Copywriting Blog
What Copywriters Can Learn from the BBC
/2 Comments/in News, The Writing Life/by Anna GoldsmithThis morning a design friend of mine sent me a great article called “World’s Best Headlines: BBC News” written by “usability guru” Jakob Nielsen. As the title suggests, Web writers could learn a thing or two from BBC’s headline-writing pros. Nielsen writes, “For several years, I’ve been very impressed with BBC News headlines, both on the […]
Bats Looking for PR Boost Could Learn Lesson from Squirrel Community
/in News, Public Relations/by Dan O'SullivanA strange illness is devastating bat populations throughout the Northeast, and few people seem to care. Some wildlife experts believe the lack of research dollars going toward the problem is due to the fact that, well, people generally don’t like bats. In a recent Boston Globe article, Beth Daley writes: Despairing bat biologists want to […]
Answer key for mix-n-match movie taglines
/in News/by Anna GoldsmithAnd here are the answers from the previous post, where we invited readers to see how many famous movie taglines they could correctly identify. 1. “They’re young … they’re in love … and they kill people.” (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) 2. “This is Benjamin. He’s a little worried about his future.” (The Graduate, 1967) 3. […]
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
/1 Comment/in Branding/by Anna GoldsmithAs a copywriter, I spend a lot of time thinking about taglines. The best ones are both memorable and also manage to summarize the company’s brand essence in a few short words. Nike: Just do it. Apple: Think different. The Hired Pens: We choose your words carefully. You might not have known ours, but I’ll […]
An Open Note to an Anonymous Client
/in The Writing Life/by Dan O'SullivanI freely claim to be bad at a lot of things. Dancing, gardening, communicating with people who have a thick foreign accent, fixing just about anything around the house … the list goes on. On the other hand, I don’t claim to be good at much. Writing is one of the few categories where I’d […]
Bostonist.com Plugs Our Web Spots
/1 Comment/in News/by Anna GoldsmithWe were really psyched to see a mention today in the Bostonist.com about our new Web spots for Down:2:Earth. See below for a snippet, or read the whole piece here. With MBTA hiking fares and the threat of rising gas prices, everyone could use a shorter commute to work. But living in your office? Down […]
The Hired Pens gets props from Green Cotton
/2 Comments/in News/by Anna GoldsmithThanks to Shana Yansen who owns Jute & Jackfruit, an up-and-coming organic and sustainable clothing and accessory company for women, for giving us a plug in her latest blog entry about Down:2:Earth. Of particular interest to Eco-Fashion Gurus will be the two Eco-Fashion Shows to take place throughout the weekend: one at 4:30 on Saturday April 4, 2009 […]
Searching for Readability Through the Fog
/6 Comments/in The Writing Life, Writing Tips/by Dan O'SullivanAnyone who writes for a living has to be conscious of readability. Or at least anyone who writes for marketing and/or advertising purposes. Since becoming a professional writer, I’ve taken pride in keeping things readable. Reining in long sentences and paragraphs. Avoiding complex words. Adopting a friendly, conversational tone. After so many years of writing, […]
What this Hired Pen does when she’s not writing
/in News/by Anna GoldsmithShe has an art show … and writes about herself in the third person. The Somerville Journal wrote a nice article about the show so you can read all about it here or just come by True Grounds and see it for yourself.
Introducing The Hired Pens Productions
/39 Comments/in News/by Anna GoldsmithThat’s right, The Hired Pens is now writing, shooting, editing and producing Web spots. Why? We wanted to add a little BOOM to our life of nouns and verbs. (Get it, boom?! If you were also making Web spots, you would.) Read all about our new venture and watch our latest videos here. Or, if you […]
