Healthy Copywriting: The What, Why and How of My Last 30 Days

Like many others, I cannot precisely date my first encounter with copywriting. For the mere reason that a lot of us do not know what it is, even though it’s all around us; in our email boxes, on television, on billboards and on flyers and handbills. We see it everyday but we do not know what it is. It was in the course of my growth as a designer that I came by this seeming omnipresent concept in advertising.

Graphic Designer that likes to play with words, it was only a matter of time before I came across the concept. Copywriting is basically creating text to sell, whether a product, an idea, a service.

However, being in the health sector, the concept of advertising becomes a little bit trickier. Apart from the strict regulations on advertising in the sector, there is a limit to how “creative” on can get when it comes to human life. And so certain figures of speech are totally struck out when it comes to advertising some kinds of health brands. This therefore makes copywriting in health peculiar in its own way.

I have followed quite excitedly a number of copywriting challenges on Social media but interestingly have never found any in health, especially in Nigeria and so when I put out a call for submissions for health brands to be randomly selected through the 30-day challenge, I wasn’t as surprised when I didn’t get the number required. So, I went scouting by myself. Once I had gotten slightly over 30 brands, I stopped searching and started researching these brands, taking note of their peculiarities and trying to see into the very essence of their establishment. Of course, this would eventually form the basis of a number of copies written in the course of the challenge. But then again, while some of these brands were easily captured in “simple sentences”, some others had to be related with concepts the target audience could also relate with. For instance, in making a copy for NAFDAC, I tried to sell the efficiency of the agency using the inadequacies of a sister agency; INEC.

However, only a person who followed the events of the latter agency would be able to relate with it. Also, in making a copy for MSF (Doctors without Borders), I tried to make a pun from the ongoing crises of Donald Trump and his proposed wall. But again, only a person who followed these events would understand the copy.

This only goes to reestablish a major concept in Copywriting and maybe even in marketing in general, the very concept of “target audiences” because eventually, not everyone gets the joke but the goal of the copywriter/marketer is to ensure that the right people do!

And there’s the concept of “Woke Advertising”, a fast-rising trend in the world of advertising centered on selling based on a societal issue. Nike, Gillette and a number of multi-national brands have already started to key into it and I really look forward to seeing what a health brand can do with the concept. A number of friends and acquaintances have asked what the point of the whole challenge is. Well, No! It’s not financial, as a matter of fact I’m still as broke as I was when I started the challenge. Yes, little more fulfilled but still broke! But the purpose of the challenge was exploration, exhibition and education and I believe all three were achieved to a reasonable extent. I have a feeling some people would get to see the meaning (meanings in some instances) of some of the copies as time goes by but I’d like to thank you from coming on this challenge with me.

All copies made are available on my social media platforms @jobaojelabi on Instagram, twitter and LinkedIn.

Cheers to the bigger things 2019 has to offer!