Our TV stopped working recently.

It was at the worst time too.

The kids had enjoyed their Peppa Pig and Go Jetters marathon and it was their bedtime – which meant it was time for the grown-ups to enjoy half an hour of regular TV that didn’t involve annoyingly catchy theme tunes and linear plotlines that wrapped up nicely into happy endings.

And of course, THIS was the time that our TV – pretty much part of the family, given its service to us – decided it wanted to leave this earthly plain and ascend to that big tech cloud in the sky.

I tried changing the fuse, before you suggest it. No joy. I tried changing the power cable – nada.

This TV – was dead.

And that was then the panic set in.

The evening seemed so empty without the prospect of the TV filling it for us.

Have you tried it recently? Having zero TV to fill the silence?

It’s an awkward fit at first.

But soon, we settled into a conversation – and something soon became apparent.

We began talking about something regular, but the main crux of the convo revolved around terrible ads we remember on the TV.

Yep, we’re pretty one-dimensional in our house.

The ads that stuck in our memory the longest were the ones with either a jingle that was infuriatingly catchy – or it was super-badly dubbed.

Those were the ones that remained in our memory.

Did they convince us to part with our cash for that product though?

Not a chance.

I’m a big advocate for copy and content that breaks from the mould a little. Otherwise there is no point in creating it if it says more or less what your competitors are saying.

But that message you’ve come up with – is it conveying what you want to say? Does it focus on a customer pain point? Does it push forward a key feature of the product or service?

Or is it designed to just catch the imagination?

When our TV gave up the ghost, there was no white noise or anything else to focus on but the conversation and what we could recall.

And what our minds dredged up were examples that stayed in our head because they were truly terrible examples of advertising.

We barely remembered the product – one of them was a steam gun I think.

What an ad needs is a writer that can prioritise the information and pull out the key messaging that will impact.

Then, the writer needs to craft that into something memorable. Something exciting.

There’s all kinds of tips and tricks in my wee book – The Core of Copywriting. It’s no more than 70 pages, packed with hints and advice for all types of content. Grab your copy here.

Just try and turn the TV off when you’re reading. It’s awfully distracting.