WHAT THE JAPANESE POETS KNEW ABOUT KAMIKAZE COPYWRITING: In English, for all Kamikaze Copywriters, Bi-Creatives, Ads, GDs, WDs and others who want people to read things they’d rather not.

Ad copy should be a lot of things – visual, active, interesting, relevant, conceptual and, no matter how many hundreds of words you need/think you need – read short.  That last one – reading short – is too often where things go wrong.  You see lots of “short” in ad, web, direct, promotional and other forms of commercial writing.  Most of it’s like a bad date.  Clever, hopefully compelling greeting (headline), attractive looks (design/visual) get you interested.  Body copy – whether two lines or two pages – so dull you forget why you thought you should ask him out in the first place.

 

It’s almost as if the writer - regardless their title - wants you to stop reading at the headline.  Or someone with a bigger title approved their concept and headline, then said Better put in a line or two about product, even though it doesn’t matter if it gets read.  Even though, in ad copy, you need the prospect to remember something, then somehow act/respond. 

 

What the classic Japanese Haiku Masters knew – and you need to learn from them – is how to get – and keep – a reader engaged.  Even if it’s only three lines, five syllables + seven syllables over five.  They were (and modern aficionados/writers still are) highly visual, conceptual and - through a device called kiru - force the reader to participate. 

Kiru is a haiku’s most important technical/conceptual detail, the twist the turn the juxtaposition of thought.  In ad writing, Kiru isn’t the concept.  It’s the device lying in wait, revealed in language rolling out of the concept, to deliver the KCWP’s (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan’s) Promise.  In simple terms, the point the Prospect absorbs the big benefit the product holds for them.

Modern form haiku, which does not strictly adhere to the 5-7-5 format, still requires Kiru.  Visual, evocative, as much about mood and attitude as they are about words, experience, conjuring up theater of the mind.  Same as we modern copywriters must deliver – forgive the term – content. 

Sounds good, right?  Isn’t that why we write?  Another subject.  Why Advertising Haiku?  To get our minds around the art of saying much with little. Deft in bending the prospect in our use of language, tense, meter, tone, syntax and especially, kiru.  The twist that turns poetic skill to trick unwilling readers into reading – and identifying with – the manner in which a client’s product will make their life better.

Last week’s Circus class focused on the art of writing short.  Yet another of our copywriter tricks.  I’m attaching it below, and invite anyone reading to join us.  Students will be posting their assignment in the Comments, so we can all enjoy – and learn from – each other.  I’ll post my comments briefly, and my students and I will go over them in detail via skype.  Have fun – join us.

Advertising Haiku

When you think of ad copy, think short.  It doesn’t matter if it’s an ad, a TV spot, video, web page, brochure, corporate white paper, social media or an entire site.  No matter how long it is, two lines or two long, detail-packed corporate web pages, copy should read short.  Long and elegant, poetic with complex structure works great in classic novels.  In ad copy they slow the reader down instead of moving the prospect quickly from point to point, feature to feature, benefit to benefit. (Think Poe and Dickens got paid by adding words.  Ad writers get paid for eliminating them.)

A slow reader is a thinking reader.  We want a feeling, doing reader.  To motivate, no matter what the style/Language of Concept, you can’t ask them to make a decision.  Especially if it means they need to consider what your write thoughtfully over time.  You don’t have to give up style to write short.  You don’t have to give up timely, relevant content.

What you do give up is excessive commas, run-on sentences, complex structure and clause after preposition after clause.  Empty descriptors, clunky structure, unnecessary articles, prepositions.  Instead, you use the style, the Language of Concept, to carry the reader’s interest quickly through sparse, clean messaging, a logical order and expression of your conceptual connection from KKF (Kamikaze Key Fact) through completion.

Keeping all this in mind, your first assignment is to write three advertising Haiku.  I’m sure most – if not all - of you are at least familiar with this form of Japanese poetry. I’m attaching a compilation of definitions, a few samples, etc., garnered from the internet.  (For my Circus Students, refer to the handout.  For everyone else, refer to the internet.)

This is not a throw-away assignment.  It will teach you about writing visually, writing short, writing with style and always, within the context of your prospects’ lives’.  You must match the five-seven-five syllable, three line format.  Be sure to include kiru, the most important technical/conceptual detail, the twist the turn the juxtaposition of thought.  The thing your prospect’s mind will bend to, forcing participation, attention, moving the prospect where you want him to go.  Just like a good concept.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative