Girls who “like to play with words”

VietNamNet Bridge - H.Chi, a female copywriter, said, “If I say I sell words, people may think I’m a teacher or writer. So when asked what my profession is, I say I play with words.”

According to Mai Han, copywriting isn’t monotonous at all. "You can write commercials for TV, radio, or write scripts for ad films, or write newspaper ads, etc. Copywriting isn’t just writing slogans."

To a copywriter, "playing with words” means “arranging words in the most effective way".

H. Nhung, another copywriter, said whenever she sees a great TV commercial, she mumbles the words in the commercial to herself. She explained: “I want to try to see whether I can make them sound better.”

A monthly salary ranging from VND 3 million (US $ 188) to VND 15 million (US $ 938) is an incentive to many young women who want to be copywriters. At present, no universities in Vietnam have training programmes in copywriting.

Therefore, copywriting in Vietnam is chiefly a self-taught profession. Many female copywriters have notebooks in which they write down interesting Vietnamese words they encounter in books, newspapers or on the Internet. Most of them are always seen with Vietnamese dictionaries. And some read poetry extensively. A copywriter named Thanh said, “Words in poetry are succinct, expressive and meaningful. Reading poetry is excellent for copywriters.”

As for constantly checking Vietnamese dictionaries, Thanh explained, “You many think that as Vietnamese is your mother tongue, your Vietnamese is impeccable. But it isn’t true. Vietnamese is a rich language while our vocabulary for everyday activities is limited.”

When their ads are used, copywriters are extremely happy. P.Khanh recalled, “The first time my slogan was accepted, I felt like crying.” Other copywriters have similar feelings because they say each slogan is the result of a tireless and passionate working process.

Life isn’t always rosy. N.Hang said, “I had such headaches for a whole month and came up with 3 slogans, all of which were rejected. Yet, 6 months later, one of these 3 slogans appeared on the labels of my client’s products. I was so mad, but what could I do? The time and money I would have had to pay if I had sued the client were better spent in creating new slogans.”

Vietnamese female copywriters feel even worse when hearing such comments as “Vietnamese ads sound funny with slogans as long as several km.” M.Trang said, “Yet, on second thought, such comments are true, which makes me sad. Foreign slogans are short and catchy. That’s why we try hard to come up with concise and interesting slogans though we know it’s difficult to change the habit of saying too much about products.”
(Source: Tien Phong)