breaking Copy: A Copywriting Blog

Mini newspaper box is too cute

Daryl Lang — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:39:08 +0000

Can tiny things get attention? The Metro newspaper chain in Canada recently deployed a collection of wee newspaper boxes on city streets. News for gnomes? Nope, a clever promotion of the newspaper’s mobile edition. Inside the itsy bitsy boxes are … Continue reading →

Obama’s gay marriage email pitch

Daryl Lang — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:04:09 +0000

After President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, his reelection campaign sent out two fund-raising emails — with two totally different copywriting strategies. Take a look at the messages below. The first was a long-copy letter from the president. … Continue reading →

Lincoln, Facebook and journalism

Daryl Lang — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:00:52 +0000

A funny thing happened yesterday involving Facebook, patents and Abraham Lincoln. It’s a good lesson about the difference between blogging, curation and journalism. Here’s what went down. * * * * On his blog, Internet geek Nate St. Pierre posted … Continue reading →

Obama’s “socialist” new slogan

Daryl Lang — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:33:20 +0000

“Forward.” Recently, Barack Obama began using that single word as a campaign slogan. Now his opponents are using it to brand him as a socialist. Behold the power of a word! The kerfuffle over this slogan (and to be clear, … Continue reading →

How to infuriate your boss, and the IOC

Daryl Lang — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:42:46 +0000

On Friday, Young & Rubicam headquarters apologized for a controversial spot by its Buenos Aires office. “We are deeply regretful for the pain this ad has caused,” the agency said. What could have been so painful? This commercial: This ad, … Continue reading →

Ashton Kutcher’s Popchips flop (updated)

Daryl Lang — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:32:47 +0000

As soon as I finished watching the new Popchips commercial starring Ashton Kutcher as an Indian man, I thought, “I need to save a copy of this video immediately, because it’s going to be deleted from the Internet fast.” The … Continue reading →

A shrewd survey from Facebook

Daryl Lang — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:32:36 +0000

This morning when I logged in to Facebook, I saw a little box asking me if I wanted to take a survey. I clicked yes. One question really surprised me. The Facebook survey had some very typical questions — How … Continue reading →

America, the ad

Daryl Lang — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:56:12 +0000

Here’s a commercial you won’t see in the United States. It’s the first part of a travel campaign for Brand USA, a.k.a. the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a quasi-public agency Congress created in 2010 to promote U.S. tourism. Wait, America … Continue reading →

On gaming the Internet

Daryl Lang — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:00:38 +0000

I once worked with a guy — let’s call him Jim — whom our company hired because he was influential on Digg. He could singlehandedly drive huge volumes of traffic to any website. By being patient and methodical (read: obsessive), … Continue reading →

“What’s Your Wild Rabbit?”

Daryl Lang — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:30 +0000

I was riding my bike recently and saw a billboard with the line, “Few see it. Fewer chase it. What’s Your Wild Rabbit?” My first thought was, “Damn that’s good.” Back at the computer, I looked it up and figured … Continue reading →