Plain Text » Snappy copy http://www.plain-text.co.uk Copywriting that means business Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:39:15 +0000 en hourly 1 The sublime art of the daft headline http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-sublime-art-of-the-daft-headline http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-sublime-art-of-the-daft-headline#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:54:05 +0000 Paul W http://www.plain-text.co.uk/?p=551 Tech webzine The Register has really surpassed itself this time, with this line to kick off a piece about a German innovation which makes bicycle helmets smell when they need replacing after an impact:

“Skid-lid bonk-stink crack tech cracked in Germany”

Connoisseurs may take issue with the repetition of ‘crack/cracked’ but I reckon it’s sheer headline genius. Just as good if not better than famous tabloid newsletter efforts such as The Sun’s “Obama Lama ding-dong”, fronting an article which implied a geopolitical rift over the US president’s meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader. Although that was surely a headline that had been sitting in a drawer somewhere just waiting for the flimsiest pretext to be used.

]]> http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-sublime-art-of-the-daft-headline/feed 0 Brutal warnings http://www.plain-text.co.uk/brutal-warnings http://www.plain-text.co.uk/brutal-warnings#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:31:35 +0000 Paul W http://www.plain-text.co.uk/wp_cms/?p=97 “Fragile – handle with care”… Does anyone ever take any notice when that’s printed on the box ? Seems like some manufacturers have realised that language needs to be more hard-hitting to get results. Monitor Audio’s speaker boxes sport the jarring warning “Useless if dropped”. You can’t get much more unequivocal than that. Made me think, especially having spent a few quid on the contents.

]]> http://www.plain-text.co.uk/brutal-warnings/feed 0