Here’s a story that can be interpreted either as a doom-and-gloom report on the demise of two beloved forms of communication—newspaper journalism and indie movies—or as an optimistic rah-rah for innovative marketing. As optimistic marketers, let’s go with the latter.
Author Archive: Alicia
The Ultimate Whiteboard Chart
We tip our caps to a master of the visual interpretation of data, Tom Wujek of Autodesk, who manned the whiteboard at the ultra-brainy Singularity futurism conference in the spring of 2010.
Take Me to Zee Casbah, and Let Me Write Your Newsletter
If copywriters were actors, we’d be the sort who love rococo accents and false noses, like Laurence Olivier or Meryl Streep. We at the Content Bureau take pride in our ability to switch writerly guises and voices from one assignment to the next—heads-down white-paper financialese one week, eco-minded web copy for a sustainability initiative the [...]
The Mystique of “The Trades”
Every subculture needs its holy scriptures. Business executives feel more like business executives when they read The Harvard Business Review. Marketers replenish their chops with Brandweek, start-ups with Entrepreneur. And so on. From The Mining Journal (founded in 1835) to Fish Farming International, name a specialty, and there’s a specialty publication that confers at least wannabe-insider status on its readers.
Ideas Without Words—or Pie Charts
Sometimes we copywriter people need to be put in our place. INFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL does it.
Lives by the Column Inch
Newspaper obits describe the fabulous lives of uncelebrated people.
A Passion for Prolixity
Copywriters value clarity and concision. Short, pithy, unambiguous—that’s the way we like our verbiage. We count words and lop clauses. On our own time, though, maybe curled up in our favorite cozy chair with a nice steamy cup of tea and the latest issue of Puffball Gazetteer, or maybe catching up on email (even though [...]
