Garfield's Ad Review
Out-of-Work Copywriter Bares All on Savvy Self-Marketing Site
Lawson Clarke Tries Advertising Himself Into a New Job With a Website Worth Checking Out
This is maybe not the best time ever to be a copywriter. If you have a job, you will probably lose it within the next couple of years, 10 years max but very possibly before Labor Day. If you do not at present have a job, it's time to take a long hard look at a new career in a sector of the economy not being ravaged by digital technology:
- diagnostic-imaging technician
- casual-dining assistant manager
- burglar
Please understand that when the president talks about "retraining," he's not talking about steel-mill workers (those guys have long since donned green scrubs and started processing MRI scans for $12.25 an hour). He's talking about you. Act now or risk being a freelancer/barista for a long, long time.
Or you could pull a Lawson Clarke.
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Title: malecopywriter.com Marketer: Lawson Clarke  |
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| The website isn't especially robust or razzle-dazzle, but it does embrace a number of genuinely inspired elements, including the URL itself. |
Understanding full well that he is on a path to being found by worried neighbors bloated, decayed and being eaten by his cats, the former Arnold creative is trying to regain his rightful place in the advertising economy by advertising himself into a new gig. He is doing so via malecopywriter.com.
This is something you should check out.
The website isn't especially robust or razzle-dazzle, but it does embrace a number of genuinely inspired elements, including the URL itself -- which is paradoxically generic and revealing at the same time -- and a wildly stupid/funny welcome page. This consists of a paunchy and hairy Clarke himself, sprawled nude on a bearskin rug, à la Playgirl centerfold circa 1970, pursing his lips like Zoolander and fig-leafed by circa-1970 portable TV.
It, of course, is playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," like a local TV station's end-of-broadcast-day sign-off, circa 1970. The logo, which is really, really big, consists of girly silhouettes surrounding the words "Male Copywriter" in a go-go font, circa 1970.
There are three possibilities: 1) The man is a dick. 2) He is a normal guy posing as a dick, for laughs and attention. 3) He is a dick, ridiculing his own circa-1970 sensibilities for laughs and attention.
Who cares? He's a fantastic character. And his message on the contact tab proves it:
Hello, I'm Lawson Clarke.
Am I serious? Yes, I am very serious.
I'm also a copywriter. I worked at Arnold for four years.
Before that I worked at Clarke Goward Advertising. My daddy owned it.
Before that I worked at BBDO/West in Los Angeles. Yes, it's true.
I went to school at Occidental College. I also went to Boston University. They gave me an M.F.A. in film. That is also true.
Hope you enjoy my work. I love you.
male@malecopywriter.com
He loves us! The rest of the site is his portfolio, which is pretty good -- especially his print campaign for Progressive insurance's motorcycle coverage. One ad shows a guy in full protective gear, minus his motorcycle, sitting in a double-wide working on a kitty-cat jigsaw puzzle. The headline: "Life Without Your Bike is Just Life."
Substitute the word "copywriting" for "your bike," and you'll see why this guy (whom I do not know) needs a look.
You certainly don't want him imaging your kidneys.
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campaigns. Lawson has a whole lot of creative juices flowing and
looks likes a lot of fun included. Great site and portfolio.
Flavin Photography-Anchorage,AK.
As a marketing copywriter with no other marketable skills, it scared me. Am I obtuse? Do I not get the joke? Or is it deadly serious?
Somebody (Bob Garfield?) please tell me why copywriters are being singled out for pink slip purgatory! I sleep at night by telling myself that those who are adept at messaging will always have a career to keep us afloat.
Of course if this talented guy was let go...d'oh!
But really, should the copywriters of the marketing world be more worried than anyone else..?
And his mistake is in trying to get a job. He should be selling "How to be a Million Dollar a Year Copywriter" courses online.
What's astonishing is not Clarke's site, but that Garfield still has a column—the man doesn't have a clue about 21st Century advertising and has no business writing about it.
PS Lawson the whole idea, Burt Reynolds in Ms. isn't particularly funny, but more to the point, younger CDs won't recall it; I'd also edit out the image of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from your opening film, it doesn't belong in your crotch.
And, young CDs know a lot more about vintage culture than you know. In fact, they love it. Guess what, dude, all the interesting cultural touchstones didn't just happen in the last five years, you dancing clown! You child!
One more thing. When you can develop a body of work like Bob Garfield has accumulated over many years, then you can shoot your mouth off. Right now, just shut your stupid pie hole.
Lawson, great site, great ideas, great brand personality. Nothing wrong with some retro, hirstute, Burt Reynolds male humor. Crispin Porter Bogusky became one of the most successful agencies in the world with just such "ideas." I bet you'll obtain new work out of your site and the buzz it created any day now, if not already.
Good luck and keep writing.
Will we see out of Lawson the next Carl's Jr.? This site might help with that... if it is directed at the brand marketers as well as the agencies.
Langston Richardson
VP, ECD, infuz
Twitter: @MATSNL65