Concerning Greed and Idiocy

Regarding my essay, KISS KISS YOUR COPYWRITER , the author “lalipenz” wrote:

"When you have to look for a house or sell one do you feel the same about advertising my friend the trouble with life is we fail to respect each others professions as a copywriter I found this fu****g offensive so you can go shove this idea of yours you know where"

“****” = ckin

my response:

miss/mrs. “lalipenz,”

Firstly, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your difficult day to read my piece and comment so eloquently on it. Certainly, this majestically humble and intelligent comment must have been hard to produce, what with the stresses of the job bringing you down---the deadlines, the constant harassment from the bosses, etc. I can only imagine what utter strife this occupation of your own choosing must cause you. In fact, in reading your sweet and heartfelt comment, I felt the need to do a little research on what it is exactly that your demanding choice of occupation does entail.

In doing my research, I simply Googled my question; “How much do copywriters make?” Luckily, the first link that showed its face was so graciously posted by www.copy-writer.us/copywriter-faq.htm, a site which has done its best in a brief wording, to give anyone who wants to know, a little information on the chosen occupation known as “copywriting.”

Naturally, the first question that was answered by this wonderful site was “1) What does a copywriter do?” I found that:

“A copywriter writes the words in an advertisement. In practice, it's not that simple as a copywriter and art director usually work as a team. Together, they come up with concept: a selling idea for the ad, and execute it with a visual, headline and body copy.

Therefore, sometimes the writer will get a visual idea and the art director will discover -- or greatly enhance --the headline.

The body copy is the writer's domain; it's not a shared task. So too, the photo or art work is the art director's task, along with type fonts and the overall design of the ad.

In writing a TV commercial, the tasks are even more intermingled. Often, in a good team, it's two creative people shouting out ideas to each other to build the commercial.

At the shoot, though, the roles again become fixed. The writer must revise the copy, if it needs it. The AD may offer new ideas on the shot by shot production of the spot.

In radio, there is no AD. The writer scripts the radio spot and its sound effects alone."

And so, in this brief description (as I no doubt assume that you yourself can elaborate on the daily toils that you undergo while painstakingly enduring your chosen profession), I have discovered that basically what it is that a copywriter does in a day is sit at a desk in an office and collaborate with another individual, writing together, alleviating each other of any sole responsibility in the endeavor. There are images that go with the words, of course, and the two individuals knock their heads together to come up with them too. Apparently, the copywriter doesn’t even have to “discover or greatly enhance the headline.” I wonder how much of the headline the copywriter comes up with at all? Is it like that spider kind of brainstorm drawing that we used to draw out when we were trying to write a short story in 7th grade in high school? I imagine that it can’t be too difficult.

Anyway, it seems that the body of the ad is in fact written by the copywriter. I would certainly hope that this is the case, seeing as how the chosen job title holds within the very word a concise description of the whole of her duties. The art director does everything else, from producing “the photo or art work” concerned in the ad, to developing the “type fonts and the overall design.” When writing a TV commercial, the copywriter may have to engage in slightly more demanding tasks like “shouting out ideas” to her art director, in order to “build the commercial.” If a copywriter chooses to scrape the depths of that ancient form of media that we still call radio, they are then forced, almost against their will, to “script(s) the radio spot and its sound effects alone.” Regarding this grim reality, I myself have to admit, poor baby, that things in the adverting industry are downright unfair.

The next three questions addressed on the gracious site’s brief post deal with the moola that a copywriter can make, starting with the annual salary of a beginner ($44,000 if you start in NYC, with a national median of $37,000 annually---it seems that some poor beginners can make as little as $32,000 ) covering raises which one can accrue if they are good little girls. The “rising salary” of a NYC copywriter, around $53,000 is a bit more than that of its national compadre ($45,000), but don’t worry, if the good little girls in NYC stay on and keep their little noses to the grindstone, they can achieve a “top level” salary of $83,000, while nationally that figure is something like 70 grand.

And you know, curious ol’ me, in reading all this and thinking about the stressful daily lives of a copywriter, I started to wonder how much money individuals in other possibly more stressful and even dangerous occupations took in annually, in comparison to someone who works in advertising, copywriting all day.

Following is a short list of five occupations that I feel that just might be more stressful and possibly more dangerous than copywriting, and without any real semblance of irony at all, they also are occupations that are vital to the general functioning of our everyday society, however, they do not pay more than does the annual salary of a copywriter. For this comparison I used the national median annual salary, found here in the United States for copywriters ($32,000-$70,000), as I am well aware that not all individuals live in NYC. I am certain as well that if I did use the range of NYC copywriters, it would be pointed out to me by authors like yourself, miss “lalipenz.”

These five occupations that are far more valuable to our society than copywriting, deal with the safety, health, education, and general welfare of our citizens, and in this respect, it is THEY that should be respected. I think that most will agree that copywriting serves much less of a purpose to our citizens, both in the general workings of our everyday lives, as well as in those broad strokes of the years that have passed, and the years to come.

1. Social worker, $43,000 annually. (see: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/pf/0910/gallery.stressful_jobs/index...)

2. Fire Fighter, $41,190-$62,785 annually (depending on whether you are a full time engineer or fire captain---it should be noted that fire chiefs do make more, but they have worked their way up, “most often elected or appointed to this position” based on merit. (see: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-a-fire-chief-do.htm)

3. Police Officer, $47,460 (Police and sheriff patrol officers), $58,260 (detectives and criminal investigators) $44,160-$55,183 (police corporals), $53,734-$63,564 (police sergeant). (see: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-a-police-officer-do.htm)

4. Nurse, $55,960 to $67,931 (RN or Registered Nurse), $36,500-highest 10% earning more than $50,000 (Licensed Practical Nurse or Licensed Vocational Nurse). (see: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_a_registered_nurse_do) & (see: http://arnp.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-does-nurse-practitioner-do.html)

5. Teacher, $43,580 to $48,690 (Primary Education Teachers-with preschool teachers earning a median annual income of $22,600), $56,120 (Post-Secondary teachers---though it should be known that the highest 10% earning over this figure---for what it is worth). http://career.qandas.com/jobs/what-does-a-teacher-do.html

Lastly, miss “lalipenz,” I want to ask you where exactly it is that you think that I should shove this idea of mine? So much has been written on the subject of the least prestigious and yet most stressful and valuable jobs in our country, that you would have to spend nearly a year (at least) reading all of the posts that can be found quite simply by Googling the words “10 lowest paid most stressful jobs in the US.” I feel that it would be naïve and unjust to claim such an idea as my own. I feel that if you did some research of your own on this work that is actually much more mentally and physically demanding then your own, then you might feel more appreciative of those around you that work so hard every single day to sustain this country’s vitals, so that you yourself may exploit them by selling them things.

-delapruch