Page 15 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

1 IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU
(OR IS IT?)

Remember that classic scene in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver? As
Travis Bickle, the somewhat unhinged taxi driver of the title, Robert
De Niro stares at himself in the mirror of his apartment, brandishing
a large-caliber handgun and uttering his famous speech that begins,
“You talkin’ to me . . . ?”

The problem with a lot of copy is that it isn’t “talkin’ to me.” If
anything it’s talkin’ at me. That’s a big difference because the center
of the universe in that kind of copy is the writer. But who cares about
the writer? Certainly not the reader.

The idea

From Magnet, a kitchen company
The way to ensure your reader feels you are talking to them is to
use one simple little word, over and over. That word is “you.” So in
answer to the question that heads this idea, it is about you, if by you
we mean the reader not the writer.

Here’s a great press ad for Magnet that begins by talking to the
reader and never lets up . . .

It’s only by getting to know you, your wants, needs, and
desires that Magnet can create kitchens that are as individual
as you are.

In 87 words of body copy, “you” or “your” appears eight times. There
are just three references to Magnet. In fact that’s just about the
perfect ratio of reader:writer at 2.7:1.

6 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS