As you are no doubt well aware, copywriters are, of course, some of the brightest, kindest and most imaginative people walking this planet. Indeed, when God was busy spooning out the talent, he took a particular shine to the marketing wordsmith - particularly folk like Joseph Heller, Terry Gilliam, William S. Burroughs, Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, and Fay Weldon who all received second helpings.
Today I have assembled a list of 10 rather excellent blogs that I'd like to bring to your attention. Some are very funny. Others are quite weird. One or two are famous. Some are no longer being updated. Some have just started. And there are those that are simply a scrapbook of ideas and personal views forged from the world we live in.
The two things that they have in common are: 1. They have copywriters at their helm. 2. They are not necessarily about writing copy.
'Real Men Write Long Copy' by Dave Mance
Dave Mance is a freelance copywriter based in London and he writes a very silly and highly entertaining diary that includes information such as: 'How to install a Christmas tree.' From the off he invites you to 'Look at my work. Or watch a super slow-mo video of a kernal of popcorn popping. Your choice.'
'Twin Town Man' By Rob Self-Pierson
Dotted around Europe, you'll find things called 'twinned towns'. They're not like your ordinary towns. Nope. They're connected to other places because of their geography, their politics, their values, or something else entirely. Freelance copywriter Rob Self-Pierson is spending 3 months visiting twin towns around Europe, with nothing more that a B grade in French.
'The Man Who Fell Asleep' by Greg Stekelman
Greg is a freelance writer and illustrator. Someone important once called him the "Woody Allen for the iPod generation." If you don't follow him on Twitter you'll have missed his highly imaginative live tweeting of Masterchef. Just before the recent final, The Times did a live webchat with the contestants in which they were asked if they read his tweets. It turns out they did.
'66,000 Miles Per Hour' by Tim Rich and Tom Lynham
This blog is from two highly respected copywriters Tim Rich and Tom Lynham. It's about the ideas, things, scenes, words and characters we encounter on our travels through life. Hence 66,000 miles per hour - our velocity as we fly through space and around the Sun. You'll find some interesting thoughts and observations along with some very elegant wordsmithery. Well worth your time.
'Rocking Vicar' edited by Magnus Shaw
By jove it's Magnus! As well as being one of the top bloggers here on Creativepool, Magnus is also one of the lynchpins behind Rocking Vicar offering up an alternative point of view on all things music and media. And if you can't be arsed to read the blog, or take a wander through the archives hey, why not download a podcast?
'I don't know do I' by Ben Harris
Not the lead writer on Hollyoaks - this Ben Harris is the writer behind the brilliant Phones4u campaign. On his blog he rarely puts pen to paper, instead his posts appear as video or audio. Sometimes he puts up some drawings. Sometimes a video of him reading a story. Either way he's is annoyingly talented.
'Letters of Note' edited by Shaun Usher
On of the 'Independent' voices of 2011: The most influential non-celebrity users of Twitter, Shaun is a copywriter from Manchester and also the brains behind Letters of Note (soon to be a book), an "online homage to offline correspondence." A truly great blog and probably one of the reasons Internet was created.
'Mr Blog' by Nick Asbury
Although Nick is not putting up any new posts, 'Mr Blog' is still available online and it remains one of the few genuinely funny pieces about the business of branding. Having covered over 150 shops, from Mr Furniture to Mr Kebab, the praise for this blog was widespread - even Creative Review gave it a mention.
Dave Trott's blog
Dave covers everything from The Second World War to The New York Dolls and his posts are well informed and brilliantly argued. Part autobiography, part how-to advice, the entries will refresh your thinking about any creative process, whether it belongs to advertising, writing a book, or managing a team of employees.
Creativepool
Oh, yeah - nearly forgot.
John Fountain is a freelance copywriter
Follow @fountainjohn
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