At least, that’s what the leading voice in creativity seemed
to imply on its Twitter feed last night.
Now, there’s one thing to keep in mind
when looking at this tweet. That is that, on
social media, people often say stupid things. As much as I love what D&AD do,
as much as I’ve enjoyed working on their briefs in the past and as much as
they’ve had a huge impact on creativity, the likes of which this blog post will never achieve, last night they cocked up.
For a start, they cocked up a little bit by not having a
copywriting brief in their 2014 competition. In a time when copywriting is
already considered by some as a bit of a dying breed, this kind of thing really
isn’t going to change that misconception. They then went on to suggest, in
response to other people pointing out their disappointment at this omission,
that copywriters needn’t feel left out; they could just ‘team up with creatives’. That’d fix it. Don’t panic, writers, you can just work with someone
creative and rely on them to help you have a chance.
Of course, the word ‘creatives’ being used to only
describe the people that do the pictures isn’t a new concept. D&AD didn’t
start it last night with a poorly worded tweet, nah. Other people have been
saying it for years. I regularly get told that when I’m done with some work I
should send it on to creative, and that’s fine. It’s a term that’s been used
wrongly for ages and some people only know it to mean that. They’re not saying
it because they don’t think us writer types are creative too, they’re just
saying it because the advertising and marketing industry has been confusing
itself with it since time began.
This blog post isn’t going to change that, and to be honest,
I don’t really want to be referred to as ‘a creative’. I’m a writer, I like
being called one, I like telling my gran I am one because she thinks I will one
day do novels and stuff, and damn it I will, next year, maybe, if I get the
time. But what does need to change is the idea that what I do and what the art
directors that sit around me do is vastly different, which is exactly what
saying things like ‘copywriters can team up with creatives’ does.
What I do is think of ideas. I express those ideas in words.
What the art directors do is think of ideas. They express
those ideas in images.
Occasionally, believe it or not, writers try some images out
and art directors give words a go. It’s beautiful how the human mind is capable
of such complex tasks. But the one thing that all of us do that is the same as
each other is work creatively. Suggesting that only the other side do that is
wrong, misguided and a little behind the times. D&AD are looking to inspire
the future of creativity, so they really should try harder to use fewer terms
from the past. Art directors have job titles too, you know? That title isn’t
‘creative’. It’s art director.
This won’t change the use of the creative terminology
forever, but hopefully it can change the way people think about it. Tell the
copywriters to pass the work on to the art directors, because you know, we all
work in the creative department, we all produce creative ideas and we all wear
stupid shoes and elaborate shirts.
D&AD, as a big voice in the industry we all work in, it’s
up to you to start this change. If you’re not going to offer a copywriting
brief, which is ridiculous in itself, the least you can do is accept we’re more
than just a side to the main meal.
Copywriters are creative. Art directors are creative. It’s
not a job title, it’s a part of the job description.
An update:
A few hours after I'd posted this, D&AD tweeted a response. It read as follows:
An update:
A few hours after I'd posted this, D&AD tweeted a response. It read as follows:
The irony here, of course, is that a copywriter could have found a creative way to make those words fit within 140 characters. Ah well.