Never Miss an Opportunity for Good Copy

The first step to writing good copy, is often seeing the potential where others might miss it.

When you look at a brief, you need to look beyond what ’s functionally necessary and see if you can find a way to do something more. While still fulfilling the functional part. 

And here are two great examples of that. Weirdly, both taken from public toilets. 

This first one is from Spain. The copy translates as “two metres, the only size that matters”. 

I thought that was great. It was funny, it was based on the insight that matters of size preoccupy us men. But more than anything, it was completely over-delivering on what was needed. There was absolutely no need for that copy to be funny, engaging, or even exist. It could have just been blank. 

But someone saw an opportunity to go further than was necessary and transform something mundane and functional into something witty and lasting. Based on an insight. 

The second one is from a train toilet in the UK. There’s slightly less of an insight here, though people probably have flushed some of the things listed in the copy down toilets. 

But more than anything else, it’s just that again, someone bothered to care a little more than beyond what was necessary. They took the opportunity to have a bit of a sense of humour. To have some fun. 

In both cases the people behind the copy have thought “okay, yes we can do the job we’ve been asked to do, but can we give a little more while we’re at it?” And that’s a core part of writing good copy. 

Neither of these examples would have been crying out for engaging copy. None of the ‘users’ would have noticed if that copy wasn’t engaging and funny. But both bring a little smile and fun into the world. And isn’t that what would good copy should do? 

So the next time you’re working on a project, be it copy or something entirely different, take a look and see how you can go beyond the brief, how you can add something more to what’s being requested.

Because that’s how we make things better.