For reasons I currently do not understand, I have this persistent memory that takes place in a parking lot near my college campus.
I was walking from a food place on Franklin street to some kind of afternoon event, don’t remember which one…
And I was crossing the parking lot outside my freshman year dorm.
Might have been going to the editorial lab to work on the campus magazine…. I don’t really remember.
But I do remember there was some weird stuff happening back then.
It was April 2005.
We were just a couple years post 9-11.
They were trying to find the new pope because JP2 had just croaked. (I’m not Catholic but even I knew this was kind of a big
deal.)
I was less than a month away from graduating. Totally apprehensive.
Walkmans and portable radios were still a thing, but iPods were on the scene.
You could even get these fancy phones that had an mp3 player BUILT RIGHT IN OMG.
And I had just started listening to “bad girl music.”
In other words, P!nk.
I’d spent most of my life listening to Christian radio, but there wasn’t a Christian radio station in Chapel Hill…
So in addition to my extensive CD collection (remember those things?) I would sometimes listen to the radio.
And I kinda liked this “pink” girl, even though she was way more edgy — and way more angry — than I’d usually be comfortable with.
So anyway, I remember walking across the parking lot, listening to Missundaztood and wondering why I liked it so much, what with all the edge and the anger.
At the time, I didn’t know that I liked her stuff because I too was angry… really angry… and just didn’t realize it yet.
But now, nearly 20 years later (ouch), I am still a fan…
And I’m in touch with all my feelings…
And I woke up at my customary 5 o’clock this morning and started playing her essentials playlist on Apple Music.
Something stuck out to me today — she has a lot of “chatter” in her music.
And I LOVE this.
It adds so much dimension not only to the song itself, but to our perceptions of her music and, by extension, the artist herself.
It gives a sense that we’re all friends here, and we aren’t taking ourselves that seriously.
We come to this space she creates with her songs, and respect ourselves and we get really real with ourselves… but there’s also
whooping and editorializing and gaffes that put her right here in the kitchen.
There’s something REAL about it.
It’s not slick and polished and perfect.
Perfect has NEVER been her thing.
And as a result, I am one of thousands if not millions of people who listen to P!ink’s music and are completely convinced we could
totally be friends, if only given the opportunity.
There’s a connectedness that comes through her music.
(She’s not the only one who does this, but she’s the one in my speakers today.)
She’s so deep down into the human condition, and she expresses it in all its weirdness and humor and range of emotions…
It’s us. It’s me. I’m there too.
And that…
That essense of “yes, this is me” is where the magic is.
That’s what you want to capture when you’re writing copy.
You have to find which “me” you’re writing for, and then you write for that person who’s in that place.
You write for their hopes and dreams. You write for their frustrations.
And you give them solutions.
That’s what good copy does.
It meets people at the intersection between where they are and what you can help with, and it gives them a way out. A way up.
That’s what I do every day for my clients.
It’s what I try to do every morning when I send you these messages.
And it’s the ONLY way any of us will survive the rise of AI.
If you’d like my help to learn to write better copy, or to write copy for you, send me an email and let’s talk.
