Page 159 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

73 WATCH THAT
HACKNEYED IMAGE

A long time ago, when I was just starting out as an independent
copywriter, I wrote and designed a campaign for a client that had, as
its central visual metaphor, an archery target with a bunch of arrows
sticking out of it. The line beneath, if memory serves, ran along the
lines of, “Keep your marketing on target.” The results were OK, I’m
pleased to report, but looking back I feel that this, perhaps, wasn’t
the most original idea in the history of advertising. Mea culpa.

Though I have moved on, plenty of companies are still stuck in
that groove where chessmen, cheetahs, and, yes, archery targets get
pressed into service whenever the writer thinks showing the actual
product is too boring.

The idea

From me, I guess
The problem stems, I think, from a lack of either research or
imagination. But also from a willingness to write in abstract terms
about concrete propositions. You have a piece of software that
enables sales executives to make more calls in a given week. That
means that they’re more likely to hit their target. “Aha!” says the
copywriter. “Target!” And before you know it, our old friend the
archery target is wheeled out.

Hitting your target is a metaphor. It doesn’t feel like one because it’s
so widespread. Salespeople are given targets and are expected to hit
them. (Or, puzzlingly, to exceed them. How can you exceed a target?
You either hit it or you miss it.) Once we fall for the seductiveness

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