By Rohit Malkani 

Have you seen any copywriters? Not very long ago, this would be my sarcastic refrain every evening at 5 when my writers would be absconding. More often than not, the question would be met with a silent jerk of the thumb, indicating the chai-tapri outside.

Today, I ask the question in a very different context, collaring peers, HR folk and generally anyone who may know of a ‘good’ copywriter I can hire. Because, the horrid truth is, they are rapidly slipping into extinction as a species. We can put on a brave face and claim we still own great writing talent in advertising. We don’t!

It’s not that the world is suddenly and cruelly bereft of writers, but let’s be honest: there aren’t too many of them coming to advertising. Traditionally, copywriters have ‘drifted’ into advertising from other professions or by unfortunate accident! With the exception of the odd CCC course at MICA, no one is grooming kids for the profession anymore. At the recent Kyoorius One Show Portfolio Night, there was only one writer among the five finalists.

Writing on the wall

It began with portfolios laced with grammatical errors; then searching for talent, which would normally take three to four weeks, started taking months; and finally interviews became a dreaded word. Once, when I was going through a portfolio at an interview, I had a minor seizure. It was infested with poor writing that made me cringe. I mustered enough courage to ask the guy why, and immediately knew it was a bad idea. He smugly replied, “I am more of an ideas person.” My first instinct was to pass his work through the paper shredder. But better sense prevailed, and I simply asked him to try growing tomatoes in Hosur.

It’s not like there’s a Bermuda Triangle for copywriters. So, if good copywriters are still around, where are they headed? Frankly, they seem to be everywhere, in newer, sexier professions — from joining content writing firms, OTT platforms like Hotstar and Netflix, digital agencies, tech companies like Google and Ola, to becoming independent filmmakers. It’s a no-brainer for young writers. Why be in a profession that is still struggling to reinvent itself when you can be at a place that’s at the top of the curve?

Shake things up

So, is all lost for advertising? I, for one, would not give up so easily. Yes, our paychecks aren’t exactly up there with the best, and take-home salary is just that — you can’t afford to go anywhere else with it! I believe we can still attract the best out there with a lot of tweaking and a little bit of pampering. But we need to get off our high horse and reel the talent in. We still tell the best stories and are wizards at blending this with an in-depth understanding of how brands work. Train your copywriters well, spend time with them, make them feel valuable and weave a creative culture so potent, they will never want to leave in spite of the pay!

This is not about organising that occasional workshop (which, by the way, is another extinct event thanks to cost-cutting). Open your doors wide to musicians, artists, chefs, technologists, scientists and just about anyone who is shaping society today. Get the creative team to interact with them in an open house. Set aside a budget to create just three projects a year through this collaboration.

Get your writers to start thinking up new and relevant conversations for their brands on platforms that are agnostic. Can you enforce a rule for every big brief that you will not go back with a 30-second film?

Like art, advertising mimics society and that necessarily means constant change. We’ve done it innumerable times, and we will once again ‘bend it like Bernbach’.

(The author is NCD, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi)