by be.aaron, copywriter extraordinaire
I visited Eisenberg’s today for the first time in a few years– I once was privileged to be a regular– and I just have to tell the world: it’s still the best sandwich joint on the entire island of Manhattan.
If it’s a Friday, get the shrimp salad, otherwise it’s got to be tuna, as every regular knows. Don’t be afraid to ask for extra pickles. Enjoy the free gas.
by be.aaron
An Ambivalent Spiel
Since I am not a semiotician, typographer or graphic designer, I have to ask: why is the ampersand (a word I like,) now so often, and improperly, replaced by the plus sign? As you know, and does not always equal plus; precise meaning is often defined by context– and in no way can the two always be used interchangeably.
So why am I ambivalent? I have to admit, I’ve been experimenting ( see above revised tagline) and I find that the + sign is far sexier looking than the stodgy &. Is this trend, like Arial becoming the new Helvetica, an Internet-influenced design choice?
I suspect that replacing the & with +, irrespective of meaning, is the equivalent of answering the phone with“Hey” instead of “Hello.” A lot of my friends are parents who have adopted “Hey” so that their children will be more inclined to take their calls.
I don’t want Andy Rooney’s turf if/when he should ever retire/die (will he ever do either?) but I do want to come out here and now and admit that I find “Hey” annoying. It’s unnecessarily abrupt: I don’t have headphones on, I am listening to you. Worse, it’s too obviously co-opted from someone much younger than you. When you say “hey” to your kids, students, employees, they still think you are hopeless. Can we please agree that “Hey” is so over?
For now though, I think it might be okay to use + instead of & – as long as you mean what you say.
by be. aaron, copywriter extraordinaire
No one assigned to write should have to do it in a cubicle. OK, maybe journalists– they’re always shown pecking away at their keyboards in movies and on TV and though I’ve done all kinds of things, I’ve never attempted to report the news. Technically however, they are at work in a newsroom, not a cubicle.
It’s not just that copywriters need an environment free of distraction, because working off-site, which sounds so much more professional than working at home, presents loads of distractions: dog-walking, eating, errands, puttering, pacing, staring out the window. Procrastination is as essential to the writing process as picking one’s nose. And like the latter activity, best done in private.
Non-writing activity is productive because diversion allows ideas to bubble up from places so deep, dark and inaccessible that they require trickery to tap into. Of course, the creative nap, (literally sleeping on it,) is also an effective way of having ideas– again, an activity which cannot be comfortably undertaken in a cubicle.
Clients think that working off-site means that I am in my jammies all day; mais non, getting dressed is part of the procrastination process. There’s the issue of color palette, footwear choice and of course, the accessories. Even if no one sees me at work, I am looking good.
If the assignment is to write copy that connects with consumers, one must be out in the world to witness how things are actually consumed. A cubicle reduces all consumer activity to abstraction sans context. (For more on this, or if you’d like to use more persuasive arguments than mine to convince your boss to let you telecommute, consult “The Practice of Everyday Life” by Michel de Certeau. It’s thesis is essentially, if you are naming nail polish colors, go out and get a mani/pedi.) Read the rest of this entry »
by Betsy Aaron
Situations-Wanted Ad: Non-abstemious agnostic wants to live like Agnes Martin—but not during that spell when she had to work as a dishwasher. I’ve already done the shit jobs: picking out pubic hairs from motel bathtubs, selling marked-down bras and girdles to jumbo-size women, working overtime for coke fiends who used the business of documentary film production for cover. Read the rest of this entry »
