AI, creativity, and judgy Ginger This is Ginger. She is judgy. “That’s what you’re wearing out?” “Did you even brush your hair today?” “Why. Haven’t. We. Left. YET?!?!?” But you know what’s even judgy-er than my sweet Ginger? AI. I break grammar rules to make copywriting better, which makes me a bit of a word anarchist. So I thought I’d

Grammar Police Won’t Increase Revenue You probably think these grammar police are being unnecessarily mean and nitpicky. A 2016 University of Michigan study looked at how personality influences the way you react to grammar mistakes in written communication. The results? Grammar police are more often “disagreeable, close-minded, and conscientious introverts.” They’re not jerks. They just don’t know better. Mini grammar

Spread The Happy – How Nutella’s Grammar Mistake Increased Sales By 15% This campaign turned an adjective (happiness) into a noun (happy). It’s a huge grammar no-no, but it’s a widely-used trick in advertising. By “nouning” the adjective, it turned a lackluster phrase (spread happiness) into something much more memorable and punchy. Because of this, it stood out. Like pure

Why Size Really Does Matter With Copywriting The Rule of Three is everywhere. There are many ways to use this rule in your writing. One way is called Hendiatris. (Not to be confused with a medical condition.) This principle uses three words that work together to convey a single concept. It’s especially useful for advertising slogans and speechwriting. And the

Make Summer Funner – How A Made-Up Word Increased Target’s Revenue By $5.3 million This lovely little campaign from a few years ago was for Summer at Target and featured eye-popping in-store marketing and larger-than-life events with oversized summer objects. Grammatically speaking, it’s an F. Because Funner is NOT a word, right? (Sure. And unicorn poop cotton candy at the

How “Got Milk” Created a Cult-Like Following “Got milk?” is a famous California marketing campaign from 1993 that’s built on a supposed grammatical error. This is because it leaves out “who” or “what” got the milk. The correct phrasing should be “Have you got milk?” or “Do you have milk?” It’s almost as boring as almond milk in my morning

Think Different – How Apple’s Grammar No-No Won The First Emmy For A Commercial Pedantic grammarians would argue that a verb (Think) should not be followed directly by an adjective (Different). Instead, the verb should be followed by an adverb (Differently). But is Think Differently a strong piece of communication? Tonally, it’s stiff and boring. Think Different is bold and

To Each Their Own – How Honda Civic Used a Gender-Inclusive Pronoun to Increase Its Profit Margin I find some great literary authors exhausting. Jane Austen was among them. I used to think all her heroines were pathetic. All they did was pine away for haughty men who barely knew they existed and treated them badly anyway. Fuck Mr. Darcy

I’m Lovin’ It – How McDonald’s Used Slang to Increase Its Revenue By $455 million in 1 Quarter McDonald’s broke a grammar rule with its 2003 jingle, “I’m lovin’ it.” (Bonus points – it’s also grammatically incorrect because loving isn’t a conjugated form of the verb love – it’s a tense. Specifically, progressive tense.) Even though this jingle is slang

Less Sugar, Less Bottles – How SodaStreams Typo Earned $81 Million The second half of that tagline is wrong. It should say “fewer bottles” because bottles can be counted. But that would not have been as fun. The alliteration helps with memorability, and it still gets across the idea. (Hint: it’s what makes this tagline compelling.) Just how successful was

What Bull Taught Me About The Laws Of Copywriting I like watching TV and dedicate 2-3 hours each day to my shows. I don’t consider it “wasting my brain.” I actually consider it research. I even keep a notebook with me to write down tidbits I find interesting. During episode 19 season 4 of Bull, Michael Weatherly and Freddy Rodriguez