Kashan Nasir

COPYWRITING IN MEDIA STUDIES 1
COPYWRITING IN MEDIA STUDIES
by
Kashan Nasir
Thesis Advisor:
Mrs. Salima Hashmi
Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Master of Arts
Date_____________________________
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art Education
in the School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
© Name of Student 2019

CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................. 6
1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6
1.2 Background of the Study ................................................................................................. 6
1.3 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 9
1.4 Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................. 12
1.5 Research Question ......................................................................................................... 12
1.6 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................... 15
LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 15
2.1 Evolution of Advertising................................................................................................ 15
2.2 Advertising in Pakistan .................................................................................................. 17
2.3 Copywriting ................................................................................................................... 20
2.4 Knowledge, Language & Practices in Copywriting ...................................................... 22
2.5 Creative Advertising Communication ........................................................................... 30
2.6 Influences and Creative Challenges in Pakistani Advertising ....................................... 32
2.7 India VS Pakistan ........................................................................................................... 34
2.8 Advertising Language .................................................................................................... 35
2.9 Technology and Advertising Ideas ................................................................................ 36
2.10 Creative Challenges of Fresh Graduate ....................................................................... 37
CHAPTER 3 ........................................................................................................................... 39
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 39
3.1 Research Method ........................................................................................................... 39

3.2 Research Flow ................................................................................................................ 39
3.3 Research Approach ........................................................................................................ 39
3.4 Research Setting............................................................................................................. 40
3.5 Research Sample ............................................................................................................ 41
3.6 Research Procedure ........................................................................................................ 41
3.7 Limitation of the research .............................................................................................. 41
3.8 Ethical considerations .................................................................................................... 41
CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................................... 43
FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................. 43
4.1 Qualitative Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 43
4.2 Pie Charts Depicting Various Findings.......................................................................... 44
4.3 Table 1: Data Responses on Theme 1 and Sub-themes ................................................. 49
CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................... 77
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 77
5.1 Theme 1: Significance of Copywriting in Advertising Communication ....................... 78
5.2 Theme 2: State of copywriting in Pakistani advertising ................................................ 82
5.3 Theme 3: Fresh Media Studies Graduates in the Professional World of Copywriting .. 88
5.4 Theme 4: Copywriting Courses in Media Studies ......................................................... 92
5.5 Implications For Further Research................................................................................. 95
5.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 96
CHAPTER 6 ........................................................................................................................... 98
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................... 98
APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................... 101
Appendix A ........................................................................................................................... 101
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 1) ................................... 101
Appendix B ........................................................................................................................... 109
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 2) ................................... 109
Appendix C ........................................................................................................................... 117
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 3) ................. 117
Appendix D ........................................................................................................................... 129
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 4) ................. 129
Appendix E ........................................................................................................................... 141
Consent form of respondent 1 ............................................................................................ 141
Appendix F ........................................................................................................................... 142
Appendix G ........................................................................................................................... 143
Appendix H ........................................................................................................................... 144

ABSTRACT
In 2002 during General Musharraf’s tenure, there was a media boom and plenty of
emphasis on creating a soft image of the country. As a result, a significant number of TV
channels and media houses came into being. With that arose the need for a more significant
creative workforce, and subsequently, many Media studies programs were created at various
new and old institutions.
These departments were established to create an educated and skilled workforce for a
new emerging media industry. Before their establishment, the mass media, liberal arts, mass
communication, art/design, and journalism graduates were the only source of induction for
the news/entertainment, and advertising industry. In the last two decades, these departments
have produced several batches of media studies graduates; however, the market feedback
about the Media studies graduates is not encouraging. Several media professionals and
graduates themselves have observed it, that the Media studies program that is offered by
different universities do not equip students according to the needs of industry and leave most
of the students baffled, especially when it comes to training the students to become
copywriters. In this paper, several teachers, practitioners of advertising reflect on the state
and standard of copywriting in Pakistan and analyze how well-equipped and prepared are the
graduates of these Media studies programs to become the next generation of communicators
and copywriters.
This paper informs about the history of media and advertising in Pakistan, state of
copywriting in Pakistani advertising, and the state of Media studies and copywriting courses
offered in Pakistan.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The focus of this research is to study the efficacy of Media Studies graduates as
professional copywriters in advertising agencies. With the rapid technological developments,
the advent of internet/smartphones and cultural globalization phenomena, the trends in
advertising communication are sprouting into new dimensions; accordingly, the advertising
industry globally and individually in Pakistan is facing numerous challenges. This study is
conducted to examine how copywriting courses in Media Studies programs in different
universities of Karachi are preparing students for the real-world problems, and compare them
with the skill and knowledge required to create creative communication for existing and
emerging advertising media in the industry.
1.2 Background of the Study
Electronic media (News/entertainment channels) and the advertising industry in Pakistan
had never seen a boom that it enjoys today. General Pervez Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif’s
government in 1999, and after coming into power in his first speech, talked about opening up
the airwave (Aslam, 2011). To establish his modus operandi of moderate liberation, in 2002,
General Pervez Musharraf granted numerous licenses to private news and entertainment
channels to broadcast their transmission in Pakistan; thus the present era of Azad media
began.
In those days every second day a test transmission of some new news or entertainment
channel popped up on television screens. With the advent of new channels advertising
industry flourished. The demand for skilled and experienced workforce, especially of news
content and copywriters emerged, which the market then did not have in plenty. To help with
a kick-start, all that they had were few good journalists, marketers, design/art, Urdu/English
literature, and Mass Communication graduates. Most of these channels haphazardly hired
many graduates with unrelated educational background for different jobs, and then they hired
foreign teams to train these people. To cater to the emerging need to feed the booming media
industry’s requirement of qualified media graduates, Media Studies departments
mushroomed in the higher education scenario of the country. Various universities established
Media Studies departments and acquired accreditation from HEC to grant undergraduate
degrees in this faculty. Later we saw that many prestigious business schools also found
Media Studies departments in their campuses.
In the mix of courses taught in Media studies department, news content and copywriting
courses are of great importance. In mainstream Pakistani media, Urdu and English are the
common languages of communication. Most of the Media studies programs offer Urdu and
English language courses in tandem with news content, copywriting, concept writing, and
playwriting courses.
To understand the background of creative concept and copywriting in advertising
communication lets have a glance into human communication history and evolution.
Numerous sources educate us about how ancient men started to communicate about their
needs, fears, and motivations. Footprints, in terms of their form of media, are left for us to
determine the earliest form of communication. History identifies three significant revolutions
that evolved the course of humankind on the next level. The Cognitive Revolution that kick-
started history about 70,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution took it to forward up
about 12,000 years ago, and eventually, we have the Scientific Revolution, which is just
about 500 years old (Harari, 2006). The cognitive revolution is what enabled humans to
develop language, and then not only style but also the writing and media evolved through
storytelling, mythology, and gossip. (Harari, 2006) In his book, Sapiens A Brief History of
Humankind states, “Legends, Myths, gods, and religions appeared for the first time with the
Cognitive Revolution. Many animals and human species could previously say, ‘Careful! A
lion!’ Thanks to the Cognitive Revolution, Homo Sapiens acquired the ability to say, ‘The
lion is a guardian spirit of our tribe.’ This ability to speak about fictions is the most unique
feature of Sapiens language” (p.27). This ability to speak and write about fiction is termed
today as creative writing in general. Moreover, to come up with an exaggerated fictional
story writing short persuasive messages to sell a product or service is called creative concept
and copywriting.
Writing is a visual representation of spoken language that has evolved and developed
over a thousand years. However, there are still several dialects in the world that solely exist
in spoken form without any conventions of writing (Mhaiskar, R, 2015). Creative concept
and copywriting demands a particular style of writing skill, where the product or service’s
story is told through minimum possible words and visual depiction.
Numerous appeals are used for advertising. So far around the world, over a hundred
types of advertising copy appeals and approaches have been generated by creative advertising
gurus. These approaches are flexible enough to establish a foundation for any creative
advertising challenge. In Pakistan, advertising communication has been under the shadow of
Indian advertising for many years now. Indian trends and tones of communication greatly
influence our advertising copy and appeals. In recent years with a rapid increase in the
number of television channels, technological developments, and evolving global cultural

trends, advertising and communication industry has massively transformed. It is high time to
revisit and analyze how and what are we teaching to our upcoming creative concept and
copywriters who are the future trendsetters.
1.3 Problem Statement
Before the commencement of Pakistan television (PTV) in 1964, the advertising industry
in Pakistan to reach its audience relied upon newspaper publications and Radio Pakistan that
started broadcasting from the very eve of independence on 14th August. PTV, Radio Pakistan
along with few newspapers have always been under the influence of government policies and
censorship, and advertising industry also gets effected by these policies accordingly.
Pakistan has a rich and splendid history of brilliant advertising communication. If we
track back, we find, that until the mid-90s most of the advertising communication in Pakistan
has been oblivious to the trend of bilingualism or Code switching. If we review the early
television advertising communication in Pakistan, it is revealed that except for product
names, all of the communication was either in pure Urdu or pure English. Few of the famous
creative copywriting examples of those days are “ Rado Diastar, is ki chakachond chamak
aap ki ankhon ko khera na kar day”, Rado Diastar, its dazzling sheen may not leave you
blindsided, “Men demand Capstan the world over” and “Gold Leaf, for the taste alone”.
Since adverts cater to a specific target audience, so the choice of words and the tone of
language are of the essence. In the late 90s with the advent of cable television, the Pakistani
audience got exposed to Indian advertising. India has a huge advertising market, which caters
to a massive and diverse audience and ethnic groups. The Advertising industry in India has
its dynamics of creative copywriting. In Indian advertising, mixing English code in Hindi and
several other local languages has been a usual practice. Mostly, the tone of Indian advertising
is emotional and sarcastically humorous, for which the use of local slang has been a popular
practice.
The peculiar character of Indian creative copy in their ads became popular in Pakistan,
especially amongst the youth. With over 50% of the youth population in Pakistan that brands
had to lure, clients started pushing copywriters to incorporate local slang and everyday use
Urdu words with a combination of English in their communication. Hence from that time, we
saw a significant switch in creative copywriting trend in Pakistani advertising, especially for
the brands that were targeted towards the youth. The other influence that Pakistani
advertising drew from India was through its film industry and Indian soap operas. These
influences are still manifested in Pakistani ads with models wearing fancy clothes and
dancing and singing amidst lavish sets to sell almost anything. Amongst the popular
approaches, trends, and themes in Pakistani advertising copy, celebrity endorsement,
wedding, music, dance, emotional family drama and formula advertising of (generic VS
branded product) approach that is adopted by most of the multinational companies is a
common practice. Although on and off we see few creative copies taking a unique or
humorous approach of communication, the question remains, why is there a consistent
repetition of the run of the mill copy approaches? Is it due to the lack of creative minds and
writers behind these concepts, or are there other reasons? Most importantly, how well
equipped and qualified is a coming generation of creative concept and copywriters to change
this trend?
Advertising communication does not only influence people to buy products or services
but also educates and pave the way for new cultural trends in society, especially for the
youth. According to National Human Development Report (NHDR) launched by UNDP,
Pakistan currently has the largest population of young people ever recorded, the report states
that 64% of the total population is below the age of 30, and 29% is between the ages of 15-29
("Pakistan currently has largest youth population", 2018).
After 2002, the expansion of private television media did bring not only opportunities but
also posed many challenges to the advertising industry. Amongst these challenges, the
biggest challenge is of media distribution due to a growing number of channels that are
catering to niche audiences. Following figures represent this humongous growth in the
number of private satellite television channels in Pakistan, by 2008 the number of channels
increased up to 30 foreign and 66 national channels (PEMRA, 2008) (As Hussainy et al.,
2008; Ahmad, W, 2010). On May 2, 2019, The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory
Authority (PEMRA) auctioned 70 more licenses for satellite TV broadcast stations at its
headquarters in Islamabad ("Pemra auctions 70 licenses for STV channels", 2019). Along
with this expanding horizon of private television channels in Pakistan, the number of
Internets and smartphone users is also rapidly increasing. According to Froggatt (2010) as
compared to 2006 the total number of internet users grew by 50% in 2009, there were 18.5
million users and this trend is continuously growing (Ahmad, W, 2010), and according to
Asia Internet use, population data and Facebook statistics as of March 31, 2019, 21% of
overall population of Pakistan is internet user. Internet Users, Facebook Subscribers &
Population Statistics for 35 countries and regions in Asia ("Internet Usage in Asia," 2019).
With the advent of the Internet, the communication trend is changing. Now through Vlogs
and Blogs, there is no constraint of using the minimum word and limited visual depiction to
convey a message. Each day we see many amateurs producing mediocre and below the belt
content, getting overnight fame, and then getting hired by famous youth brands to write for
their products. Thus today's and future's creative copywriters must be aware of ethnic and
cultural sensitivities of the indigenous society as well as the youth's exposure of technology
and emerging global trends. With this vibrant media expansion scenario, immense
responsibility lies on the institutes to equip the upcoming creative concept and copywriters.
So they can cope with the challenges that they may face in this highly cluttered and
competitive advertising market of the future.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
• To analyze the reasons behind the vulnerability of the local advertising industry for
drawing foreign influences
• To examine how the creative concept and copywriting courses offered in
undergraduate Media studies programs in different universities enhance the creative
thinking skills of students
• To discuss creative and copywriting courses of undergraduate Media studies
programs and determine how they fulfill current requirements of advertising agencies,
and how these courses evolved to cater to the future advertising trends.
1.5 Research Question
How do copywriting courses in undergraduate Media studies programs prepare students
to think and produce effective advertising communication?
1.6 Significance of the Study
There is this paradox that most of the permanent university faculty teaching in Media
studies department in different universities is usually oblivious of the most recent

developments in the practical world of the advertising industry, this is not valid for the
visiting faculty that works in the industry and come to the class with the first-hand market
experience. Considering that there may be some truth in the statement that permanent faculty
in universities is usually not aware of the developments and trends of the market, this
research holds its significance to bring them this knowledge from the perspective of seasoned
advertising industry professionals, vis-à-vis, it is equally significant for industry professionals
to get an understanding of what is being taught to the media studies students who could be
their prospective employees, specifically in creative concept and copywriting department.
This study establishes a missing link between the creative advertising professionals with
the creative concept and copywriting teachers. Since the teachers themselves design most of
the creative concept and copywriting courses, this study informs industry professionals about
the challenges that these teachers face while developing the appropriate content for these
courses. Moreover, it tells about the interest, inclination, and attitude of the students towards
creative concept and copywriting courses. On the other hand, this research highlights the
concerns of creative advertising professionals about the quality of fresh graduates that are
available to be inducted in the advertising industry. It notifies about the challenges that fresh
inductees in creative concept copywriting department in advertising agencies face with their
daily tasks and their interaction with their supervisors and clients. It is hence bringing to
surface the shortcomings of these fresh graduates, which they can overcome to a high degree
with amended and evolved relevant curriculum.
For marketing professionals and clients, this research provides insights about the grind
that creative graduates and professional goes through to produce creative concepts and copies
for their brands. It is significant for them to acquire knowledge about what goes behind the
scene before they are presented with any mundane or out of the box concepts for brands,
products, and services.
By providing substantial data not only about the course content of creative concept and
copywriting subject but also about the application and implications of this course in real
advertising world, this study for education policymakers promotes the emphasis that should
meticulously be given in designing curriculum and course outline for any and every subject
that is taught in Media studies department, and equip our coming generation with up to date
knowledge that would help them meet modern age challenges of the real world.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Media studies undergrad program in the universities of Pakistan is a new phenomenon. The
need for this specialized department occurred with the emerging new television channels
(news/entertainment) that also flourished the advertising industry in Pakistan. Students that
graduate from these programs opt for a career in advertising agencies for creative positions. This
study is to analyze how copywriting courses that are taught in the Media studies departments of
different universities help students to think and produce creative advertising communication. The
review of the literature covers the evolution of global and Pakistani advertising, copywriting and
creativity, and the influences and challenges of Media studies graduates to work as a copywriter
in the advertising industry of Pakistan.
2.1 Evolution of Advertising
Advertising has always been a subject of interest and fascination. People have their
perceptions and definitions of advertising. According to Bendinger (1993) Leo Burnett the
advertising guru defined it as "selling corn flakes to people who are eating Cheerios"(p. 60),
according to Bradley, Daniels, and Jones (1960) U.S. president Calvin Coolidge defined
advertising as “the life of trade” (p. 13) and Fitzhenry (1993) states McLuhan’s perspective
about advertising as “the cave art of the twentieth century” (p. 19) (Richards, J. I., & Curran, C.
M., 2002). Advertising has evolved manifold with new media technology fuelling its engine, so
does the advertising definitions.
According to Richards, J. I., & Curran, C. M. (2002), following are the few latest and
profound advertising definitions in textbooks:

“A paid, mass-mediated attempt to persuade. (O'Guinn; Allen and Semenik, 2000). Any
paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor (Armstrong and Kotier, 2000). Non-personal communication that is
paid for by an identified sponsor, and involves either mass communication via
newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and other media (e.g., billboards, bus stop
signage) or direct-to-consumer communication via direct mail (Czinkota et al., 2000).
Impersonal, one-way mass communication about a product or organization that is paid
for by a marker (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2000)".
There are different viewpoints of how advertising began or what can be categorized as the
first work of advertising. Some claim that the prehistoric paintings were a form of advertising; it
is also believed that advertising was prevalent in Egypt and Greek civilizations. An early
example of advertising was found in the ruins of Pompeii Rome known to be of promoting a
brothel. One can say that advertising has been there in one form or the other from the beginning
of production and sales of goods (Tungate, M, 2007).
In 1447 Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, invented a printing press and movable
type, which helped advertising to leap forward. In 1631 a French doctor Théophraste Renaudot
took out the first newspaper La Gazette (the name is inspired by the unit of currency he’d
discovered in Italy, the Gazzetta). Renaudot is known as a first journalist and the inventor of the
personal ad. It is believed that William Tayler, who opened an office in London’s Warwick
Square in 1786, formed the first advertising agency in the United Kingdom. His firm later
became known as Tayler & Newton; its clients were printers who were also running newspapers
to promote their trade. (Tungate, M, 2007).

By defining the customs in pre-market societies, early economic society and the industrial
revolution, Norris, V. P. (1980) believes that advertising in its pure form is a birth of
industrialization. He argues that through textbooks, students conclude that advertising is as old as
humankind and that it flourished three thousand years ago and played an essential role in
developing several societies and cultures. He states that the wall inscriptions on Hammurabi's
temple in Uruk, which usually is presented as an early sign of corporate billboard and Rosetta
stone as a first poster, were mere on-premise identifying signs (Norris, V. P, 1980).
Norris, V. P (1980) elaborates his point of view by explaining that in pre-market times,
reciprocity or barter was the mode of business. Thus there was no place of advertising there,
whereas economies of the ancient world and medieval Europe were fundamentally a form of
modern free-enterprise capitalism. Before the industrial revolution, more than 90 percent of the
population lived on farms. Their livelihood was based upon selling the surplus crop and buying a
few things they could not produce. At that time, advertising, even for merchants, was of little
importance. At the end of the 18th-century advertising by merchants directed towards a new
market became an established phenomenon in England, where the industrial revolution was well
underway. Industrial revolution paved the way for mass production. With the growth of
manufacturers, the competition grew, and they began to advertise to sell their products, and with
the growth of production, manufacturers started extending their markets geographically. In the
new market, manufacturers had to establish their reputation; thus, they had to advertise.
Advertising was also used to bridge the gap of wholesaler being between the manufacturer and
the consumer (Norris, V. P, 1980).
2.2 Advertising in Pakistan
After partition, there were hardly any advertising agencies in Pakistan. Businesses in the
Pakistani side were still aligned with their pre-partition agencies, and most of the head offices of
these agencies were situated in India. (Siddiqui, K. A; Siddiqui, A, 2016). After independence,
the first Pakistani advertising agency was established in 1948 by Mir Abdul Qayum, who was
also awarded as a pioneer of advertising in Pakistan by all Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS).
Most of the adverts produced at that time were text-based, and the mode was print advertising,
which got published in newspapers. Later the human images started appearing in the ads. In the
1950s, in early days of Pakistan, most of the advertisements carried patriotic and emotional tone
that complimented the sentiment of society, few of the tag lines from that time are, West End
Watch Co’s “Trains Don’t Wait” [9], Pakistan Railway’s “Don’t Rob the Nation” [10] (Siddiqui,
K. A; Siddiqui, A, 2016; Jabbar. J, 2017).
In 1953, to protect the rights of newspaper, editors and publishers found (APNS) The All
Pakistan Newspaper Society. Today, hundreds of advertising agencies and newspaper function
under its accredited body. 1960s were the golden era of Pakistan cinema industry that kept
growing for a decade, around the same time cinema advertising began in Pakistan (Siddiqui, K.
A; Siddiqui, A, 2016). Karachi was the advertising hub in the 60s, the industry then was
dominated by multinational ad agencies such as D.J. Keymer, J. Walter Thompson, and Lintas.
These agencies played a pivotal role in training talent and initiating industry standards. Later
local players came into the scene and set up the agencies, which include United Advertising, IAL
and MNJ (Jabbar. J, 2017).
Radio Pakistan started its transmission on August 14, 1947, and due to its reach to masses, in
the 1950s and 1960s, it was a popular choice to advertise. In 1963 under the chairmanship of
president Ayub Khan a national publicity conference was held, where the decision of setting up a
television station in Pakistan was taken. On November 26, 1964 (PTV) Pakistan Television
started broadcasting with a small pilot television station at Lahore (Kheeshadeh, M, 2012). With
the advent of television, the advertising scene in Pakistan tremendously changed. PTV enabled
advertisers to capture urban market effectively, the ads featuring classic movie songs and
celebrity endorsements from famous film stars became a trend. In the 1970s and ’80s, PTV
drams were the primary source of entertainment for the Pakistani audience. At this stage, the
concept of limited time frame, also known as the slot was introduced, that encouraged the
competition amongst the advertisers. Few of the best copies of the time were Naaz pan Masala’s:
“Meri Muthi main band Hay kia, bata do na?” (What is hidden in my palm, make a guess),
Naurus: “Bhoolnajaana Phir Papa” (Please don’t forget again Papa), Cherry Blossom: “cherry
blossom roz lagain nai shan say chaltay jayen”(apply cherry blossom every day and keep
walking with a new pride). In 1973 Pakistan Advertising Association (PAA) was formed, which
is registered with the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan (Siddiqui, K. A; Siddiqui,
A, 2016).
From 1988-89 onwards computer technology remarkably changed the entire scenario of the
advertising industry in Pakistan, unique animation became a part of advertising commercials,
digital film format enhanced the quality of overall adverts production, the quality of color
printing in newspapers immensely improved and the flex printing allowed advertisers to install
spectacular outdoor advertising (Siddiqui, K. A; Siddiqui, A, 2016).
I998 onwards saw a new era in media scenario of Pakistan. In 2002 PEMRA was
established that issued licenses to numerous new broadcasting channels, with this development
advertising industry flourished manifold. Many of the Pakistani ads started to co-produced with
Indian teams, which brought a unique flavor of cinematography in local productions. In terms of
workforce, the industry grew over 500 times, celebrities now became a brand ambassador, and
for the maximum reach to the consumer, businesses started organizing events and on-ground
promotions. Later, with the advent of the Internet and smartphones, the focus of advertisers
shifted towards digital advertising (Siddiqui, K. A., & Siddiqui, A, 2016).
2.3 Copywriting
Because it is a copywriting that has to evoke the interest of people and leads them to
decide if they should buy a particular product, copywriting is difficult and challenging work
(Burnett. L, 1965). The real challenge is the compression, be it print, TV or any other mode,
the difficult thing about writing copy is that it has to be short. One does not have the liberty
to write much more than 100 words in a TV commercial, and the brevity of form makes it
difficult to do (Ogilvy. D, 1965). In advertising, one does not have the luxury of writing
1,200 words because the message has to be concise. For the print advertisement, there is a
limit to which one can write about the product, and now single-minded one-liner messages
are preferred by most of the MNCs. Whereas for TV and radio, there are only 7, 15, 20, 30
and 60 seconds slots available to convey a message. Radio and TV adverts also have to stand
a test of repeated exposure, which can cause an element of fatigue. Thus the copy has to be
engaging and enjoyable enough to hold the challenge of repetition (Jabbar. J, 2017). Besides
the condensation of text, the copy must establish an association with people; this association
comes from the knowledge of people. One should know what interest people, to get that
product into the field of association (Gribbing. G, 1965).
For any advertising communication, it is essential to know the audience first. A
copywriter has to step out of his comfort zone. He should face the consumer as a person, a
real, live individual with his thoughts and feelings. What’s important is, what do you know
about these thoughts and feelings? (Machado. J, 1996). People don’t hate advertising; they
ignore it. A copy has to be original and fresh and should be able to stand out. Copy should
compete with shocking news events of killings and violence around the world. Advertising
can do the right thing, and if it is not heard, it is wasted (Bernbach. W, 1965). Thus the main
challenge of a copywriter is to grab the attention of the audience. Copy should deliver a
message in a manner, which results in sales of a product or service that is offered. One of the
most distinguishing characteristics of a good copywriter is that he is always aware of his
surroundings. He draws insights from the reality of people living around him, from the
society, culture, and politics. Defining a trait of a good copywriter Gribbin. G, (1965) states:
“A good writer can never be a snob; a snob sets himself apart from the people, rather
than being one of them. That’s suicidal for a writer. I think a writer should be joyous,
and an optimist, rather than a cynic. Anything that implies rejection of life is wrong
for a writer, and cynicism is rejection of life. I would say participate, participate,
participate”. (p.69).
Unlike a news reporter, editor, or commentator, copywriter’s job is not to merely inform
people; his job is to change and reinforce attitudes or behavior. In the 1950s, when the U.S.
economy was facing the threat of massive recession, one man Marion Harper (‘The Man who
Changed Madison Avenue’) realized the real situation and with his simple, insightful copy
turned the tables. Harper understood that the problem was more of a psychological than
economical. He drew his insight from the post-World War 2 baby boom. When every 9
seconds a new baby was being born in the U.S. Harper produced an ad that stated: “Take
heart in a growing America. One new citizen every nine seconds to clothe and feed. Who
says we can’t produce enough to do it?” This little insight into people’s minds and heart
transformed the entire outlook of people from a pessimistic to an optimistic attitude towards
the situation (Machado. J, 1996). Copywriting is not about writing good things for products
or services, it is about knowing what people care for, and taking it in serious consideration
before positioning any brand. Respecting the point of view of a consumer and taking into
account their knowledge holds the highest value in writing an appropriate and compelling
copy (Machado. J, 1996).
2.4 Knowledge, Language & Practices in Copywriting
The role of knowledge for a good copywriter can be illustrated by several cases of
Claude Hopkins, who is one of the most revered ad writers and known to be one of the
modern advertising pioneers. At the B. J. Johnson Soap Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Hopkins while working on a soap product discovered that one of the many products he
surveyed used a combination of palm and olive oil, this lead him to coin a brand name
(Palmolive soap) and proposed an ad featuring the character of beautiful Cleopatra, who,
according to legend, used palm and olive oils in her own beauty treatments (13, 134-145). In
the case of Schlitz and Quaker Oats, Hopkins, while visiting the plant discovered that the
beer bottles were washed four times, he utilized this insight for his ad campaign and the
message was quickly reflected by a sudden increase in Schlitz sales (13, 83-85). Similarly for
Quaker Oats, while visiting the plant Hopkins observed that wheat and rice magnified many
times when expelled from machines that looked like gigantic guns, this insight helped him
come up with an idea to launch a product with a dramatic message of "food shot from guns",
this campaign was one of the most successful launch campaigns in cereal market (13, 146-
153). (Bengtson, T. A. 1982).
The knowledge gap causes advertising campaigns to be less effective. Basic knowledge
about customer, product, and market prior launching to the product is what determines the
campaign failure or success. Thus it is stressed upon the creative teams to have adequate
knowledge about the target audience, the product, and the market. (Sutherland, J., Duke, L.,
Abernethy, A., & professor, U. O. G. I. A. A. 2004; Verbeke, W., Franses, P. H., Blanc, A.
L., & van Ruiten, N. 2008). Bengtson, T. A. (1982) argues that the pursuit of knowledge at
times does not favor writers the way it should. It is when the writer considers that knowledge
is the end in itself instead of it being a means of solving a problem. A lot of copywriters
spend so much time in gathering knowledge that there is hardly any time left for them to
come up with a great idea for good concept or copy. Another aspect of knowledge becoming
dangerous for a copywriter is when he is provided with the information of past, present, and
future predictions for a brand. Bengetson (1982) reasons that this information works like a
pink elephant. That when someone asks you to not to think about a pink elephant; the first
image would be of a pink elephant to occur in your mind. Similarly, any future prediction
about brand contaminates, confines, and hinders any fresh or original thought or an idea in
the copywriter’s mind. The knowledge that is needed for a creative process cannot be fixed or
immotile, such knowledge inhibits creative thinking, this phenomenon is termed as
“occupational psychosis” by John Dewey (3, 38-40) (Bengtson, T. A. 1982).
The way the advertising message is crafted or constructed in an advertising copy plays a
pivotal role in terms of comprehension and recall. Many advertising gurus and researchers
have been studying the effects of different constructs. It is recommended that a copy should
be as simple as possible (Percy, 1982; Rogers, 1988). Complex syntax, negation, and passive
constructions are usually not appreciated and encouraged by seasoned copywriters, although
many of the ads negating these guidelines are considered quite successful (Lowrey, T. M.
1998). Research shows that negation, passive construction syntactic structures, and left-
branching tenses reduce the comprehensibility of the message. For instance left-branching
message “Because it's high in fiber, Brand X is a healthy choice breakfast” VS right-
branching message "Brand X is a healthy choice for breakfast because it's high in fiber",
latter is simple and easily comprehensible. Positive affirmative and active sentences are
processed faster than negative or passive sentences (Clark & Chase, 1972; 1965; Mehler,
1963; Miller, 1962; Wason, 1959).
Furthermore, research suggests that left-branching sentence structure overloads the
working memory, particularly in children and adults. Even for adults left- branching sentence
structures cause a difficulty in message processing, these messages are not easily stored in
short-term memory, and the recall of such messages are low (Anderson & Davison, 1988;
Lowrey, T. M. 1998). Another important aspect of copywriting is to be aware of and be
critical about polysemy. Polysemy in advertising message takes place with the occurrence of
multiple meaning in the same message. Advertising messages due to their frequency of
exposure are prone to polysemy. In recent years with the growing trend of the application of
metaphors the complexity of copywriting has increased (Phillips & McQuarrie 2002) which
does not only decreases the comprehension but also makes it difficult for the audience to
interpret the advertising message (e.g., Hackley 1999; Malefyt 2003; Puntoni, S., Schroeder,
J. E., & Ritson, M 2010). Advertising language has its pros and cons, grammar and spellings
of words are intentionally manipulated in advertising copy to create a certain impact. It has
been a matter of concern and debate amongst researchers and academics on how advertising
copy impacts the vocabulary and language skills of students. And whether advertising
language draws its influence from people or vice versa. Examining the language errors in
advertising copy Wyckham (I986) analyzed linguistic irregularities in advertising copy of
different ads that tried to be persuasive and creative through manipulative language. He
analyzed these ads based upon syntactic and stylistic errors, following is a list of errors
identified in his research:
Syntactic Errors
1. Incomplete sentences
Summit Candy: Chocolate, Peanuts, and Light Kool Aid: Ever noticed?
2. Adverb/adjective confusion
Continental Airlines: You can get it that quick Pillsbury Frosting: Spreads as good
as it tastes
3. Incorrect word order
Ore-Ida French Fries: tasting good
4. Incorrect comparatives
Homer Formby: No one knows wood
5. Lack of agreement
Dodge 024: not engineered equal and none have ...
6. Incorrect case usage
Kotex pads: Me and Kotex ... (in nominative role)
7. Incomplete comparatives
Union 76 Tires: not all people drive the same
8. Incorrect word usage
Armor-All: product described as a protectant

9. Lack of parallel construction
Swift Brown and Serve Sausage: from sizzle to serve
10. Improper verb mode
Crest Toothpaste: If it wasn't for Crest ...
11. Equivocation
Sunlight Detergent: Clean is Sunlight
Stylistic Errors
1. Slang
Purina: He's busting up the family
Eveready: That's where it's at
2. Clipping
Eureka: self-propelled vac
3. Neologisms
Betty Crocker: Bake someone happy
Playtex Maxi-Pads: deodorancy
4. Misspelling
Cella Wine: cellabrate
5. Personification
Bayer Aspirin: pain is acting up
United Airlines: Time could wear my memory
6. Begging the question
Pepsi Cola: More people drink Pepsi because they know a winner
7. Far-fetched metaphors
Gallo Wines: Memory you can taste
Toyota: Good gas mileage is a good feeling
8. Colloquialisms
Maple Leaf: Lemme guess
Clairol: gonna, outta
9. Vagueness
Carpeteria: Up to 50% or more
Dairy Queen: Not far away
Research indicates that most of the advertising agencies believe that mistakes in
advertising copy are rare. Advertising agencies do consider the adverse social effects of
irregular language usage, but they think that advertising has to do a specific job. Language
purists believe in keeping the sanctity of the language intact. Whereas Language liberals
believe that language is an evolving entity that changes with society, language liberals
eschew grammar rules (Wyckham, R. G. 1986). Considering advertising language a living
reality that one cannot escape from, Don Nilsen in English Journal ("Teaching English
Through the Language of Advertising," February 1976, pp. 29-38.) recommended that
English should be taught by using advertising copy in the teaching of accepted language
usage. He states that "Students, he believes, are impressed by the language skills displayed in
advertising and can learn much from collecting and examining interesting bits of advertising
copy." Neilsen (1976) recommended that phonology, orthography, homonyms, puns, creative
grammar rule breaking (double negatives, word division, word aggregation) and syntactic
manipulation in advertising should be taught to students. Students can play with language and
experiment with breaking the rules for unusual effects along with learning the rules of
conventional usage (Wyckham, R. G. 1986).
One of the significant factors that influence advertising copy or brands approach around
the world is the trend, also known as fads. These fads are evident in advertising approaches
and copy all the times. At times you see, everybody is telling stories; at another time there is
a comparison or a war between the brands going on. We witness that everybody is using
picture-caption format and then “hard sell” or the straight-line description and exposition of
product merits is in fashion. Advertising professional recognizes these fads and vogues. The
real struggle of copywriters is to start a new fad and get people to talk about it (Kelley, W. T.,
& Duke, R. G. 1962). Few of the very basic trends of advertising/copywriting are Straight
line- it is a method also known as a hard sell. The selling message is stated right at the top
from the very beginning. It does not contain any gimmick or metaphors. It delivers straight
talk and calls to action for buying and asks for the order. Narrative- product message is
weaved and is based upon a story that usually ends with an organized sales message of the
product. Dialogue or monologue- in this method, testimonials of well-known people are used
to deliver a product message. Simulated – testimonials are also used to create a conversation
between a consumer with a model or a model to model to get product endorsed. Picture
caption- in this method, the picture or film dominates space or airing time. Headline-
illustration- here the 15% or less of space is a copy (Kelley, W. T., & Duke, R. G. 1962).
Considering the elements that contribute majorly for effective advertising communication,
the key benefit claim of any brand holds a central position. There are various terms used for
it, like the "consumer insight" (e.g., Wing 2008), the "brand essence" (e.g., Roberts 2008), or
the "proposition" (e.g., Murphy 2008). The most commonly used term around the world is
the USP “unique selling proposition” which was coined by Rosser Reeves (Mayer 1958, p.
130).
Key benefit claim is defined as a unique benefit that a consumer draws from the product
and through which a product differentiates itself from the competitor, this benefit is stated
through an experiential or emotional claim. The key benefit is usually used as a highlighted
statement in outdoor, classified, and SMS ads. Whereas in print ads we can see it at the end
as a slogan. Similarly, in TV commercials, it is the end statement, which is also termed as the
“take-home message” (Rossiter, J. R, 2008). In the world of advertising clutter where the
market with high intensity competition enforces ‘me too’ trend, the real challenge for a
creative copywriter is to present a claim that can effectively pull his client into the lead
(Mayer 1958; Rossiter, J. R. 2008). It is also important for a copywriter is to understand the
ethics and difference between negative and comparative advertising. The purpose of negative
advertising is to attribute inferiority to a competitor’s product (Merritt, 1984). Comparative
advertising, on the other hand, is about claiming the superiority of one's own product over the
competitor’s (Prasad 1976; James, K. E., & Hensel, P. J. 1991; Rossiter, J. R. 2008).
In a nutshell purpose of a copy is to sell, market, or promote the benefits of any product or
service. Copy positions a specific perception of the product or service in an audience’s mind.
Copy presents the brand according to the required personality. Copywriter speaks anonymously
in the character of the brand. Copy persuades through call-to-action to buy, to click, to switch, or
to ‘do’ something. Copy generates a need that can be fulfilled by the brand it is selling (Hamidi.
F.M, 2012).
2.5 Creative Advertising Communication
With an ability to impart information in an entertaining and challenging way, creativity is
the most valuable asset of any advertising agency. Creativity is what determines the future of
the brand; it may affect gains and losses of clients and can cost creative personals their career
(Reid and Rotfeld 1976; Zinkhan 1993). Definition of creativity in advertising by academics
involves originality, novelty and appropriateness (Ang and Low 2000; Haberland and Dacin
1992; Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan 2003; Pieters, Warlop, and Wedel 2002; Stone, Besser,
and Lewis 2000; West, D. C., Kover, A. J., & Caruana, A, 2008). The job of a creative person
is to find an effective solution for the problem of the brand if a brand does not have a
problem, then why should one advertise? (Machado. J, 1996). It’s the creative product of the
agency that plays the most crucial role for any client to be associated with it, and the agency
to retain that client for a longer period of time. The major cause of client switching agencies
in and the United States (Henke 1995; Mitchell 1986) and the United Kingdom is a lack of
creative strategy being relevant to the market and the target audience (Doyle, Corsjens, and
Mitchell 1980; Mitchell, Cataquet, and Hague 1992; Mitchell and Sanders 1995).
There are several questions that are being asked about the role of creativity in advertising. In
particular, do the advertising professionals and the general audience view any broadcasted or
published work the same way? When creative work is broadcast and published, do both
advertising professionals and those who view their work recognize it in the same way? What
creative work is original or new, or it is what falls in a limited group of ideas? (West, D. C.,
Kover, A. J., & Caruana, A, 2008).
Machado. J, (1996) quotes, “As someone once said: if you treat me as a person, and show
respect for my rights as an individual, there’s nothing I won’t do for you” (p.9). He raises the
question of why should advertising be different? (Machado. J, 1996). Research shows that unlike
advertising professionals, viewers are least interested in advertising. Creative copies with an
emotional hook of pathos, humor, or a sudden snap is what makes them pay attention to or think
about advertising. Still, this impact may not result in buying. Public consider advertising to be
intrusive and what should be avoided. With an increasing familiarity with the products, people
are inclined towards filtering the advertisements, because it is programs that they want to watch,
not commercials (Kover ,1995). Creativity also has a different meaning across different
countries, which is considered in one country creative may not necessarily be perceived creative
in the other. Globalization trend and firms using the same campaigns across different countries
provides a focus on investigating cross-nationality creativity (West, D. C., Kover, A. J., &
Caruana, A, 2008).
With the advent of the Internet, digital marketing/advertising options, smartphones, and a
humungous array of satellite channels, advertising clutter has increased manifold. In this
competitive environment, the demand for creative and breakthrough advertising has
increased. It is believed that creativity is what increases the efficacy of advertising, and the
issue of advertising effectiveness is of the primary concern of industry experts; there is an
opinion that “the power of marketing is eroding due to lack of attention” (Sacharin 2001,
p.56) (Ahmad, W, 2010).
As a result of media clutter, the demand for novel and creative ideas has increased,
marketers are now more concerned about the increased competition and greater consumer
awareness like never before. Advertising practitioners and academia have also realized the
increasing importance of creativity in advertising (Ang et al., 2007). Creativity is considered as a
remedy for breaking through the higher media clutter (Pieters, Warlop & Wedel, 2002).
Advertising books have started incorporating one or two chapters on advertising creativity
(Smith & Yang, 2004). To break through media clutter capturing the consumers’ attention and
build an impression for brand or service, highly creative approach towards concept and
copywriting is a need of the day (Ahmad, W, 2010). Regardless of the change in the advertising
world, technological advancements, rise in professional education and globalization, what
remained constant is a creative idea. It is always a creative idea that has the power to evoke
numerous emotions and reactions amongst its audience. Each passing day advertising business is
evolving and transforming dramatically. The way media is rapidly changing; it brings
innumerable challenges for creative teams of advertising agencies. The audiences have so
quickly entered in low attention span, that creative in the agency sometimes find it challenging to
catch up with the trends. But creativity is one area that has been and will always remain a
backbone of the advertising industry (Yusuf. Z, 2018). Creativity in advertising is challenging
due to its limitations. The essential contemplation is whether the creative message resonates with
people and is sellable or not. Copywriters have to bear in mind that regardless of how cleverly
they craft their copy, its sole purpose is to sell. Creativity is a combination of spontaneity and
limitations. Creativity, in fact, is a heart of any and every advertising agency. Both the agency
and clients seek effective advertising. However, there is a difference in opinion and lack of in-
depth research to identify the components that make any advertising effective (Rossiter, J. R,
2008).
2.6 Influences and Creative Challenges in Pakistani Advertising
Talking about the historical language trends in Pakistani advertising scene Jabbar. J (2017),
in his interview with Aurora magazine, states that:
“Language always reflects social change and demographic shifts in a population. English
in the subcontinent has always symbolized power, influence and privilege because of the
British link, and therefore, anything associated with English was perceived to be of high
quality, even by those who did not speak the language. The transition to Urdu began in
the 70s, due to the impact of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto adopting the shalwar kameez as the
leaders’ clothing of choice, and his decision to speak in the language of the masses rather
than the classes. The shift to Urdu was supplemented by the emergence of a small, but
visible, middle-class and increasing urbanization – a result of the industrialization years
of Ayub Khan. I must pay tribute to indigenous brands which helped de-anglicise the
advertising culture, such as Hamdard’s Rooh Afza, which has always had the Urdu
tagline ‘Mashroob-e-Mashriq’. Tibet too, advertised in Urdu. It was during the 80s when
Urdu became much more evident in discourse”.
In the past few decades, written and spoken communication language in Pakistani
advertising has transformed manifold. From 1964 till the 90s, media in Pakistan was controlled,
and there were strict policies as to what should be shown on TV and what not. Besides a few
English programs, like Knight Rider, Little House on the Prairie, Mind Your Language and Six
Million Dollar Man, etc. Rest of the content was purely locally produced such as home dramas,
sitcoms and skit shows like Khuda Ki Basti, Akar Bakar, Tanhaiyan and Fifty Fifty, etc.
Memorable television commercial jingles like women will always be Delilah, subha binaca sham
binaca and bhool na jana phir papa etc. kept us entertained. From 2000 onwards the phenomena
of multiple channels occurred in Pakistan. It resulted in the exposure of Indian soaps and
Bollywood content in Pakistan. The advertising industry in Pakistan for a very long time kept
producing local content. Today our televisions are bombarded by Indian commercials and rather
than Globalization it seems more like ‘Indianization’ to us (Rizvi, A, 2012).
2.7 India VS Pakistan
To understand how concept and copywriters in Pakistan are getting ‘Indianized’ and still
struggle with let alone globalization but also localization, here is a comparison. Pakistani brands
in their communication conveniently shy away from depicting less privileged segment of the
society, if we analyze the adverts produced in it is evident that even for the product that is to be
consumed by rural areas the tone and visual narrative is way beyond their real environment, the
term that is used for this sort of communication is aspirational approach whereas Indian brands
have very well embraced their country’s culture and less privileged segments of their society in
their communication approach (Tellis, T, 2014).
Difference between the consumer culture of India and Pakistan can be defined with a simple
example of tea advertising. Indians go for value for many, whereas in Pakistan flavor of tea and
taste is important. Indians have over the years crafted themselves to be vibrant outgoing and
extrovert community. They are India-proud; they have made a successful effort to appear broad-
minded, relaxed, and liberated. Indian advertising reflects giggles, laughter, comedy, and tongue-
in-cheek humor. On the contrary, Pakistan is a conservative society that has yet to learn how to
make fun of ourselves (Khan. S. T, 2019).
Indian ads have been held up as the gold standard, for the reason of them being authentic
and closer to the life of a consumer, that look, sound and feel real. Indian ads focus upon real
people, factual language, and real settings; whereas Pakistani advertising communication feature
poetic copy, plastic models, and too good to be true locales (Qureshi, S, 2015).
The Influences that we have taken from Indian advertising are, unfortunately, Bollywoodish
and superficial. We have learned to dance at weddings and to speak to waiters and shopkeepers
in English. But what we lack is developed minds that are read and informed, and one can only
make fun of oneself when s/he is sufficiently informed (Khan. S. T, 2019).
2.8 Advertising Language
The other influence that has been adapted distressingly by local advertising is the use of
slang and roman Urdu. The justification given for such communication is to sound genuine to the
masses, that is why we come across with the tag lines like ‘ taste ka jhazzzzka’ and ‘ Pyaas ko
thand kara’. Usage of crass or slang just for the sake of making one's brand stand out is
immature. For youth brands, this kind of language may be relevant to an extent, but as long as
does not fall in the area of vulgarity that unfortunately few brands have started trying. For
example one of the beverages ad used a sentence with censorship beeps incorporating within to
imply the usage of obnoxious street language “ kitni mirchain hay yaar, meri to beep he beep
gaee” (Qureshi, S, 2015).
Lately, the value of Urdu is fading amongst advertisers. Most of the adverts we see now in
Pakistan are not done in Urdu, but either in English or Roman Urdu. This preference of tagline
being written in roman Urdu, according to the marketers is a false belief and claim that Urdu
fonts are less legible. Another reason for the usage of roman Urdu is that they do not want their
brand to appear too desi (Tellis, T, 2014). Another justification is that now most of people use
technology to communicate, and there is a lack of Urdu script software. Whereas modern Persian
scripts software is readily available as well as brilliant Urdu calligraphers to render their
services. The argument is that the majority of the SMS messages that we receive are in roman
Urdu. And even at social media sites like Twitter and Facebook roman Urdu is frequently being
used. But there are not any standards or set rules for how roman Urdu should be written. People
spell Urdu words in roman alphabets according to their understanding and convenient. For
example word ki which means ‘of’ or ‘belonging to’ is written as ki, or kee or even key, another
word hai has been written as hey, hai or hay. Thus if the brands want to use roman Urdu they
have followed a common spelling for the words that they use and for that they have got to put
funds in research (Tellis, T, 2014).
2.13 Technology and Advertising Ideas
Technology has managed to change the environment in which creative function now, it has
helped expedite the process, but it cannot help develop the creative content. Pakistanis usually
say that we have come a long way. With external influences, we have become westernized. We
try and imitate western advertising and of our neighboring country, but it doesn’t mean that we
have evolved. Technology has although transformed our big ideas to mere execution ideas, with
gimmicks and special effects taking over. Creativity is not about just knowing how to operate the
most advanced camera to use the most recent design software, special effects, or editing
software. Creativity is about the understanding of the brand, consumer insights, and the
competitive scenario and then coming up with the big idea that resonates with the brand’s
personality. Big Idea is the one that can be carried through a sequel; it is idea that that works for
all the times and is universal in approach (Khan. S. T, 2019).
The more things that technology changed, the more things remain the same. The desire of
selling more and more is directly proportional to the spread of mainstream and social media. The
single most significant change is that unregulated advertising content is expanding into non-
advertising media content (Jabbar. J, 2017).

2.14 Creative Challenges of Fresh Graduate
The Term “creative people” has several stereotypical associations. They are thought to
be different from other people in terms of their behavior and outlook. Even within the ad
agency they are not only considered to be different but are also expected to appear differently
than account or media executives and from the clients (Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan 2003;
Kover and Goldberg 1995; Vanden Bergh, Smith, and Wicks 1986; West 1993). (Verbeke,
W., Franses, P. H., Blanc, A. L., & van Ruiten, N. 2008). Different studies regarding creative
people have proved that their attitudes are usually not that can be considered as a usual
behavior of any other person. Aurer (1976) while discussing the difference between creative
copywriting and advertising students and the students in non-creative groups in colleges
alludes that the former posses more emphatic capacities, which are needed to read minds of
the receiver/consumer. The other trait of creative people is that they have a high tendency
towards taking risks to produce a higher level of creative product (El-Murad and West 2004).
Creative people have a higher capacity to identify with their product that is what usually
causes a conflict between them and their co-workers from different departments of the
agency (Hirschman 1989). Creative people usually oppose to test or gauge their copy based
upon scientific methods, they argue that these methods really do not realize the implicit
theories of how ads affect the consumers (Kover and Goldberg 1995; Verbeke, W., Franses,
P. H., Blanc, A. L., & van Ruiten, N. 2008). The need for heightened awareness of changing
perceptions of right and wrong is of the utmost importance for a creative of today. In this
rapidly transforming world where the instant accessibility to any media can evoke any
response, creative has to be sensitive about not offending sensibilities. One of the most
important aspects to be creative working in an ad agency is to be extremely quick in learning.
The diversity of brands that one has to work for each day in the agency trains one for
adaptability (Yusuf. Z, 2018). However, creativity is something inherent and cannot be
taught, though exposure to new ideas and experience enhances the ability and brings it in line
with the professional requirement. Only those who can soak in and benefit from rapid
developments in the industry and business can expect to go ahead. The level of
professionalism required today from creative people is a far cry from the time when that one
single ‘aha!’ moment was enough to develop a groundbreaking concept for the client (Yusuf.
Z, 2018). The constant challenge for a creative is to always strive for better work. Creative
should never be satisfied, or overconfident, and no well-executed brilliant idea should be
considered a milestone. It can be improved next time; that is a real challenge (Khan. S. T,
2019). Advertising is an essential source of influencing the public. While respecting the
freedom of choice, people must have grounding and training to know the difference between
information and disinformation. They should appreciate the accuracy of the information,
cultural ethics, and people’s perception (Jabbar. J, 2017).

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Method
Considering the multidimensional analysis required to understand the dynamics of
institutional learning and its consequential relevance and implementation in work
environment, and the diversity of the individuals that are needed to respond for this purpose,
it is important to have a curious dialogue with participants where they can objectively and
subjectively describe their experiences with comfort. Therefore, the method employed for
this research is qualitative with a phenomenological approach.
3.2 Research Flow
• Acquisition and review of relevant literature
• Ethical considerations and limitations
• Preparation of informal questionnaire
• Selection of participants
• Semi-structured in-depth interviews
• Data analysis
• Suggestions and recommendations
• Conclusion
3.3 Research Approach
According to Christensen, Johnson, and Turner (2010), the primary objective of a
phenomenological study is to explicate the meaning, structure, and essence of the lived
experiences of a person, or a group of people, around the specific phenomenon (Simon, M.
K., & Goes, J, 2011).
To determine the correlation of copywriting course taught in media studies departments
in different universities of Pakistan and its implementation in real-world advertising agencies.
It is imperative to evaluate the first-hand experiences of creative directors of advertising
agencies, copywriting teachers in media studies departments, and individuals who work both
as creative professionals and teachers in media studies departments.
To seek first hand knowledge of the criterion established by educational institutes for
copywriting courses vis-à-vis what skill level professional world seeks from fresh graduates,
semi structured in-depth interviews of aforementioned professionals were conducted.
Through these Interviews the pros and cons of both the sides are evaluated to render a
comparison and analysis of prevalent advertising culture and copywriting courses that are
being taught in the media studies programs of different universities of Karachi.
3.4 Research Setting
This study was conducted with in-depth interviews of respondents based on a customized
questionnaire of open-ended informal questions at the location of their choice. Interviewees
chose the place and time for their meetings. For the individuals who did not have any
personal premises available, the arrangements were made at The Second Floor T2F café and
the office of MAQ communications in Karachi. The considerations as per the interview
settings were that the area should have the least possible distraction and noise pollution, and
the location for the interviewee should be easily approachable and comfortable. These
interviews were conducted by the researcher and were audio-recorded, a technical assistant in
taking notes and handling recording device also accompanied.
3.5 Research Sample
For the sampling of this research, the most important consideration was to engage
seasoned and the most knowledgeable professionals. Four individuals were interviewed for
this purpose. Two Creative Directors from renowned advertising agencies of Karachi, each
with an outstanding portfolio and who have been serving for more than ten years were
interviewed. Two very well respected copywriting professionals/ faculty members from the
most prestigious universities of Karachi also cooperated and took time out to be interviewed.
3.6 Research Procedure
This study was conducted with semi-structured in-depth interviews based on the list of
an informal questionnaire, for each category a customized questionnaire was prepared.
3.7 Limitation of the research
There were several limitations that this research posed, amongst the most prominent ones
were the acquisition of course outlines, considering the document being a property of
particular university it is valuable and confidential ethical stance was maintained in this
regard. The other limitation was to determine and alleviate any personal biases of
interviewees towards industry or institutes, during the talk.
3.8 Ethical considerations
Ethical considerations in terms of interaction with participants and acquisition of data
were of high importance; following is a list of deliberations that were taken in this regard.
• Personal and professional respect of the participants was of utmost importance
• Participants were given orientation about the project for which they were being
interviewed
• Participants were free to not to answer any question that they deemed inappropriate or
offensive
• Participants personal information is kept anonymous
• Participants were not prompted during interviews
• For the purpose of this study all the permission that were required by the institutes or
individuals were acquired beforehand
• A consent form for the usage of any personal, professional or university data or
students’ artwork was provided.

CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS
This chapter presents the findings of empirical data collected through a
phenomenological approach by interviewing four respondents and recording their accounts
and insights. The data collected was thoroughly scrutinized and organized to render results
most logically.
Findings of the collected data are derived from the inquiry about the efficacy of
copywriting courses that are being taught in Media studies departments in different
universities of Karachi. This study explores the copywriting practices in the Pakistani
advertising industry. And how well equipped any Media studies graduate is to work as a
copywriter in the industry to produce effective advertising communication.
4.1 Qualitative Data Analysis
Keeping in mind the principle of the phenomenological study of explicating the meaning,
structure, and essence of the lived experience of a person (Johnson, and Turner 2010). This
study has been conducted by In-depth interviews of two categories of individuals to present
their accounts of lived experience, which was further elaborated to explain the pros and cons
of the phenomenon.
The procedure of data analysis included transcribing interviews, analysis of data to draw
the overarching themes, scrutiny of data to identify different dimensions to draw
classifications within broader themes, and further reduction to draw focused sub-themes. For
a comprehensive presentation, findings are presented in the pie chart and table form.
4.2 Pie Charts Depicting Various Findings.
Copywriting Defined
20% Crafting of words to create a

40% message
Producing effective
20% communication
Conversation with consumer
20%
Changing belief of the reader
Role of Copywriting in Advertising
17%
17% 50% Persuasion to sell

Behavior change
Social change
16% Brand personification
Elements of Good Copy
17% 14%
Honesty
28% Easiy language
41% Memorability
Convincing power
Present State of Copywriting in Pakistani Advertising
17% 14%
Engaging
28%
Not memorable
41% Lacks consumer insight

Poor writing standard
Hiring Criterion for Fresh Media Studies Graduate in

Copywriting Department
15%
12% 49% Command over language

Passion
Interest in reading
24%
Proper expression in writing
Writing Skill Level of Fresh Media Studies Graduates
15%
12% 49%
Bad writing skills
Mixed level
Potential to be trained
24%
Absolute zero level
Lateral Thinking Level of Fresh Media Studies Graduates
17%
33%
Potential to be trained
Not unusual
33% Mixed level
17% Does not exit at all
General Attitude of Fresh Media Studies Graduates
9%
10% Self-centered
Not hardworking
23% 58%
Lack of reading and writing
habit
Have huge expectations
Standard of Copywriting Courses in Media Studies

Departments
27%
37%
Not up to the required standard
Not planned well
18% Graduates learn better on job
18% Not effective at all
Recommendation for Media Studies Courses
29% 28% Should be taught as a 4 years

program
Seasoned professionals should
teach
14% Institutes should develop
29% reading habits
Should include real world
practices
4.3 Table 1: Data Responses on Theme 1 and Sub-themes
Themes and Sub-themes Data (Responses)
Theme 1 Significance of
Copywriting in Advertising
a. Copywriting defined Respondent 1:
When you personify a brand, it has to belong to a
certain community and the brand has to converse
with that community. Copywriting is that
conversation of a brand with its audience. In
today’s world brand opens dialogue, if we
compare pre and post social media stage, in post-
social media world it is not a monologue of a
brand but is an actual communication in a form of
dialogue that is taking place between a brand and
a consumer.
Respondent 2:
Copywriting is the art and science of writing to
persuade the reader or listener of a point of view,
or of informing him or her about a brand, product,
service, or to change the reader’s belief about
something and in exceptional some cases lead to
change in behavior over a period of time.

Respondent 3:
Copywriting is very difficult to define, because
you cannot restrict yourself on a concept or
copywriting only, and if you restrict yourself on
that only then its value becomes miniscule and if
you say that entire advertising is dependent on it
then it becomes too exaggerated. Copywriting is
drafting effective communication, and its not just
words, that is an idea and as per need it is defined.
And by effective communication I mean that it
has to create some kind of behavior change.
Respondent 4:
Copywriting is a crafting of words to convey a
message in advertising. They are two ways in
which advertising communicates, first is verbal
and second is visual communication, so how the
words portray any idea is what copywriting is all
about.
b. Importance of Respondent 1:
copywriting Copywriting is a sole of advertising.
Respondent 2:
It is that not all messages can be visual alone The

messaging, the writing holds serious weight, all
words used in any media be it radio, TV, digital,
press or outdoor are crafted. Written, spoken,
sung, designed to say something in a specific
manner to a specific target audience in a relevant
fashion. Most of the famous ads, jingles,
headlines anybody remembers about anything
whether that is from classic ads or some of the
more recent ones, are messages that have been
crafted, i.e., written by a copywriter.
Respondent 3:
Copywriting is the brain of advertising, it is the
intent, like they say everything begins with the
intent, so advertising begins with copywriting, the
Idea can also come from the design, but whoever
is doing the work of the concept is basically doing
a work of a copywriter.
Respondent 4:
Copywriting is a brand’s pitch, if we go to the
very basics and talk about consumerism and
selling, when there was no concept of formal
advertising even then people use to persuade other
people through words to buy their products, so

that defines a significance of copywriting and the
usage of words in advertising.
c. Good VS bad copy Respondent 1:
For example customers feedback is that you have
written up to really small in up to 30% off, and I
thought that I would get total of 30% off on your
brand. Message should be placed in a way that
customer should not feel cheated, and today your
customer is pointing out where you are going
wrong with your message. Copywriting is
listening as much as it is talking.
Respondent 2:
You can judge good or bad copy pretty much the
same way you judge how any writing is good or
bad, by the effect it has, by the power it holds, by
questioning what it’s role is. Is it informative? Is
it persuasive? What is the choice of words like? Is
the choice of language correct with respect to the
target audience? Is it memorable? Does it have an
insight? The more positive the answers to some of
these questions, the better the copy. Bad copy on
the other hand, is forgettable and can be a waste
of time, bad copy is bad for the reader and

listener, bad for the brand and bad for business.
Respondent 3:
To judge good or bad copy one of the parameters
is that is it in colloquial language, is it in easy
language, does it simply convey the idea, does it
effectively convey the idea, does it engage, does it
cause you to read further, that is a core. The
challenge for advertising is that you are
bombarded with so many messages all the time,
so what is it that actually makes you stop and
makes you read what the ad is saying and absorb
what the ad is saying, that is what makes the copy
good, but how do you measure the effectiveness is
I do not know.
Respondent 4:
A good copy is what convinces me to take the
next step towards the brand or the product, that
next step could convince me to either buy the
brand or at least put it in my list of preferences. It
has to attract me towards the message and
message has to convince me to take an action.

Theme 2 State of Copywriting Data (Responses)
in Pakistani Advertising
a. Copywriting standard Respondent 1:
In Pakistan the area of digital copy is becoming lot more
humanized, lot more braver, people are willing to take
risks because they know it is not like million dollars
print, TV or billboard advertising. If you commit a
mistake on digital you can easily remove the post and
replace it with a new one, so social media offers lot more
freedom to work, social media has opened a world to
you, anybody who has talent can showcase that talent
freely and easily.
Respondent 2:
In Pakistan It is a reflection of the intellectual crisis
we’re facing as a nation. Reading habits are at an all-
time low, therefore, good writing is hard to come by.
More often than not, it lacks insight, lacks crafting, lacks
the understanding of the language, the brand and sadly,
the target audience. There aren’t many modern day
slogans or headlines that people would remember, the
ads pass like a ship in the night.

Respondent 3:
The biggest gripe that I have with copy in Pakistan is
that the only thing we understand is aspiration. So we are
stuck on the idea of aspiration, for instance even if we
have to sell a five rupee pan masala we would show
haveli mansion in which people are consuming it.
Respondent 4:
Over the years if I look at it, I have a very clear
understanding, that we are heading backward as far as
our copywriting is concerned. If you examine the ads
from 80s and 90s you would be able to find the strength
of language in the copy, and the people who had
command on language were the ones who use to write
copy. And now if I analyze, the role of real language in
our advertising is diminishing, as in the use of proper
grammar and semantics and we see to the moment type
of copies being produced now. I cannot recall or label
any copy as classic since the time of media boom in
Pakistan, whereas I can still recall lot of slogans and
good copy that was produced before this time, the way
they were written be it jingle or monologues or
conversations, the language of those ads is what made
them classics, for instance “yehi tau hay who apna pun”
and “cherry blossom roz lagain”. We do not have people

now who have a strong command on language and
insights to produce powerful lines.
b. Copy trends Respondent 1:
What I do not agree with is the trends, like these days
there is a trend of feminism, now regardless your product
has anything to do with it, whether you do believe in it
or not or you actively are doing something about it or
not, you are talking about feminism, you are talking
about eco friendly products etc. I think copywriting is
the last thing here, because what all takes place in the
background is what drives the copy. In Pakistan there is
a lot of parity in fact there is immense parity and
plagiarism, one of the problem is that it has become
difficult to find the source, and I have noticed about five
brands talking about the same thing, they are not looking
inwards.
Respondent 2:
The belief that nobody reads copy, hence writing brief,
concise, short versions as opposed to detailed and
informative messages is an active trend. For television
commercials, the trend of hefty sounding, esoteric and
prosaic voiceovers full of words that promise glory and
wax lyrical about unbelievable achievement of the brand

and what it has done for people is on the rise. Generic
writing or writing in generic terms is also on the rise.
Basically, placeholder copy that can be used to sell any
thing or become the caption for the ad of any brand, e.g.
“A class above”, “The future is full of promise”. It’s
redundant, boring and does not fool the audience
because it has empty words that mean nothing and touch
no one’s heart.
Respondent 3:
Everything used be jingle based and we have grown out
of that, we still use jingles but very selectively and it is
not the norm anymore. Now trends change rapidly with
the pace of technology, technology has affected
advertising, now the trends change faster and are not
long lasting. For example Service shoes ads introduced a
new trend which were very colloquial and it stayed for a
while, but then everybody started following to become
me too and it vanished. Similarly Kenwood started a
trend of low budget copy of real conversation between
husband and wife, where wife is afraid that husband
doesn’t like her cooking and husband states that is not
why I married you, I married you because I can talk to
you about books, about ideas, about things that we
watch. I can completely relate with that, because my

wife and I watch series together all the time and I don’t
care how gole round her roti is. And that trend has
actually still not come into limelight as much as it
should.
Respondent 4:
We have failed miserably to capture our trends and we
do not highlight them. There is this reflection that does
art reflects the world or the world is influenced by art?
The reality is that they go hand in hand. The art reflects
what all is happening around us and at the same time it
also influences the world around and can change the
trends. The main reason of foreign influence is that we
have miserably failed to capture our influences. We have
not read our poets, we have not read our writers, we
hardly have any icons or influential speakers, to an
extent that one of our national hero is our national poet
and is a great philosopher, yet I am sure none of us
including myself has read or tried to understand Iqbal’s
complete work. What all he has written has inspirational
power to actually transform lives, so we have not
promoted our local resources at all and this is what I call
classic Pakistaniat.
c. Indian Influence Respondent 1:
Now we have become more Pakistani, we have stopped
using words that Indians use, we have our own trending
of colloquial language. Now on social media we see
content that is very local and is delivered in a very local
manner, unlike the scripts that we had before which
sounded more like Indian.
Respondent 2:
Indian advertising which underwent a major
transformation in the early 90’s seems to be the beacon
of hope for not just copywriters but also for brand teams.
The market is similar to ours, the language is similar to
what’s spoken in North India, Pakistanis love Bollywood
music and films, so nobody really looks further than that.
What is often overlooked in emulating Indian media is
that across the border there is a profound understanding
of the local people, their behavior, their way of life and it
is embraced wholeheartedly and unabashedly portrayed-
while Pakistani’s mistake observation for insight,
execution for idea, and glamor for authenticity.
Respondent 3:
We talk about that why can’t we be like India? If you
want to be like India then don’t shy away from showing

people sitting in “paan ki dukan” Pan shop, like they do
it, and that is why their advertising resonates because it
is based on insights that come from real life. Here in
Pakistan we don’t use real language, we don’t use real
situations. And we are usually told by clients to do
something like India and we bring Indian celebrities,
completely missing the point to what it means to be
doing in Indian advertising.
Respondent 4:
India always internalize, they spend a lot on their
heritage, their languages and culture. So if we look at
their Industry it is always supported by their films and if
we analyze their old films we can witness that in their
songs the language, the poetry, the melody and rhythm
was there and they progressed from there to we all know
what “Sheela ki Jawani”? But their advertising even
being under the influence of their film industry still
maintained the caliber. If I look at their top brand from
80s and top brands from today, it is evident that they
have raised the bar high. So how they have used their
local influences, local culture and the pride that they
have evident in their advertising. If the guy is portrayed
as tapori or as a person of any specific ethnicity and
accent you can see that person taking a pride in it, and if
they pronounce zay as jay they would do it with pride, so
they use these nuances as insights and they project it. As
a copywriter I recommend that the influences should
always be drawn from within and current surroundings.
d. Slang & roman usage Respondent 1:
In Pakistan at times we take our copywriting as
literature, but it is not, because its job is to communicate
with people and sell. If it resonates with the customer
then there is no harm in writing in roman or code
switching. But we have to study language, because our
job is more complicated.
Respondent 2:
Slang for the sake of slang is mindless, but if it serves a
purpose, gives the brand recall, is relevant to the target
market and fits in the bigger scheme of an ad campaign-
then that lead to advertising done well. More often than
not, people in urban centers of Pakistan type, text, post
messages in roman, it is a familiar territory for them.
Respondent 3:
Using slang is a good thing, but with some restraint. We
have rather some careless attitude with impression that
we create through advertising in society as advertisers.

We claim that anything sells only for the reason that the
society relates to it and this is the reality, but we are not
only just reflecting the thought we are also leading
thought. And as far as using roman is concerned, it is an
easy way out, it is an escape that we have taken, and it is
absolutely unforgivable. I don’t think it is at all required,
if you are talking with people in Urdu, what the hell is
wrong with writing in Urdu? If you think it is not
modern you can always use modern Urdu calligraphy
that is available and you can create a modernized feel
around it with design.
Respondent 4:
Usage of slang is inevitable! It is inevitable because
languages keep evolving. Prime example is Urdu, which
is a combination of several languages and is still
evolving with a combination of English words in our
daily life dialect. With globalization there is more
multicultural interactions and with that more
multilingual societies will be formed, and the terms that
are slang in different languages will be adapted
accordingly. The usage of roman was already there in
daily routine writing in Pakistan but digital advertising
amplified it, because in digital advertising the option of
Urdu script came much later. With the advent of chat

rooms like MIRC and Messenger and all, the trend of
writing in roman began way back in late nineties, so this
whole generation has grown up with roman and they
have written more roman than the Urdu script. Now the
Urdu script is confined within the limits of school only,
rest of the daily Urdu communication is now done in
roman.
Theme 3 Fresh Media Studies Data (Responses)
Graduates in Professional
World of Copywriting
a. Hiring criterion Respondent 1:
My hiring criterion is honesty, hard work and then talent,
whereas it should be the other way round, so for me if
someone has these three traits I can teach the rest to that
individual, so the personal qualities are more important
for me, because there are people who are great at skills
but they hate their jobs.
Respondent 2:
The fire in the belly, writing skills, degree of interest in
reading, writing and popular culture.
Respondent 3:
There are two basic requirements for a copywriter one is
command over a language, whichever language, and this
is a weakness that we see now a days that people who
want to be a copywriter are actually not good in
language and second criterion is a general knowledge.
Because you can’t make unexpected links unless there is
stuff in your head.

Respondent 4:
I personally look at if kid has a proper expression, if that
is there rest I can teach. I conduct a test for copywriting
position I make the candidates write copy for the ads that
are being produced in the agency, and I do not have any
better way to gauge what I am looking for in a
copywriter.
b. Skill level of fresh Respondent 1:
graduates Zero! Lot of graduates come for a job but specifically
when it comes to copywriting their basics are not right,
their grammar is not correct, and that has nothing to do
with the education that they have received, it has to do
with entire background that they are coming from. So for
me if a person has insights and has analytical skills to
understand the basics of advertising communication, I
teach and train the rest.
Respondent 2:
No two graduates are alike. It is often dictated by the
level of self-motivation he or she has. The level is not
very high, exposure to classic advertising is very low.
You can’t get through film school without watching the
classics, but you can get through media studies without

in-depth knowledge of classic ads and legendary
copywriters. Their level of skill is a joke, when it’s not,
it’s a miracle.
Respondent 3:
Frankly it is level zero, there are very few who come
with developed writing skills, it is very rare, but most of
the time is that they have potential and you have to put
them through grind and train them. I think right now
there is not simply focus enough on copywriting in
education. One of my concerns is that we focusing more
on design in our education of communication, we hardly
focus on copywriting, you know there is only one course
of copywriting in a four years media studies degree
program and all the rest is design, and that too is
elective. So that one course of copywriting-how much is
that going to cover?
Respondent 4:
There are few good candidates that we inducted, but if I
gauge the skill level of usual lot that we get on a scale of
one to ten, their level would be three.
c. Lateral thinking level Respondent 1:
of fresh graduates I haven’t met any fresh graduate who could write any
thing exciting, I can see moldable potential and hire
them, although on the graphics side kids are good but
writing is in a sorry state.
Respondent 2:
There is nothing unusual about it. It differs from person
to person. Most of them can think laterally but feel
challenged when their proposed solutions are too
expensive or impractical to execute. Their heart breaks
easily.
Respondent 3:
There is a lot of variety in this. I can find a difference in
batches that I teach. The main reason for any kid to have
a better lateral thinking level in my opinion has to do
with the household, where kids are allowed to question
and have a liberty to get better exposure are better in
terms of their creative approach.
Respondent 4:
Doesn’t exist, but there is a reason behind it and that is
that we are a nation of followers, if one person buys a
Corolla the entire lane would buy a Corolla. We do not
believe in individuality. If someone tries to be different
that person is not respected. If some wears an orange

coloured jeans or gets a different kind of haircut or
colour streaks in his hair or whatever that person wants
to do differently, he just can not do it freely, because his
family and peers would tease the hell out of him. So
lateral thinking and expression is not appreciated in our
society. People here as a culture cannot tolerate lateral
thinking, they can never be neutral about someone being
different. They have to say something or the other to
suppress lateral thinking. So it is unfortunate, we even
do not have an acceptance for lateral thinking let alone
encouragement or acknowledgement of it.
d. Challenges for fresh Respondent 1:
graduates in Biggest challenge is to understand that the brand is more
copywriting/ important than what you want it to be, fresh graduates
advertising field come out with this attitude of me me me. What
advertising teaches you is that you do not exist, you are
an employee of the brand, and even our client is also an
employee of the brand. So the biggest challenges is
limiting you, and understand just two ends, one end is
what is a purpose of my brand and the other is to whom
my brand is communicating with.
Respondent 2:
Hard work is a challenge for the new generation, who is

looking for quick validation, fast turnaround, and has the
attention span less than that of a goldfish. Copywriting
and learning to become a master of the craft for even
those with a natural flair, takes years of hard-work in the
trenches. The pace at which an agency functions can be a
challenge for a new copywriter. Those who hit the
ground running are more likely to be successful than
somebody who is merely gifted but not agile. Teamwork
with a group of diverse individuals with varied expertise
(account management, strategic planners, creative
directors, art directors and eventually brand managers)
can be challenging and having the wherewithal and
conviction despite opposition to an idea takes serious
grit.
Respondent 3:
Rejection of ideas, which somehow they are not really
used to. Recent lot of students come with very unreal
expectations of what kind of work that is really going to
be needed and the level of out put that is expected. The
willingness to work is something that I find very
problematic in new batches these days. Although there
are many talks on millennial that its not their fault what
hard work means because they have never been required
to do it, the fact that they grow up with playing games

where failure doesn’t mean anything, because you can
just restart, you have like a million shots to get it right
but in real life that is now how it is. So its up to the
employers to set their expectations right. So the real
challenge is the expectations that they bring in versus
what the on ground reality is. I have several fresh
graduates who in their interviews showed passion to do
work and win awards, but when you give them a caption
to write they take two days for that.
Respondent 4:
The kid has no idea about copy and the kid does not
know how to construct a copy. So everything has to be
taught to them from the scratch. And I strongly believe
that the current dire situation of copywriting that we are
facing is due to the lack of reading habit amongst the
kids. I usually ask my students that when was the last
time you read any book? And they don’t remember. So
when they really are not interested in reading and writing
and do not know much about the craft of copywriting,
everything at work will pose them a challenge.

Theme 4 Copywriting Courses Data (Responses)
in Media Studies
a. Copywriting Respondent 1:
professional’s perspective If I have an opportunity to teach copywriting I would not
start with writing but I would start with the strategy, first
one has to teach about how to get familiar with brand,
because you cannot write a copy unless you know about
the brand objectives and positioning. So first you teach
them how to do a strategic planning for the brand and the
copy will follow. And in my utopian world I would want
to include psychologists, researchers and anthropologists
coming to the class to present a larger canvas in a more
insightful way in copywriting courses. I would introduce
short internships like five days or a week internship to
introduce a flavor of real world to the students, because
students in a class think about buzz words, puns
metaphors and stuff, but these are all tools, and if student
get a chance to learn the practical on job application of
these things it would definitely enhance their learning,
and I would introduce jury from the very beginning of
the course so students can get professional feedback and
can be introduced to multiple school of thoughts, instead

of adapting one school of thought which is of the
teacher.
Respondent 2:
Copywriting needs to be learnt on the job. The
classrooms can’t do enough, or aren’t. Courses should
develop the love of reading, writing, sharpening the
power of observation. Writing, reading, immersion in
popular culture is required. Copywriting should be
taught by current or once successful copywriters and
creative directors who are in love with advertising. The
ones who are currently teaching give advertising a bad
name and hence successfully divert the student’s interest.
Respondent 3:
I have taught myself, I have seen the course outlines of
several universities. I don’t think that any of them are
creating any real benefit because you cant teach theory,
you know regardless of how much theory you teach it is
useless. You have to put it into practice that’s the only
way. And what is being taught you can find online
courses on that and perhaps they will teach better than
the copywriting courses that are being taught in
universities. So kids wont remember anything unless you
put the theory into practice.

Respondent 4:
People who have done anything significant in industry
are not teaching. In my opinion there is a need of senior
copywriting people heading a separate copy writing
departments in the universities, there should be a proper
system with various courses within the faculty of
copywriting, which unfortunately does not exist. The
courses that we have are picked from different places,
and are not taught with the seriousness. A reason for not
giving importance to copywriting courses could be this
perception that agency charges to design the ad with
which copy comes as a complementary item. People can
see the process of design being made on the computer so
they think that effort goes into it and design is worth
something, but unfortunately the process of copywriting
is not visible that way, so they think it is just writing in
general and it has not much significance.
b. Copywriting teacher’s Respondent 3:
perspective There is so much that falls under copywriting, there is
idea development and there should be a course that
should focus upon presenting those ideas in the most
precise terms. This course should just challenge you to
develop the most

precise communication that you can, because the good
copy is that which has no unnecessary word. And it
should include all different kinds of copies, you see in
digital media there is several types of copy, copy is
different on Facebook copy is different on Google apps,
copy is different on Instagram, copy is different on
Reddit, so digital itself is not one medium and there are
millions of different kinds of copies that can be taught.
You need to look at the all the different ways that copy is
being used and make it known to the students.
Respondent 4:
One of the major reasons that in my opinion deteriorated
the level of good writing amongst students is a lack of
reading. If you do not read much you can never write
better. We are better executers than thinkers, we are
producing a world-class lot who can work on design and
animation software and execute work for Hollywood
movies, but we do not have writers who can produce a
copy worth winning Clio or Lion. I see this as a bigger
problem for coming generation, especially for a digital
generation, because they don’t have an understanding or
exposure to the language of classics, for them everything
is disposable. Digital communication is disposable
because you see one post and that post is gone within an
hour and your screen is filled with two hundred new
posts. Unlike TV ads that run for several months or
years, for digital advertising your client asks you to
come up with a new post after every two days. So the
communication like everything else for this generation is
easily disposable and forgettable.
c. Professional/Teacher’s Respondent 3:
recommendations for I guess the way design education is prepared like a
copywriting courses program where you do not study everything in one
course. Copywriting should also be taught as a program.
There is a need to be at least three to four courses, where
you can start with foundation and then proceed to
advance levels. You can’t expect that kids can learn
everything in a single course and would be able to retain
it. Now you can even have an entire course on digital
media, the other one could be on print and third one
could be on TV, so there is so much to teach. That is
something that institutes should look at.
Respondent 4:
Copy writing should have a foundation course and then
further advance level courses. Copywriting course
should be taught from the very basics of it and should be
extended into several semesters. One course in four

years does not fulfill the purpose.
The major findings that came out through these interviews are that with the advent of
social media the challenges both for conventional and digital copywriting are on a rise. Most
of the copywriters in Pakistan are trained on job and not much importance has been given to
copywriting by the academia so far.

CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
This chapter entails the discussion based upon all the themes that emerged through data
that was collected by interviewing respectable respondents. This discussion is presented with
the supporting research references that are provided in literature review.
The four major themes that emerged through this research and their sub themes are as
under:
Theme 1
Significance of copywriting in advertising communication
Sub themes:
a. Copywriting defined
b. Importance of copywriting
c. Good VS bad copy
Theme 2
State of copywriting in Pakistani advertising
Sub themes:
a. Copywriting standard
b. Copy trends
c. Indian influence
d. Slang and roman usage
Theme 3
Fresh Media studies graduates in the professional world of copywriting
Sub themes:
a. Hiring criterion
b. Skill level of fresh graduates
c. Lateral thinking level of fresh graduates
d. Challenges for fresh graduates in copywriting field
Theme 4
Copywriting course in Media studies department
Sub themes:
a. Copywriting professional’s perspective
b. Copywriting teacher’s perspective
c. Professional/teacher’s recommendation for copywriting courses
5.1 Theme 1: Significance of Copywriting in Advertising Communication
From the very inception of trade, people have been involved in producing, selling, and
buying products. The most important factor that drives any business is how someone
convinces the other person to trust, buy, and consume his product. For this purpose, the most
effective tool has always been advertising communication. US President Calvin Coolidge
defined advertising as “the life of trade” (p. 13). Initially, people use to sell their products
through one on one communication. Industrial revolution paved the way for mass production.
With the growth of manufacturers, the competition grew, and they began to advertise to sell
their products, and with the growth of production, manufacturers started extending their
markets geographically (Norris, V. P, 1980). With the advent of printing press people started
advertising through printed visual and verbal communication, which later through
technological evolution in media turned into sophisticated form of advertising
communication.
Today we have millions of products and brands to cater to our needs, and most of them
somehow or the other is busy convincing us to buy them through advertising. The verbal
component of advertising communication has always been the most critical factor for
convincing people to take any action. Crafting of words to weave an effective message is
known as copywriting, and in advertising, one does not have the liberty to write a lot of
words. The real challenge is of the compression of the content. Be it print, TV or any other
mode, the difficult thing about writing copy is that advertising copy has to be short. One does
not have the liberty to write much more than 100 words in a TV commercial, and the brevity
of form makes it difficult to do (Ogilvy. D, 1965). Respondent 4 (4.3, table.1) defined this
thought by stating, “Copywriting is crafting of words to convey a message in advertising.
They are two ways in which advertising communicates, first is verbal, and second is visual
communication. So how the words portray any idea is what copywriting is all about”. All the
four respondents, more or less, shared a similar thought.
The most significant aspect of copywriting is persuasion, and to persuade someone to
buy any product or service; one must know about the social and emotional inclinations of the
target audience. Advertising gurus emphasize the element of persuasive copy. It is a strong
belief amongst advertising fraternity that real persuasive copy can only take place with real
knowledge of the brand and consumer. A copy has to be persuasive and expressive. A
copywriter needs to be knowledgeable. But more than that a copywriter needs to have the
ability to marshal his thoughts into persuasive language (Burnett. L, 1965). Emphasizing
upon the same thought respondent 2 (4.3, table.1) defined copywriting as, “Copywriting is
the art and science of writing to persuade the reader or listener of a point of view, or of
informing him or her about a brand, product, service, or to change the reader’s belief about
something and in exceptional some cases lead to change in behavior over a period of time”.
Copywriting is not just about writing good things for a brand, but it is about giving an
identity and personality to the brand, it is about personifying brand in a way that consumer
starts identifying with it and establishes a relationship with it. For that, a particular style of
language is required, a language that resonates with the audience. Talking about the brand
and the significance of the language associated with its communication respondent 4 (4.3,
table.1) commented “Copywriting is a brand’s pitch, if we go to the very basics and talk
about consumerism and selling, when there was no concept of formal advertising even then
people use to persuade other people through words to buy their products, so that defines a
significance of copywriting and the usage of words in advertising”.
It has always been a matter of concern and debate amongst advertisers and copywriters,
that what are the factors that make any copy excellent or effective? According to advertising
gurus, a copy that is based on real knowledge and insight causes a stir amongst the audience.
For any copywriter, it is essential to know the product inside out. All the cleverness,
inventiveness, provocativeness and imagination that goes into any ad stems from the
knowledge of the product and the need of the consumer. The success of any copy and art is
measured by how well it has achieved its purpose (Bernbach. W, 1965). Knowing the
consumer is understanding the nuances of his lifestyle and language in which he converses in
his daily life. Whereas brand knowledge is not just restricted to its function, it also has to do
with its formulation, production, and consumption. So this knowledge when is communicated
in a language that consumer can relate to creates an appeal. Respondent 2 (4.3, table.1)
explaining the traits of good and bad copy commented that, “You can judge good or bad copy
pretty much the same way you judge how any writing is good or bad, by the effect it has, by
the power it holds, by questioning what it’s role is. Is it informative? Is it persuasive? What is
the choice of words like? Is the choice of language correct with respect to the target
audience? Is it memorable? Does it have an insight? The more positive the answers to some
of these questions, the better the copy. Bad copy on the other hand, is forgettable and can be a
waste of time, bad copy is bad for the reader and listener, bad for the brand and bad for
business”.
One can imagine the power of copywriting by just considering the effectiveness of one
nicely written sentence that can convince, motivate, and persuade people to make a certain
decision and take a certain action. Defining the power of good copy respondent 4 (4.3,
table.1) commented “A good copy is what convinces me to take the next step towards the
brand or the product, that next step could convince me to either buy the brand or at least put it
in my list of preferences. It has to attract me towards the message and message has to
convince me to take an action”.
With the technological advancement and advent of social media, copy trends have also
changed. Now it is not like one-sided messaging that use to be encoded by a brand and later
judged through decoding a message received by consumer and number of impressions it got.
Now people are conversing with the brand. Respondent 1 (4.3, table.1) defining this
phenomenon stated, “When you personify a brand, it has to belong to a certain community,
and the brand has to converse with that community. Copywriting is that conversation of a
brand with its audience. In today’s world brand opens dialogue, if we compare pre and post
social media stage, in post social media world it is not a monologue of a brand but is an
actual communication in a form of dialogue that is taking place between a brand and a
consumer”.
5.2 Theme 2: State of copywriting in Pakistani advertising
Advertising and copywriting in Pakistan have witnessed its prime and downfall, but
downfall always brings critical learning. There are several aspects of copywriting in Pakistan
for not being to the mark that it used to be in previous decades. One of the primary reasons is
the confusion that prevailed in our education policies, explicitly about the mode of language.
Historically there have been several shifts in terms of the medium of language of education.
And there has always been a disparity between Urdu medium and English medium modes of
instruction. In the past several efforts were made in Pakistan to bring Urdu the national
language out from the dominance of English, yet English remained the language of power
and dominant in Pakistan. (Shamim, F, 2008). Urdu was a mother tongue of less than 8% of
a total population of Pakistan, yet it remained lingua franca across all regions of the country,
and in lower levels of government administration (Shamim, F, 2008). Industrialization in
Ayub Khan’s regime increased urbanization and the growth of middle-class strata in
Pakistan. In 70’s Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s egalitarian socialist approach and his decision to
speak in the language of the masses rather than classes began the transition to Urdu. One of
the brands that has been consistently advertising since that time and helped de-anglicise
advertising communication is Hamdard’s Rooh Afza. Rooh Afza has always advertised in
Urdu with a tag line “Mashroob-e-Mashriq”. Urdu became much more evident in advertising
discourse in the ’80s (Jabbar. J, 2017).
Today when advertisers discuss copywriting in Pakistan, they always refer to 70s, 80s,
and 90s as the classic period. General Pervez Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif’s government
in 1999, and after coming into power in his first speech, talked about opening up the airwave
(Aslam, 2011). By 2002, he started granting licenses to private news and entertainment
channels that brought media boom in Pakistan. Before this, there was only PTV, Radio
Pakistan with few FM radio channels that were catering to electronic advertising
communication in Pakistani. But, unfortunately, most of the advertising professionals agree
that this media boom, regardless of bringing numerous opportunities also brought a downfall
to the intellectual and creative output of the industry. Respondent 4 (4.4, table.2) while
discussing pre and post media boom advertising communication in Pakistan, commented that
“Over the years if I look at it, I have a very clear understanding, that we are heading
backward as far as our copywriting is concerned. If you examine the ads from the 80s and
90s, you would be able to find the strength of language in the copy, and the people who had
command on language were the ones who use to write copy. And now if I analyze, the role of
real language in our advertising is diminishing, as in the use of proper grammar and
semantics and we see to the moment type of copies being produced now. I cannot recall or
label any copy as classic since the time of media boom in Pakistan. Whereas I can still recall
lot of slogans and good copy that was produced before this time, the way they were written
be it jingle or monologues or conversations, the language of those ads is what made them
classics, for instance “yehi tau hay who apna pun” and “cherry blossom roz lagain”. We do
not have people now who have a strong command on language and insights to produce
powerful lines”.
In present-day and time, there is a debate going on regarding the effects of media clutter
and social media on the shift and standard of advertising communication across the globe. It
is believed that this media clutter is massively contributing towards reducing the attention
span of people, especially of the youth (Sacharin 2001, p.56; Ahmad, W, 2010). Following
figures state the picture of media clutter, social media, and youth population in Pakistan. By
2008 the number of channels increased up to 30 foreign and 66 national channels (PEMRA,
2008; As Hussainy et al., 2008; Ahmad, W, 2010). On May 2, 2019, The Pakistan Electronic
Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) auctioned 70 more licenses for satellite TV broadcast
stations at its headquarters in Islamabad (“Pemra auctions 70 licenses for STV channels”,
2019). According to (Froggatt, 2010) as compared to 2006 the total number of internet users
grew by 50% in 2009, there were 18.5 million users and this trend is continuously growing
(Ahmad, W, 2010), according to Asia Internet use, population data and Facebook statistics as
of March 31, 2019, 21% of over all population of Pakistan is internet user. Internet Users,
Facebook Subscribers & Population Statistics for 35 countries and regions in Asia (“Internet
Usage in Asia,” 2019). As far as the youth population in Pakistan is concerned, according to
the National Human Development Report (NHDR) launched by UNDP Pakistan currently
has the largest population of young people ever recorded. The report states that 64% of the
total population is below the age of 30, and 29% is between the ages of 15-29 (“Pakistan
currently has the largest youth population”, 2018). With this scenario, it is believed that the
habit of reading books amongst the youth is diminishing drastically; it is also contributing to
cultural and attitude shifts. Thus the new breed of copywriters that is being inducted into
agencies in Pakistan is coming with a superficial level of knowledge about everything. And
agencies are struggling with this situation. Respondent two (4.4, table.2) explaining this
situation states that “In Pakistan It is a reflection of the intellectual crisis we’re facing as a
nation. Reading habits are at an all-time low; therefore, good writing is hard to come by.
More often than not, it lacks insight, lacks crafting, lacks the understanding of the language,
the brand and sadly, the target audience. There aren’t many modern-day slogans or headlines
that people would remember, the ads pass like a ship in the night”. The most interesting
development in this scenario is that the youth enjoys the freedom that social media provides
and is more attuned towards digital communication, the comment of respondent 1 (4.4,
table.2) describes how youth relates to it and how copy in digital media is improving in
Pakistan “In Pakistan the area of digital copy is becoming lot more humanized, lot more
braver, people are willing to take risks because they know it is not like million dollars print,
TV or billboard advertising. If you commit a mistake on digital you can easily remove the
post and replace it with a new one, so social media offers lot more freedom to work, social
media has opened a world to you, anybody who has talent can showcase that talent freely and
easily”.
Pakistani advertising has always been drawing influences from India. In the 90s with the
advent of a cable television network, Pakistani audiences first got exposed to Indian
advertising. Before this, Bollywood movies were feeding some influences, but with the
exposure to their mainstream advertising trends in Pakistani communication majorly shifted.
Talking about Indian influence Rizvi, A, (2012) states that, “Today our televisions are
bombarded by Indian commercials and rather than Globalization it seems more like
‘Indianization’ to us.” Regardless of drawing this influence, Pakistani brands have kept their
tone aspirational as compared to Indians. Their communication is based more on the reality
of the society that they are living in and the pride that they have in portraying it (Tellis, T,
2014). Describing the reason for getting inspired by Indian advertising and where our
communication goes wrong respondent 2 (4.4, table.2) states that, “Indian advertising which
underwent a major transformation in the early 90’s seems to be the beacon of hope for not
just copywriters but also for brand teams. The market is similar to ours, the language is
similar to what’s spoken in North India, Pakistanis love Bollywood music and films, so
nobody really looks further than that. What is often overlooked in emulating Indian media is
that across the border there is a profound understanding of the local people, their behavior,
their way of life and it is embraced wholeheartedly and unabashedly portrayed- while
Pakistani’s mistake observation for insight, execution for idea, and glamor for authenticity”.
The consumer culture of Pakistan and India is different; they go for value for money in
Pakistan, we go for the product experience (Khan. S. T, 2019). Pakistani brands at the same
time try really hard to communicate like Indians and most of the time miserably fail. It is due
to the lack of understanding the dynamics of local consumer and the market, describing this
situation respondent 3 (4.4, table.2) states, “We talk about that why can’t we be like India? If
you want to be like India then don’t shy away from showing people sitting in (paan ki dukan)
paan shop, like they do it, and that is why their advertising resonates because it is based on
insights that come from real life. Here in Pakistan we don’t use real language, we don’t use
real situations. And we are usually told by clients to do something like India and we bring
Indian celebrities, completely missing the point to what it means to be doing in Indian
advertising”.
Some or the other trend drive advertising and copywriting across the world. Similarly,
Pakistani adverts also try and catch up with global trends, and according to all respondents,
Pakistani brands try had to tag along. Respondent 1 (4.4, table.2) who specifically deals with
social media communication stated that, “What I do not agree with is the trends, like these
days there is a trend of feminism, now regardless your product has anything to do with it,
whether you do believe in it or not or you actively are doing something about it or not, you
are talking about feminism, you are talking about eco friendly products etc. I think
copywriting is the last thing here because what all takes place in the background is what
drives the copy. In Pakistan there is a lot of parity, in fact, there is immense parity and
plagiarism, one of the problem is that it has become difficult to find the source, and I have
noticed about five brands talking about the same thing, they are not looking inwards”.
Whereas describing the trends in conventional advertising in Pakistan respondent 2 (4.4,
table.2) highlighted several authentic points “The belief that nobody reads the copy, hence
writing the brief, concise, short versions as opposed to detailed and informative messages is
an active trend. For television commercials, the trend of hefty sounding, esoteric and prosaic
voiceovers full of words that promise glory and wax lyrical about unbelievable achievement
of the brand and what it has done for people is on the rise. Generic writing or writing in
generic terms is also on the rise. Basically, placeholder copy that can be used to sell any thing
or become the caption for the ad of any brand, e.g. “A class above”, “The future is full of
promise”. It’s redundant, boring and does not fool the audience because it has empty words
that mean nothing and touch no one’s heart”.
The most critical aspect of advertising communication is language. Pakistani advertising
has adopted a culture of crass, slang, code shifting, and writing messages in roman. Seasoned
Pakistani creative directors and copywriters have argued that this should always be done
carefully. For youth brands, this kind of language may be relevant to an extent, but as long as
does not fall in the area of vulgarity that unfortunately few brands have started trying. Usage
of crass or slang just for the sake of making one's brand stand out is immature. For youth
brands, this kind of language may be relevant to an extent, but as long as it does not fall in
the area of vulgarity (Qureshi. S, 2015). Commenting on this respondent 2 (4.4, table.2)
stated that "Slang for the sake of slang is mindless, but if it serves a purpose, gives the brand
recall, is relevant to the target market and fits in the bigger scheme of an ad campaign, then
that leads to advertising done well. More often than not, people in urban centers of Pakistan
type, text, post messages in roman, it is familiar territory for them". Respondent 3 (4.4,
table.2) disagreed with the usage of roman in advertising communication he argued that "As
far as using roman is concerned, it is an easy way out, it is an escape that we have taken, and
it is absolutely unforgivable. I don't think it is at all required if you are talking with people in
Urdu, what the hell is wrong with writing in Urdu? If you think it is not modern, you can
always use modern Urdu calligraphy that is available, and you can create a modernized feel
around it with design".
5.3 Theme 3: Fresh Media Studies Graduates in the Professional World of Copywriting
While inducting a new media studies graduate or any other candidate in a copywriting
department, most of the time, the final verdict comes from the department head or the
creative director of the agency. There are very few advertising agencies in Pakistan who have
a proper human resource department to inform and facilitate the hiring authority. Decisions
are mostly made upon the criterion set by the individuals, not based on any specific policy of
the organization. What creative directors or copy department heads in candidates usually
observe is the command over the language, passion, and their ability to work hard.
Describing his personal criterion for hiring a copywriter respondent 3 (4.5, table.3) said,
“There are two basic requirements for a copywriter, one is command over a language,
whichever language, and this is a weakness that we see now a days that people who want to
be a copywriter are actually not good in language, and second criterion is a general
knowledge. Because you can’t make unexpected links unless there is stuff in your head”. In
general creative directors always have one thing in mind that regardless of whomever they
hire, they eventually would have to train that person. So most of the time, the criterion they
set is of a very basic level. Respondent 1 (4.5, table.3) while defining her criterion reflected
the similar thought “My hiring criterion is honesty, hard work and then talent, whereas it
should be the other way round, so for me if someone has these three traits I can teach the rest
to that individual, the personal qualities are more important for me, because there are people
who are great at skills, but they hate their jobs”.

When it comes to the copywriting skills of fresh media studies graduates, the general
feedback of the market is not encouraging. The real power of any copywriter is his
knowledge. With all the readings, experiences, and observations, a copywriter can produce a
better provocative copy (Bernbach. W, 1965). But it is observed that most of the fresh
graduates are not in the habit of reading, and their institutes did not contribute towards the
development of their writing skills. Respondent 3 (4.5, table.3) reflecting upon the skill level
of media studies graduates state that “Frankly it is level zero, there are very few who come
with developed writing skills, it is very rare, but most of the time is that they have potential
and you have to put them through the grind and train them. I think right now there is not
simply focus enough on copywriting in education. One of my concerns is that we are
focusing more on design in our education of communication, we hardly focus on
copywriting, you know there is only one course of copywriting in a four years media studies
degree program and all the rest is design, and that too is elective. So that one course of
copywriting-how much is that going to cover?” Respondent 1 and 3 stated that the skill level
of fresh media studies graduates is zero, whereas respondent 2 and 4 said that at times they
get good inductees as well. They all agreed that a general copywriting skill level of Media
studies graduates is very low, and their institutes are not putting much effort in this regard.
Respondent 2 (4.5, table.3) seconded the opinion of respondent 3 about the performance of
Media studies institutes and stated that “The level is not very high, exposure to classic
advertising is very low. You can’t get through film school without watching the classics, but
you can get through media studies without in-depth knowledge of classic ads and legendary
copywriters. Their level of skill is a joke when it’s not; it’s a miracle”.
Lateral thinking is considered to be a foundation of any creative expression, and
creativity is what determines the future of the brand. It may affect gains and losses of clients
and can cost creative personals their career (Reid and Rotfeld 1976; Zinkhan 1993). In this
regard, the feedback about Media studies graduates is mixed. Respondent 4 (4.5, table.3)
defined a reason why the general lateral thinking level in our society is suffering. And why is
it difficult to find competent, creative individuals in institutes and the industry. He stated that
“Lateral thinking doesn’t exist, but there is a reason behind it, and that is that we are a nation
of followers, if one person buys a Corolla the entire lane would buy a Corolla. We do not
believe in individuality. If someone tries to be different, that person is not respected. If
someone wears an orange colored jeans or gets a different kind of haircut or color streaks in
his hair, or whatever that person wants to do differently, he just can not do it freely, because
his family and peers would tease the hell out of him. So lateral thinking and expression is not
appreciated in our society. People here as a culture cannot tolerate lateral thinking. They can
never be neutral about someone being different; they have to say something or the other to
suppress lateral thinking. So it is unfortunate, we even do not have an acceptance for lateral
thinking, let alone encouragement or acknowledgment of it”. Expressing similar thought
respondent 3 stated that, “The main reason for any kid to have a better lateral thinking level
in my opinion has to do with the household, where kids are allowed to question and have a
liberty to get better exposure are better in terms of their creative approach”.
Every fresh graduate who is new at any job in any field has to face certain challenges. If
we discuss advertising and specifically creative copywriting the market and the industry is
cutthroat and thankless. A lot of graduates come to the advertising world with a perception of
it being glamorous and dazzling, but the reality is quite the opposite. In the advertising world,
mostly what goes out on to the screen is a result of sleepless nights and endless efforts
achieved through working with unrealistic deadlines. What matters the most for a fresh
copywriter is heightened awareness of rapidly changing perception of right and wrong. One
of the most important aspects to be a copywriter working in an ad agency is to be extremely
quick in learning. The diversity of brands that one has to work for each day demands hard
work, adaptability, and flexibility (Yusuf. Z, 2018). Describing the attitude of fresh graduates
and the challenges that they may face as a copywriter respondent 2 (4.5, table.3) states “Hard
work is a challenge for the new generation, who is looking for quick validation, fast
turnaround, and has the attention span less than that of a goldfish. Copywriting and learning
to become a master of the craft for even those with a natural flair, takes years of hard-work in
the trenches. The pace at which an agency functions can be a challenge for a new copywriter.
Those who hit the ground running are more likely to be successful than somebody who is
merely gifted but not agile. Teamwork with a group of diverse individuals with varied
expertise like account management, strategic planners, creative directors, art directors and
eventually brand managers can be challenging and having the conviction despite opposition
to an idea takes serious grit”. Respondent 4 (4.5, table.3) emphasized upon the importance of
knowledge and reading habit and stated that “I strongly believe that the current dire situation
of copywriting that we are facing is due to the lack of reading habit amongst the kids. I
usually ask my students that when was the last time you read any book? And they don’t
remember. So when they really are not interested in reading and writing and do not know
much about the craft of copywriting, everything at work will pose them a challenge”.
Whereas respondent 1 commented that non serious attitude of fresh graduates is what poses
the biggest challenge to them, she stated that “Fresh graduates come out with this attitude of
me me me. What advertising teaches you is that you do not exist, you are an employee of the
brand, and even your client is also an employee of the brand”.

5.4 Theme 4: Copywriting Courses in Media Studies
Copywriting course in Media studies departments have not been given the due attention
that it requires. It is observed and is a most unfortunate fact that let alone Media studies. Even
other departments that have to do with media and communication education in Pakistan have
never paid attention to this subject — knowing that Media studies departments in Pakistani
universities were specifically established to cater to the need of booming communication
media industry. Ironically, the subject that purely has to do with language and writing skills
has not been taken seriously by many universities. It resulted in producing a reduced standard
of graduates to cater to the market need. Commenting on the state of copywriting courses that
are being taught in Media studies departments respondent 2 (4.6, table.4) stated that,
“Copywriting needs to be learned on the job. The classrooms can’t do enough or aren’t.
Courses should develop the love of reading, writing, sharpening the power of observation.
Writing, reading, immersion in popular culture is required. Copywriting should be taught by
current or once successful copywriters and creative directors who are in love with
advertising. The ones who are currently teaching give advertising a bad name and hence
successfully divert the student’s interest”.
An awful reality is that in four years Media studies program offers only one copywriting
course for one semester only. And that too most of the time is an elective course that student
can conveniently skip. The teachers who teach copywriting course take it for granted by
picking up random information from different sources and gathering it to fit for sixteen
sessions only. Talking about the quality of these courses, respondent 3 (4.6, table.4) stated
that, “I have taught myself, I have seen the course outlines of several universities. I don’t
think that any of them are creating any real benefit. And what is being taught you can find
online courses on that, and perhaps they will teach better than the copywriting courses that
are being taught in universities”. Respondent 4 reinforcing this point of view stated that “The
courses that we have are picked from different places, and are not taught with the
seriousness”.
Unfortunately, the general perception about Media studies course not only amongst
people but also academia is that it has more to do with design, production, and journalism
only. And in the case of advertising, it is thought that teaching extensive design and film
production would do the trick and no importance is given to the copywriting course. One of
the reasons for this could be that no university in Pakistan so far has established and offered
any extensive copywriting course in any of its departments. And there is a lack of awareness
about the importance and extensiveness of this subject. There are numerous aspects of
copywriting that have to not only to do with the construction of sentence but also the
expression of language. The way the advertising message is crafted or constructed in an
advertising copy plays a pivotal role in terms of comprehension and recall. Many advertising
gurus and researchers have been studying the effects of different constructs (Percy, 1982;
Rogers, 1988). Copywriting does impact society and introduces new trends in everyday
spoken language culture. This impact of advertising copy is accepted internationally to the
extent that, Don Nilsen in English Journal ("Teaching English Through the Language of
Advertising, February 1976, pp. 29-38.) recommended that English should be taught by using
advertising copy in the teaching of accepted language usage. He states that "Students, he
believes, are impressed by the language skills displayed in advertising and can learn much
from collecting and examining interesting bits of advertising copy". Neilsen (1976)
recommended that phonology, orthography, homonyms, puns, creative grammar rule
breaking (double negatives, word division, word aggregation) and syntactic manipulation in
advertising should be taught to students. Students can play with language and experiment
with breaking the rules for unusual effects along with learning the rules of conventional
usage. (Wyckham, R. G. 1986). Describing how extensive a copywriting course could be
respondent 3 (4.6, table.4) stated that, "There is so much that falls under copywriting, there is
idea development, and there should be a course that should focus upon presenting those ideas
in the most precise terms. This course should just challenge you to develop the most precise
communication that you can because the good copy is that which has no unnecessary words.
And it should include all different kinds of copies, you see in digital media there is several
types of copy, copy is different on Facebook, copy is different on Google apps, copy is
different on Instagram, copy is different on Reddit, so digital itself is not one medium, and
there are millions of different kinds of copies that can be taught. You need to look at all the
different ways that copy is being used and make it known to the students".
The copywriting course can be designed methodically and can be extended into several
semesters like design courses to develop a better grasp of students on this subject.
Respondent 4 (4.6, table.4) expressing his concern about what Media studies programs are
producing and what they are missing out upon stated that “We are better executers than
thinkers. We are producing world-class lot who can work on design and animation software
and execute work for Hollywood movies. But we do not have writers who can produce a
copy worth winning Clio or Lion. I see this as a bigger problem for the coming generation.
Especially for a digital generation because they don’t have an understanding or exposure to
the language of classics. For them, everything is disposable. Digital communication is
disposable because you see one post, and that post is gone within an hour, and your screen is
filled with two hundred new posts. Unlike TV ads that run for several months or years, for
digital advertising, your client asks you to come up with a new post after every two days. So
the communication like everything else for this generation is easily disposable and
forgettable”.
To improve the copywriting courses in Media studies programs, all of the respondents
suggested having practical implementation incorporated in the course. Respondent 2 and 3
recommended that seasoned and experienced copywriters should be engaged to teach this
course. Respondent 3 (4.6, table.4) recommended that the copywriting course should be
taught as an extensive course like design courses, he stated that “I guess the way design
education is prepared like a program where you do not study everything in one course.
Copywriting should also be taught as a program. There is a need to be at least three to four
courses, where you can start with the foundation and then proceed to advance levels. You
can’t expect that kids can learn everything in a single course and would be able to retain it.
Now you can even have an entire course on digital media, the other one could be on print,
and the third one could be on TV, so there is so much to teach. That is something that
institutes should look at”. Reemphasizing this thought, respondent 4 (4.6, table.4) stated that
“Copywriting should have a foundation course and then further advance level courses.
Copywriting course should be taught from the very basics of it and should be extended into
several semesters. One course in four years does not fulfill the purpose”. Respondent 4
suggested that senior copywriters of the industry should come forward and establish a
separate copywriting department in different Art and Media schools of Pakistan.
5.5 Implications For Further Research
The reflection of respondents on the inquiry in the previous chapter provides a clear
perspective for further research implications. Both the categories of teachers and
professionals agreed that the copywriting courses that are being taught in Media studies
departments are not serving the purpose. All the four respondents were aligned with the fact
that Urdu/English writing in general and copywriting in specific skills of Media studies
graduates are distressing. The category of copywriting professionals emphasized that
copywriting courses should be designed to integrate the real-world practical experience. The
teacher’s group recommended that the copywriting course should be taught as an extensive
four years course in the media studies program.
Considering the responses and analyzing the situation, the researcher recommends that
an in-depth study should be conducted specifically on the faculty of copywriting. This study
should investigate the extensiveness of the subject and its feasibility to be taught as one of the
major courses. This research would help curriculum designers to establish an extensive and
consolidated Media studies course that can be taught in detail throughout the four years in
Media studies program.
5.6 Conclusion
Based on interviews with advertising and media practitioners and teachers of this
discipline at media studies departments, It has been observed and deduced that overall
training and study of design, visual aesthetics and film production are given more weight and
attention. Training of copywriters within academia is undermined and is in dire need of
curriculum revision and evaluation of the state of affairs. Within the journalism curriculum,
English and Urdu are being offered as language courses; however, for advertising & media
studies, this is overlooked. Two decades since the media boom in Pakistan, there is a scarcity
of copywriters. And a big gap to fill in the training of potential copywriters at media studies
departments. There is a severe need to improve the copywriting courses in the light of
evolving digital and social media. With more and more of these graduates and professionals
doing nothing to improve the standard of writing and communication and instead simply
strengthening and perpetuating the mediocre and abysmal output.

CHAPTER 6
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APPENDICES
Appendix A
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 1)
Q. What is copywriting?
A. When you personify a brand, it has to belong to a certain community and the brand has to
converse with that community. Copywriting is that conversation of a brand with its audience.
In today’s world brand opens dialogue, if we compare pre and post social media stage, in post
social media world it is not a monologue of a brand but is an actual communication in a form
of dialogue that is taking place between a brand and a consumer, the definition of
communication is that it is not one way but two way cycle, social media has made it possible
for brands, so when you put anything on social media, you will get likes, you will get shares
you will get comments. Recently we used a silly statement for brand some thing to the effect
of I feel sad and we got lot of backlash that we had to take it down, copy writing is about
connecting on emotional or rational level with another person, you are communicating what
you are all about and how would you enhance their lives in a best possible way. It is an
objective based communication, so brand has to empathetic with the language that you use
and the way you respond to the customer. Some one wrote to us on that beauty brand and her
words were “people tell me that I am ugly, I don’t fee pretty what should I do” so the non
empathetic respond would be send us your picture and we will tell you what products do you
need, you have black circles you should use this product, you have open pores you should use
this product. What we wrote back to that girl “ regardless of who you are, where you are and
what people tell you, you are pretty and you are beautiful, you are a woman, if however you
need help on any specific area that you feel you want to enhance we are here to help you, but
before you do any of that we recommend that you should allow yourself to feel pretty. To me
today that is what copy writing is, it is about communicating at much deeper level.
Q. What is a significance of copywriting in advertising?
A. It is a sole of advertising, but a good copy can be messed up by bad graphics and good
graphics can be messed up shoddy copy
Q. How do you determine if any copy is good or bad?
A. Today your audience is telling you, the moment you mess up your audience will come and
tell you “tum nay yeh kyoun kiye?” Why did you do this? For example customers feedback is
that you have written up to really small in up to 30%, and I thought that I would get 30% off
on your brand, now this is not a brilliant example of copywriting but it suggest the
combination of how you put words in design and the significance of the message, message
should be placed in a way that customer should not feel cheated, and today your customer is
pointing out where you are going wrong with your message. Copywriting is listening as much
as it is talking.
Q. What is your opinion about copy that is being produced in Pakistan?
A. In the area of digital copy is becoming lot more humanized, lot more braver, people are
willing to take risks because they know it is not like million dollars print, TV or billboard
advertising. If you commit a mistake on digital you can easily remove the post and replace it
with a new one, so social media offers lot more freedom to work, social media has opened a
world to you, anybody who has talent can showcase that talent freely and easily. What I do
not agree with is the trends, like these days there is a trend of feminism, now regardless your
product has anything to do with it, whether you do believe in it or not or you actively are
doing something about it or not, you are talking about feminism you are talking about eco
friendly products etc. I think copywriting is the last thing here, because what all takes place
in the background is what drives the copy. So the brands should live with their personal
statement and should not become a part of bandwagon ending up giving contradictory
statements. What bothers me is that Pakistan is a trend driven market and because of that we
forget ourselves, and due to communicating according to different trends at different times
brands loose their real identity.
Q. What are the factors in your opinion majorly transformed copywriting trends in Pakistan?
A. There is a lot of parity in fact there is immense parity and plagiarism, one of the problem
is that it has become difficult to find the source, and I have noticed about five brands talking
about the same thing, they are not looking inwards, you see brands have to look inwards that
what is it that we do and have to offer, what I bring to my customer and deliver on that,
through how your product perform and through the messaging that you produce, but if you
are following trends all the time then it is useless.
Q. From which sources usually our copywriters draw their influences from?
A. Sources are each other and the source is your brand, so the problem begins when people
try and draw their influence from competition or other brands. But the market is very murky,
especially in social media there are several sources and unfortunately they are mostly outside
sources, there is not much coming from within. Brand are not going inwards, brands have to
go inwards and be more focused towards what is it that we do instead of following what is
trending.
Q. Do you think locally produced copy is influenced by foreign trends? If yes then what is a
reason for such influence?

A. Now the trend is changing, now we have become more Pakistani, we have stopped using
words that Indians use, we have our own trending of colloquial language now. Now on social
media we see content that is very local and is delivered in a very local manner unlike the
scripts that we had before which sounded more like Indian. So I think that the trend is
changing, slowly but it is.
Q. What is your opinion about the usage of slang or street language in advertising copy?
A. It depends, if you have to sell a product to specific market and you use a language that is a
part of their daily vocabulary then there is no harm. First part is that what the brands own
strength is and the second is to know your customers, copywriting is not journalism,
copywriting is a different kind of communication it should not feel like writing but it should
feel like conversation, it is like you talk to your friend or you parents or siblings or colleagues
or the people who work for you and you interact with in daily life. You should speak the
language that your customer can understand and relate to. The memorability of message is
not there in social media, because there is too much coming to us, and the attention span is
suffering. Best of the works from anywhere in the world has a maximum life of four to five
day. And the biggest struggle is about having a consistency in language and image of the
brand on digital media, and now everybody who has phone in their hands is able to share and
forward anything, people like something, share it, it gets viral for some time and then gets
replaced by something else really quickly.
Q. How much effective is the usage of roman and code shifting in advertising copy?
A. At times we take our copywriting as literature, but it is not, because its job is to
communicate with people and sell, if it resonates with the customer then there is no harm in
writing in roman or code switching. But we have to study language, because our job is more
complicated. Culture impacts branding and brands impact culture, now if we look at the
influencers in social media they are the people who are living the life of opulence, and things
have become very materialistic. Our heroes have changed from the people who worked hard
to the people who are living the lifestyle. And brands have a major role to play in this. As
advertisers our job is not to change the society, but still we have a responsibility because we
have a very powerful impact on society. Advertising does impact the learning of children in
fact all the media has that impact, so that responsibility does lie on a copywriter specially
who is communicating with children to keep in mind the kind of language that is being used.
Q. How would you define copywriting trends?
A. I have already defined it, so yeah it is what I said before that brands get blindfolded
through trends, they really do not understand the implications, and they make people write
copy based on any random thing that is trending.
Q. Do you think any trend can affect the construct of language in copywriting? If yes explain
how?
A. It is as I just said, copywriters have to tweak message according to trend so it does affect
the language construct.
Q. Can you identify few contemporary Pakistani ads that are following any specific trend?
A. I think Baygone ad has introduced a new trend, with a different approach with an element
of pleasant shock and humour.
Q. What sort of challenges any new copywriter face in everyday work?

A. Biggest challenge is to understand that the brand is more important that what you it to be,
fresh graduates come out with this attitude of me me me. What advertising teaches you is that
you do not exist, you are an employee of the brand, and even our client is also an employee
of the brand. So the biggest challenges is limiting you, and understand just two ends, one end
is what is a purpose of my brand and the other is to whom my brand is communicating with.
Q. What are the considerations of digital advertising writing, how is it different from
conventional copywriting?
A. It is not and it should not be, it is just a different medium a new medium but the rest
remain the same, the only constraint is that physically there is a very little space and how you
technically organize that space and how you hash tag your brand or message, the science of
copy on digital media has its dos and don’ts but tits essence is the same. It is like switching
from Print to TV and now to digital. But what we need to understand that within digital there
are numerous mediums and we just need to focus upon the relevant ones.
Q. What is a hiring criterion for a fresh recruit in copy department?
A. My criterion is honesty, hard work and then talent, whereas it should be the other way
round, so for me if someone has these three traits I can teach the rest to that individual, so the
personal qualities are more important for me, because there are people who are great at skills
but they hate their jobs.
Q. What is a level of copywriting skill or knowledge of any fresh media studies graduate?
A. Zero! Lot of graduates who come for a job, but specifically when it comes to copywriting
their basics are not right, their grammar is not correct, and that has to not to with the
education that they have received, it has to do with entire background that they are coming
from. So for me if a person has insights and has analytical skill to understand the basics of
advertising communication, I can teach and train the rest.
Q. What is a usual lateral thinking level of fresh media studies graduate?
A. I haven’t met any fresh graduate who could write any thing exciting, I can see mouldable
potential and hire them, although on the graphics side kids are good but writing is in a sorry
state.
Q. In your opinion how well equipped media studies graduates are for copywriting?
A. I would not like to be unfair, I guess I am not qualified to answer this because I do not
have many kids coming to me for interviews, but a general impression is that they are not.
Q. If they are trained on job, how much time does it usually roughly takes for one to reach to
the level of writing acceptable copy?
A. The way I train is like how you train someone to swim, so I put them in water at the very
first day and then gradually with time take them to deep end. I remember how I got trained on
my job and how my boss made me rewrite a piece of copy for over eighty times in a day, it
was very frustrating and I was extremely annoyed, but in retrospect it paid off well. We
blame institutes a lot but we have to realize that eventually we have to throw them in water to
learn, so I think they way we teach in institutes it should be more instructional and should be
more real as in practical in real world. So kids learn with time, some have an ability to grasp
quicker than others, it could take from a month to three moths.
Q. In your opinion how apt are the copywriting courses if you know any to train students?
A. If I have an opportunity to teach copywriting I would not start with writing but I would
start with the strategy, first one has to teach about how to get familiar with brand, because
you cannot write a copy unless you know about the brand objectives and positioning. So first
you teach them how to do a strategic planning for the brand and the copy will follow. And in
my utopian world I would want to include psychologists, researchers and anthropologists
coming to the class to present a larger canvas in a more insightful way in copywriting
courses. I would also introduce short internships like five days or a week internship to
introduce a flavour of real world to the students, because students in a class think about buzz
words, puns metaphors and stuff, but these are all tools, an if student get a chance to learn the
practical on job application of these things it would definitely enhance their learning, and I
would introduce jury from the very beginning of the course so students can get professional
feedback and can be introduced to multiple school of thoughts, instead of adapting one school
of thought which is of the teacher.

Appendix B
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 2)
A. The art and science of writing to persuade the reader/listener of a point of view, or of
informing him/her about a brand/product/service, or to change the reader’s belief about
something and in exceptional some cases lead to change in behaviour over a period of time.
A. Not all messages can be visual alone. The messaging, the writing holds serious weight, all
words used in any media (radio/tv/digital/press/outdoor et al.) are crafted
(written/spoken/sung/designed) to say something in a specific manner to a specific target
audience in a relevant fashion. Most of the famous ads, jingles, headlines anybody
remembers about anything whether that is from classic ads or some of the more recent ones,
are messages that have been crafted, i.e. written by a copywriter.
A. Pretty much the same way you judge how any writing is good or bad, by the effect it has,
by the power it holds, by questioning what it’s role is. Is it informative? Is it persuasive?
What is the choice of words like? Is the choice of language correct with respect to the target
audience? Is it memorable? Does it have an insight? The more positive the answers to some
of these questions, the better the copy. Bad copy on the other hand, is forgettable and can be a
waste of time, bad copy is bad for the reader/listener, bad for the brand and bad for business.

A. It is a reflection of the intellectual crisis we’re facing as a nation. Reading habits are at an
all-time low, therefore, good writing is hard to come by. More often than not, it lacks insight,
lacks crafting, lacks the understanding of the language, the brand and sadly, the target
audience. There aren’t many modern day slogans or headlines that people would remember,
the ads pass like a ship in the night.
A. A client driven market for a creative act. Business driven is not bad, but client driven can
be deadly. Clients are human beings with opinions and point of views which are often
mistaken for expertise. Their decisions, subjective viewpoint effect the quality of the final
output. Copywriters and agencies specifically want an approval fast, because the less time
they spend on a job, the more cost effective it is. The faster you give the client what he or she
wants, the better. Insight mining, crafting copy- draft after draft is a time consuming labour
of love. Nobody has that kind of time any more. As a result, an advertisement that is
produced is one on which the potential consumer doesn’t want to waste his/her time on.
A. In ideal circumstances, from literature, music, films, the local zeitgeist, surroundings,
environments, understanding of human behaviour. In a not so ideal scenario, from Bollywood
and Indian media, which leads to myopic viewpoint and work that lacks originality.
A. Indian advertising which underwent a major transformation in the early 90’s seems to be
the beacon of hope for not just copywriters but also for brand teams. The market is similar to
ours, the language is similar to what’s spoken in North India, Pakistanis love Bollywood
music and films, so nobody really looks further than that. What is often overlooked in
emulating Indian media is that across the border there is a profound understanding of the
local people, their behaviour, their way of life and it is embraced wholeheartedly and
unabashedly portrayed- while Pakistani’s mistake observation for insight, execution for idea,
and glamor for authenticity.
A. Slang for the sake of slang is mindless, but if it serves a purpose, gives the brand recall, is
relevant to the target market and fits in the bigger scheme of an ad campaign- then that lead
to advertising done well.
A. There is no formal research to say anything with complete confidence, however, it is very
common, and if it hasn’t failed as many times as it should’ve, it is probably effective. More
often than not, people in urban centres of Pakistan type, text, post messages in roman, it is a
familiar territory for them.
Q. Copywriting trends if are any, how do they work?
A. The belief that nobody reads copy, hence writing brief, concise, short versions as opposed
to detailed and informative messages is an active trend.
For television commercials, the trend of hefty sounding, esoteric and prosaic voiceovers full
of words that promise glory and wax lyrical about unbelievable achievement of the brand and
what it has done for people is on the rise.

Generic writing or writing in generic terms is also on the rise. Basically, placeholder copy
that can be used to sell any thing or become the caption for the ad of any brand, e.g. “A class
above”. The future is full of promise. It’s redundant, boring and does not fool the audience
because it has empty words that mean nothing and touch no one’s heart.
A. The same way you would define any trend; it gets repeated more and more in various
permutations and combinations, it’s emulated by several brands at once and all of those brand
want it to seem original.
how?
B. Social media does dictate many trends, the language that is commonly used on social
media, becomes a part of the social fabric and vice versa. Acronyms like FOMO, YOLO,
FML, LOL etc are all a part of trend and are being increasingly used in ads for many brands.
A. Patriotism and advertising that advocates nationalism has been a major trend for the last
many years, so much so that it’s become a very saturated domain. The national anthem,
nationalistic songs, poetry of famous revolutionary poets have all been exhausted to this end.
Gender role reversal- Many brands are taking on the voice of equality between genders and
women empowerment. For many decades, a husband would never be seen making a cup of
tea for his wife in an ad, or helping her prepare a meal- now it’s become a norm and such
reversals are considered to be a mark of progress. If it’s for kids, it must be animated- this
trend has only been on the rise for nearly two decades.
A. Hard work is a challenge for the new generation, who is looking for quick validation, fast
turnaround, and has the attention span less than that of a goldfish. Copywriting and learning
to become a master of the craft for even those with a natural flair, takes years of hard-work in
the trenches. The pace at which an agency functions can be a challenge for a new copywriter.
Those who hit the ground running are more likely to be successful than somebody who is
merely gifted but not agile. Teamwork with a group of diverse individuals with varied
expertise (account management, strategic planners, creative directors, art directors and
eventually brand managers) can be challenging and having the wherewithal and conviction
despite opposition to an idea takes serious grit.
A. Digital helps you focus on a specific target audience at communicate in a manner that
might alienate the audience on mass media like tv/print/ radio- but on digital, you can make
your brand as niche as possible without the fear of losing any potential audiences. Internet
has also added richly to the language- both spoken and written, so a plethora of terms,
phrases, hashtags exist that did not previously.
A. The fire in the belly, writing skills, degree of interest in reading, writing and popular
culture.
A. No two graduates are alike. It is often dictated by the level of self-motivation he or she
has. The level is not very high, exposure to classic advertising is very low. You can’t get
through film school without watching the classics, but you can get through media studies
without in-depth knowledge of classic ads and legendary copywriters. Their level of skill is a
joke, when it’s not- it’s a miracle.
A. There is nothing usual about it. It differs from person to person. Most of them can think
laterally but feel challenged when their proposed solutions are too expensive or impractical to
execute. Their heart breaks easily.
Q. Being a creative director what are your expectations with a fresh media studies graduate
that is being hired in a copy department?
A. Fire in the belly. Hunger. The will to work hard and learn on the job. They are expected to
be open to learning and worth the investment. A fresh graduate is never lucrative for the
agency to have on board, they need to be invested in first (time, money, resources) before
they can become value assets and credible professionals. I expect graduates to have the
maturity to value and understand this fact and not jump ship the first chance they get because
another agency is offering more money.
A. Not well equipped at all. They have no interest or passion for advertising, more often than
not, graduates don’t like reading or writing or even listening- the three valuable things that
they ought to be equipped with in order to be good at copywriting.

Q. What is a general attitude of new graduates towards their work?
B. Generally speaking, their interest is short-lived. Before they seriously begin, they are
willing to throw in the towel because it’s hard-work or because somebody somewhere else
will pay them twice as much. They lack purpose.
B. Depends on the individual- the drive, level of interest and how much time and effort is
being put in by the mentor. A year seems like a reasonable time to make enough mistakes to
learn from, before making more.
Q. How do media studies interns are trained in copy department?
A. By getting real briefs to write real ads, if all goes exceptionally well, they get a chance to
get their ideas approved. The interns shadow a senior writer and learn from him or her whilst
working on actual briefs from time to time.
A. Copywriting needs to be learnt on the job. The classrooms can’t do enough, or aren’t.
Q. Which are the areas that need most attention from the institutes to produce a graduate fit
for working as a copywriter?
A. Develop the love of reading, writing, sharpening the power of observation.
Q. Which are the areas that need least attention from the institutes to produce a graduate fit

A. Writing, reading, immersion in popular culture.
Q. What are your recommendations to improve copywriting courses that are being taught in
media studies departments?
A. That they be taught by current or once successful copywriters and creative directors who
are in love with advertising. The ones who are currently teaching give advertising a bad name
and hence successfully divert the student’s interest.

Appendix C
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 3)
A. It is very difficult to define, because you cannot restrict yourself on concept or copy
writing only, because if you restrict yourself on that only then its value becomes miniscule
and if you say that entire advertising is dependent on it then it becomes exaggeration.
Copywriting is drafting effective communication, and its not just words, that is idea and as
per need it is defined. And by effective communication I mean that it has to create some kind
of behavior change.
A. It is the brain of advertising, it is the intent, like they say everything begins with the intent,
so advertising begins with copywriting, the Idea can also come from the design, but whoever
is doing the work of the concept is basically doing a work of a copywriter.
A. One of the parameters is that is it in colloquial language, is it in easy language, does it
simply convey the idea, does it effectively convey the idea, does it engage, does it cause you
to read further, that is a core, the challenge for advertising is that you are bombarded with so
many messages all the time, so what is it that actually makes you stop and makes you read
what the ad is saying and absorb what the ad is saying, that is what makes the copy good, but
how do you measure the effectiveness is I do not know.

A. The biggest gripe that I have with copy in Pakistan is that the only thing we understand is
aspiration. So we are stuck on the idea of aspiration, for instance even if we have to sell a five
rupee pan masala we would show haveli mansion in which people are consuming it, at the
same time we talk about that why cant we be like india? If you want to be like India then
don’t shy away from showing people sitting in paan ki dukan, like they do it, and that is why
their advertising resonates because it is based on insights that come from real life. Here in
Pakistan we don’t use real language, we don’t use real situations.
A. Everything used be jingle based and we have grown out of that, we still use jingles but
very selectively and it is not the norm anymore. Now trends change rapidly with the pace of
technology, technology has affected advertising, now the trends change faster and are not
long lasting. For example Service shoes ads introduced a new trend which were very
colloquial and it stayed for a while, but then everybody started following to become me too
and it vanished, similarly Kenwood started a trend of low budget copy of real conversation
between husband and wife, where wife is afraid that husband doesn’t like her cooking and
husband states that is not why I married you, I married you because I can talk to you about
books, about ideas, about things that we watch. I can completely relate with that, because my
wife and I watch series together all the time and I don’t care how gole round her roti is. And
that trend has actually still not come into limelight as much as it should. And we are usually
told by clients to do something like India and we bring Indian celebrities, completely missing
the point to what it means to be doing in Indian advertising.
A. Vimeo and Youtube, which of course what it not should be, but, we were having this
discussion the other day that how many copywriters are there who would have read more
than a thousand books? Hard to imagine that any of them actually! So we do not do the deep
learning anymore, its like we just skim through stuff. But obviously idea has to come from
somewhere, so now perhaps we rely more on the movies and series that we watch. But what
is inescapable is that whatever you come up with has to be informed by your own experience.
So you must have seen that thing somewhere only then you can write about it, you cannot
snatch something out of someone else’s mind. Our experience now are more defined by the
visual mediums that we watch rather than the text base, that is where we are getting our ideas
from. So now the concepts are more execution based, because that is what we are picking up
from visual medium.
A. This is a topic on which I can talk endlessly on, the point is what are they producing
locally that would inspire us? By nature human beings need to consume narratives, narratives
help us define who we are as a person, as a society as, a nation, as a province, as a city and at
all levels its narratives that bind us together. The core reason that we are loosing that
cohesion is because we have forgotten the narrative that brought us together at the first place,
and we are not producing our narratives anymore. There use to be a time when everyone use
to watch Haseena Moeen’s plays, even as kids we watched those plays, they were so brilliant
that even as kids we could watch them, even though they got serious and perhaps we did not
understand all the implications as well, there was enough that you got the general impression
of it, and you got the narrative as well, that helped you define who you were. Now days
everyone is watching Indian, American and British series, so that is what we are going to get
impressed by and that is what we are going to be referencing. Although there is no a revival
of drama in Pakistan, film industry is also in a process of revival but still struggling, there are
few god flashes here and there, but unfortunately their formula of making money is also
make it loo Indian, so it looses the point.
A. It is a good thing, but with some restraint. We have rather some careless attitude with
impression that we create through advertising in society as advertisers. We claim that
anything sells only for the reason that the society relates to it and this is the reality, but we are
not only just reflecting the thought but we are also leading thought. It’s true that we reflect
what society is, but if we are showing aspirational stuff is because people did not buy the
reality. We don’t like living in the real world in this nation. There has to be some restraint but
when you go with the slang and colloquial it becomes resonant as well. The language people
are speaking is the language you must use, But when you say slang that invokes image of sec
C or D, that is not what it is, for any communication we have to have the idea what target
audience is, so what slang should mean here is that what is their language? Before they are
not speaking like professors, so whichever the group is it has its own language and you have
to penetrate in that lingo. So don’t aspire to be perfect in language but don’t aspire to be
guttersnipes either.
A. It is an easy way out, it is an escape that we have taken, and it is absolutely unforgivable. I
don’t think it is at all required, if you are talking with people in Urdu, what the hell is wrong
with writing in Urdu? If you think it is not modern you can always use modern Urdu
calligraphy that is available and you can create a modernized feel around it with design. It is
an easier escape! Except for a very rear cases for a specific market where you not expect your
consumer to read Urdu that well fine you can use roman. We should now accept it openly
that roman has become a common mode of writing Urdu script, so in advertising there is no
harm in using it as long as it is being used for a specific purpose, otherwise Urdu script for
Urdu writing is the ideal way of communication.
A. With the proliferation of social media one major thing that has changed, it is that people
don’t buy copy that is focused on selling anymore. The push technique of formula advertising
is a trend perhaps which is changing. Because on social media its all about the conversation,
its about the real benefits, its about what are the platforms that you support and what are the
values of your brand. People are not that particular about it in local market but internationally
definitely they are. Brands are conversing and they can make or break on what causes the
support, it’s about lifestyles, and that is where brand needs to go because either you have a
USP or you can have a platform. So if you are functional focused you will talk about USP
and if you are focused upon lifestyle you have to talk about platform. Our social media
advertising is way ahead of our traditional advertising in terms of creating resonant messages
that weave into a conversation rather than being forced upon you. You would gladly watch
that message because it feels like it is a part of the conversation that you are having with the
brand, so that is something I think traditional advertising now is trying to catch up with, at
lease the smarter ones are. Now it’s less about selling and more about weaving the benefit
into the story.
how?
A. It is more about mediums than overall copywriting, conventional construct in print would
always remain formal, for TV it would be story driven and for social it would be informal.
A. Rejection of ideas, which somehow they are not really used to. Recent lot of students to
with very unreal expectations of what kind of work that is really going to be needed and the
level of out put that is expected. The willingness to work is something that I find very
problematic in new batches these days. Although there are many talks on millennial that its
not their fault what hard work means because they have never been required to do it, the fact
that they grow up with playing games where failure doesn’t mean anything, because you can
just restart, you have like a million shots to get it right but in real life that is now how it is. So
its up to the employers to set their expectations right. So the real challenge is the expectations
that they bring in versus what the on ground reality is. I have several fresh graduates who in
their interviews showed passion to do work and win awards, but when you give them a
caption to write they take two days for that, that’s not going to work!
A. Digital is about engagement it is not about getting a message across. So the matrix of
conventional advertising about number of impressions does not work in digital, in digital it is
about engagement. Number of impressions is when you are trying to tell somebody
something and engagement is when you are engaging someone into a conversation. Digital is
more about content and you have freedom to do unexpected form of storytelling.

A. There are two basic requirements for a copywriter one is command over a language,
whichever language, and this is a weakness that we see now a days that people who want to
be a copywriter are actually not good in language and second criterion is a general
knowledge, Because the modern definition of creativity actually you are finding either an
unusual perspective by looking at something that really exist, and if it is more than one item
than finding an unusual link between these objects and you cant make unexpected links
unless there is stuff in your head.
A. Frankly it is level zero, there are very few who come with developed writing skills, it is
very rare but most of the time is that they have potential and you have to put them through
grind and train them. I think right now there not simply focus enough on copywriting in
education, that is one of my concerns that we focusing more on design in our education of
communication, we hardly focus on copywriting, you know there is only one course of
copywriting in a four years media studies degree program and all the rest is design. So that
one course of copywriting, how much is that going to cover?
A. There is a lot of variety in this. I can find a difference in batches that I teach. The main
reason for any kid to have a better lateral thinking level in my opinion has to do with the
household, where kids are allowed to question and have a liberty to get better exposure are
better in terms of their creative approach.
A. They are not, and the ones who are they are because of personal interest not because of the
study. I came into copywriting from an MBA background and that is because I love reading
and writing. So it was more about the personal interest than what I studied. And it is a case
with media studies graduates as well, because their copywriting courses have taught them
nothing. They hardly remember anything that was taught in their copywriting courses.
A. Three to four months at least, they just got to get the hang of what the expectation is, once
they understand that level they are good to go.
A. I have taught myself, I have seen the course outlines of several universities. I don’t think
that any of them are creating any real benefit because you cant teach theory, you know
regardless of how much theory you teach it is useless. You have to put it into practice that’s
the only way. And what is being taught you can find online courses on that and perhaps they
will teach better than the copywriting courses that are being taught in universities. So kids
wont remember anything unless you put the theory into practice.
A. I guess the way design education is prepared like a program where you do not study
everything in one course, copywriting should also be taught as a program. There is a need to
be at least three to four courses, where you can start with foundation and then proceed to
advance levels. You can’t expect that kids can learn everything in a single course and would
be able to retain it. Now you can even have an entire course on digital media, the other one
could be on print and third one could be on TV, so there is so much to teach. That is
something that institutes should look at.
A. Same as I mentioned in previous answer.
Q. Who design the copywriting or concept writing courses?
A. That depends on the institute, few are very rigid and others usually give you the outcomes
that they want from that course and let teacher design it. I think it is much better if institute
provides with the course outline, because then it will be done according to a plan, whereas if
teacher designs the course then he might miss out on some crucial elements. So if there is a
thought out path then it is incumbent upon the institute to define what that path is and teacher
should not have that liberty, although the freedom makes the teacher’s life easier but frankly
it is not necessarily the best thing for students.
Q. What are the considerations while designing a copywriting course?
A. There is so much that falls under copywriting, there is idea development and there should
be a course that should focus upon presenting those ideas in the most precise terms. This
course should just challenge you to develop the most precise communication that you can,
because the good copy is that which has no unnecessary word. And it should include all
different kinds of copies, you see in digital media there is several types of copy, copy is
different on facebook copy is different on google apps, copy is different on instagram, copy is
different on reddit, so digital itself is not one medium and there are millions of different kinds
of copies that can be taught. You need to look at the all the different ways that copy is being
used and make it known to the students.
Q. Is copywriting course designed as a language subject or a subject of method?
A. It should be method, because you are not there to teach them language. They have to know
the language already. You teach them the basic appeals and techniques of advertising
language, so I would call them methods and the course is about methods.
Q. Can copywriting be taught without being in touch with the real world of advertising?
A. Only if they are aware about what all-new ads that are coming out and analyze them
critically and then teach copy accordingly, but even then the teacher wont be able to teach
students about the process. Ideally the faculty should be practicing not only practicing but
also they should have been practicing for at least five to six years.
Q. How well versed is a faculty with teaching advertising language to the students?
A. Most of them not, but those are who have made some kind of academic study of it, so the
academic studies basically delineates. It tells you all the varieties, all the different things to be
aware of and the entire matrix to be aware of. Whereas if you just experienced and not
studied it, then you know it but its just one big blob of knowledge, I think most of the people
who are coming in and teaching they bring that blob of knowledge, without sufficient
understanding of the terms and language.
Q. What is a general skill level of language (writing/reading) of student?
A. Not great. I very bluntly tell most of them that they should not be copywriters in fact, not
rudely but I advise them that they should not and this would not be the right field for them.
Because one cannot survive on writing for informal brands, if you are working in a good
advertising set up you would end up writing a copy for a formal client, and that is where a
real test of knowledge and command of the language takes place, where even to an extent that
if you do not know the difference between American English and British English you are
doomed.
Q. How many students in a class are usually inclined towards writing?
A. Not more than three or four out of the class of twenty to twenty five students, and out of
the same class there would be five to six who you would encourage to become a copywriter.
Q. Are there any complementary courses that should be taught along with copywriting?
A. Design and idea development.
Q. How well designed the entire media studies curriculum is for a student to pursue
copywriting as a career?
A. The course that is being taught right now just give student a feel to whether s/he should
follow this path or not. It is one isolated course which is not connected to anything prior or
ahead, and most of the universities offer just one course of copywriting and that is elective.
Q. How well versed is a faculty with teaching digital advertising communication to the
students?
A. Not at all! Because we even do not have many practitioners who know digital advertising,
everybody claims but actually there are very few people who know digital. Out of the
mushroom growth of digital agencies in Pakistan I think there only two per cent of the people
who actually understand digital advertising. When there are so few who really understand
one can imagine how many good teachers there can be.
Q. In you opinion what the major areas of improvement in copywriting courses that are being
taught to media studies students?
A. The process of putting student through a grind is actually a university’s job; this process
should not start after any graduate steps into the real world. Few of the media students are
creative waves in the fields of production and design, but unfortunately none in copywriting.
Appendix D
Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 4)
A. Copywriting is a crafting of words to convey a message in advertising. They are two ways
in which advertising communicates, first is verbal and second is visual communication, so
how the words portray any idea is what copywriting is all about.
A. Copywriting is a brand’s pitch, if we go to the very basics and talk about consumerism and
selling, when there was no concept of formal advertising even then people use to persuade
other people through words to buy their products, so that defines a significance of
copywriting and the usage of words in advertising.
A. In my experience any copy that helps me or convinces me to take the next step towards the
brand or the product, and those next step could be of a brand recall or some new revelation
about the brand or it convinces me to either buy the brand or at least put it in my list of
preferences, it has to attract me towards the message and message has to convince me to take
an action.
A. Over the years if I look at it, I have a very clear understanding, that we are heading
backwards as far is our copywriting is concerned. If you examine the ads from 80s and 90s
you would be able to find the strength of language in the copy, and the people who had
command on language were the ones who use to write copy. An now if I analyze, we being
bilingual nation advertising copy is produced primarily in Urdu and English languages and at
times the mix and then it is translated in regional languages for the consumption of different
provinces, but the reality is that now the role of real language in our advertising is
diminishing, as in the use of proper grammar and semantics and we see to the moment type
of copies being produced now. I cannot recall or label any copy as classic since the time of
media boom in Pakistan, whereas I can still recall lot of slogans and good copy that was
produced before this time, the way they were written be it jingle or other monologues or
conversations the language of those ads is what made them classics, for instance “yehi tau
hay who apna pun” and “cherry blossom roz lagain”. I think that we have not developed this
trend. When I was studying communication design we did not have any copywriting course
in our curriculum, we just had a four weeks block of copy writing and that too only in one
semester of four years program. The most interesting fact is that copy is a craft and it can be
taught as a skill, but it is unfortunate that the way it is treated by institutes is like that
copywriting is also a part of advertising so here are few basic things and rest you can learn
when you will go out in the market to work. So now after working for so many years in
advertising, my seniors at work taught me some stuff and now I have started to understand
that what all I did as a copywriter, what was the real reason behind it. One of the major
reasons that the in my opinion deteriorated the level of copywriting in Pakistan is a lack of
reading amongst students, if you do not read much you can never write better. We are better
executers than thinkers, we have world-class lot who can work on design and animation
software and produce work for Hollywood movies, but we do not have writers who can
produce a copy worth winning Clio or Lion. I see this as a bigger problem for coming
generation, specially for a digital generation, because they neither have an understanding or
exposure to the language of classics, for them everything is disposable, digital
communication is disposable because you see one post and that post is gone within an hour
you and screen is filled with two hundred more posts on top of that, unlike the TV ads that
are run for several months or years, for digital advertising your client asks you to come up
with a new post after every two days, so the communication like everything else for this
generation is easily disposable and forgettable, and the brand differentiation is getting lost. So
the copy or slogan on digital due to its short life has little capacity to motivate and generate a
recall like “just do it” by Nike. We do not have people now who have a strong command on
language and insights to produce powerful lines.
A. We have not produced any big names in copywriting in the past fifteen years, people who
can be considered big names are either too old or too busy to teach at any University. Our
universities do not have a good quality of copywriting teachers, and young people who could
be considered as good copywriters are now freelancing for huge commercial and feature film
projects. So when it comes to copywriting the product that we are getting from universities is
in a dire state.
A. We have become a disposable nation, to an extent that relationships have also become
disposable. If we take an example of India they always internalize, they spend a lot on their
heritage their languages and culture. So if we look at their Industry it is always supported by
their films, and if we analyse their old films we can witness that in their songs the language
the poetry the melody and rhythm was there and they progressed from there to we all know
what “Sheela ki Jawani”. But their advertising even being under the influence of their film
industry still maintained the calibre. If I look at their top brand of 80s and top brands from
today, it is evident that they have raised the bar high. So how they have used their local
influences, local culture and the pride that they have evident in their advertising. If the guy is
portrayed as tapori or as a person of any specific ethnicity and accent you can see that person
taking a pride in it, and if they pronounce zay as jay they would do it with pride, so they use
these nuances as insights and they project it. As a copywriter I recommend that the influences
should always be drawn from within and current surroundings, and the best insights are those
that are living around you, and my language influence comes from what I am talking to and
what I am reading, but if I am not reading then obviously I am not getting any influence for
writing. Good copywriters get their influences from classic literature, contemporary literature
and songs. Unfortunately if we look ourselves, regardless of having brilliant Urdu literature it
is not projected or promoted in a way that it should be. So our influence in terms of grammar
and language is in a bad state and we do not take pride in using colloquial language. However
the trend is changing in digital communication and people are not reluctant of using
colloquial language there.
A. We cannot capture our trends and we do not highlight them, in India they have a huge
canvas of film industry to capture the trends from, so for them to capture and those trends in
advertising is easy. There is this reflection that does art reflect the world or the world is
influenced by art? the reality is that they go hand in hand. The art reflects what all is
happening around us and at the same time it also influences the world around and can change
the trends. In my opinion copy has an immense power, for me a good line is like a definite
seal of approval that one can get. The main reason of foreign influence is that we have
miserably failed to capture our influences, we have not read our poets, we have not read our
writers, we hardly have any icons or influential speakers, to an extent that one of our national
hero is our national poet is a great philosopher, and I am sure none of us including myself has
read or tried to understand Iqbal’s complete work. What all he has written has inspirational
power to actually transform lives, so we have not promoted our local resources at all and this
is what I call classic Pakistaniat.
A. Inevitable! It is inevitable because languages keep evolving. If we take an example of
English, Latin, Sanskrit and even other languages they all evolved and created multiple
dialect, prime example is Urdu which is a combination of several languages and is still
evolving with a combination of English words in our daily life dialect. With globalization it
is inevitable that there will be more multilingual societies, so with more multicultural
interactions more multilingual societies will be formed, and the terms that are slang in
different languages will be adapted accordingly. So you see we have had famous colloquial
slogans like for a tea brand there was a line “lagay tha kar kay” and “main tay Honda ee
laisan” this Punjabi line was used along with Urdu communication. And it is a two ways
stream the language of society influences advertising and the advertising influences the
language out there. So if we take example of Vital tea, they managed to highlight what our
society wanted to see, I do not know how much it influenced people, yet it showed a way,
advertising has power to show them the light but cannot completely change behaviours. Copy
is also about the tone, selection of words and the expressions that you form with them, so be
it slang or sophisticated language, what matters the most is how you express it.
A. This was already there but digital advertising amplified it, because in digital advertising
the option of Urdu script came much later. With the advent of chat rooms like MIRC and
messenger and all, the trend of writing in roman began way back in late nineties, so this
whole generation has grown up with roman and they have written more roman than the Urdu
script, so the Urdu scripts is confined within the limits of school, rest of the daily Urdu
communication is now done in roman.
A. There are definitely copywriting trends, the way there are song writing trends copywriting
is very similar to that. If we look at the songs of different eras they reflect the voice of the
society and culture, similarly copywriting in advertising also reflect the voice of prevalent
culture. So the trends keep on changing as society evolves.
how?
A. Yes they do, because there are certain trends that bring certain attitude with them and that
attitude belongs to a certain group of people and that group of people communicates in a
certain style, so if you are communicating with them the construct of writing would
automatically be adapted into that mode.
A. I would like to give an example of feminism her, it is trending for brands to be feminist. I
have seen five different Pakistani ads featuring women bikers, so it is not much happening on
streets as much as we are seeing it in advertising, and all the brands are trying really hard to
be women focused.

A. The kid has no idea about copy and the kid does not know how to construct a copy. So
everything has to be taught to them from the scratch. And I strongly believe that the current
dire situation of copywriting that we are facing is due to the lack of reading habit amongst the
kids. I usually ask my students that when was the last time you read any book? And most of
the time students do not even remember when. So when they really are not interested in
reading and writing and do not know much about the craft of copywriting everything at work
will pose them a challenge.
A. It is a difference of format, in digital copy is of a shorter format. So the use of
abbreviations helps in digital unlike conventional advertising.
A. I personally look at if a kid has a proper expression, if that is there rest I can teach. I
conduct a test for copywriting position I make the candidates write copy for the ads that are
being produced in the agency, and I do not have any better way to gauge what I am looking
for in a copywriter.
A. There are few good candidates that we inducted, but if I gauge the skill level of usual lot
that we get on a scale of one to ten, their level would be three.

A. Doesn’t exist, but there is a reason behind it and that is that we are a nation of followers, if
one person buys a Corolla the entire lane would buy a Corolla. We do not believe in
individuality. If someone tries to be different that person is not respected. If some wears an
orange colored jeans or gets a different kind of haircut or color streaks in his hair or whatever
that person wants to do differently, he just can not do it freely, because his family and peers
would tease the hell out of him. So lateral thinking and expression is not appreciated in our
society. People here as a culture cannot tolerate lateral thinking, they can never be neutral
about someone being different, they have to say something or the other to suppress lateral
thinking. So it is unfortunate we even do not even have an acceptance for lateral thinking let
alone encouragement or acknowledgement of it.
A. Expectation is that you have to prove that what all that you have learned in university you
are capable of applying it, now whether you would be able to do it or not, you would not be
spoon fed. For example if I brief a fresh graduate about certain brand and ask him or her to
develop some copy on it, they should not come back and ask me that sir what should I say in
it? I am quoting this example because it actually happened. So they should be able to write
and try and use their brains. Second thing is that they should not be found on googling from
very beginning, because referencing is suppose to be a last resort.
A. I will give you personal example, we had three fresh inductees and out of which there was
one kid who was not even from media studies background, that kid was doing his BBA but
he loved to sketch, he came to me and asked me to join as an internee, so we kept him for six
weeks and right after his internship we offered him a job as a management trainee, and within
six months he became full time employee and almost after one an a half year he was working
at a position of creative manager. There were just three basic reasons for that firstly he was
good at language and secondly he had a habit of reading and thirdly the most important
reason was the passion. So if you get any fresh graduate with these three qualities that kid
would just progress. To train any regular kid it takes at least three months.
A. People who have done anything significant in industry are not teaching. In my opinion
there is a need of senior copywriting people heading a separate copy writing departments in
the universities, there should a proper system with various courses within the faculty of
copywriting, which unfortunately does not exist. The courses that we have are picked from
different places, and are not taught with the seriousness. A reason for not giving importance
to copywriting courses could be this perception, that agency charges to design the ad with
which copy comes as a complementary item. People can see the process of design being
made on the computer so they think that effort goes into it and it is worth something, but
unfortunately the process of copywriting is not visible that way so they think it is just writing
in general and it has not much significance.
A. Copywriting should have a foundation course and then further advance level courses.
Copywriting course should be taught from the very basics of it and should be extended into
several semesters. One course in four years does not fulfil the purpose.
A. One thing that is very important for the universities is the selection criterion of students,
and their counseling at later stage. Universities should have a system where they can identify
the strengths of individual students and counsel them to select the set of appropriate courses
according to their inclinations and strengths.
Q. Who design the copywriting or concept writing courses?
A. Universities usually give the outlines and teachers prepare the courses, but I think the
entire system is run on ad hock basis. So for example I got to teach concepts to this class in
which I got a group of students from two different batches, and those batches were taught
copywriting by different teachers, so what I found was that there was a disparity in
knowledge about copy writing in the group that I had to teach ideation.
Q. What are the considerations while designing a copywriting course?
A. The most important thing is a flow of the course and a teacher should be well equipped to
teach the multiple aspects of copywriting.
Q. Is copywriting course designed as a language subject or a subject of method?
A. In my experience copywriting is always crafted. It should be a mix of language, the art of
selling and the skill of writing.
Q. Can copywriting be taught without being in touch with the real world of advertising?
A. Only if they are aware about what all-new ads that are coming out and analyze them
critically and then teach copy accordingly, but even then the teacher wont be able to teach
students about the process. Ideally the faculty should be practicing not only practicing but
also they should have been practicing for at least five to six years.
Q. What is a general skill level of language (writing/reading) of student?
A. The graduates who come to me usually their skill level of reading and writing is of ninth
or tenth graders.
Q. How many students in a class are usually inclined towards writing?
A. Student’s basic awareness is not up to that level where they can be inclined towards
copywriting. Most of the students who take this course actually really do not have any idea
about it.
Q. Are there any complementary courses that should be taught along with copywriting?
A. Research, multilingual reading, Urdu and English literature/language, courses about the
genres of writing.
Q. How well designed the entire media studies curriculum is for a student to pursue
copywriting as a career?
A. It is not, there are very few. The fact is that the people who are in the most demand by the
market are good copywriters. There is a scarcity of good writers in the market, and in all of
the media studies curriculums there is no emphasis on creating good writers.
Q. How well media studies student is equipped to take up a job as a creative copywriter in an
advertising agency?
A. They can on their own but not based upon what they have studied.
Q. How well versed is a faculty with teaching digital advertising communication to the
students?
A. There is lot of teachers available for digital media, reason being that it has enormously
expanded, but as far as digital copywriting is concerned there are no teachers.
Q. In you opinion what the major areas of improvement in copywriting courses that are being
taught to media studies students?
A. The job of universities would become easier if the stress is given on language in schools
and at Inter and A level. Then with focused copywriting courses we can produce really good
writers fro the market. We have lot of stories but we do not have people who can write.
Appendix E
Consent form of respondent 1

Appendix F

Appendix G

Appendix H

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COPYWRITING IN MEDIA STUDIES 1

COPYWRITING IN MEDIA STUDIES

Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Master of Arts

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

© Name of Student 2019

1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6

1.2 Background of the Study ................................................................................................. 6

1.3 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 9

1.4 Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................. 12

1.5 Research Question ......................................................................................................... 12

1.6 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................... 12

LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 15

2.1 Evolution of Advertising................................................................................................ 15

2.2 Advertising in Pakistan .................................................................................................. 17

2.3 Copywriting ................................................................................................................... 20

2.4 Knowledge, Language & Practices in Copywriting ...................................................... 22

2.5 Creative Advertising Communication ........................................................................... 30

2.6 Influences and Creative Challenges in Pakistani Advertising ....................................... 32

2.7 India VS Pakistan ........................................................................................................... 34

2.8 Advertising Language .................................................................................................... 35

2.9 Technology and Advertising Ideas ................................................................................ 36

2.10 Creative Challenges of Fresh Graduate ....................................................................... 37

3.1 Research Method ........................................................................................................... 39

3.2 Research Flow ................................................................................................................ 39

3.3 Research Approach ........................................................................................................ 39

3.4 Research Setting............................................................................................................. 40

3.5 Research Sample ............................................................................................................ 41

3.6 Research Procedure ........................................................................................................ 41

3.7 Limitation of the research .............................................................................................. 41

3.8 Ethical considerations .................................................................................................... 41

4.1 Qualitative Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 43

4.2 Pie Charts Depicting Various Findings.......................................................................... 44

4.3 Table 1: Data Responses on Theme 1 and Sub-themes ................................................. 49

4.4 Table 2: Data Responses on Theme 2 and Sub-themes ................................................. 54

4.5 Table 3: Data Responses on Theme 3 and Sub-themes ................................................. 64

4.6 Table 4: Data Responses on Theme 4 and Sub-themes ................................................. 71

CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................... 77

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 77

5.1 Theme 1: Significance of Copywriting in Advertising Communication ....................... 78

5.2 Theme 2: State of copywriting in Pakistani advertising ................................................ 82

5.4 Theme 4: Copywriting Courses in Media Studies ......................................................... 92

5.5 Implications For Further Research................................................................................. 95

5.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 96

APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................... 101

Appendix A ........................................................................................................................... 101

Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 1) ................................... 101

Appendix B ........................................................................................................................... 109

Interview Responses of Advertising Professional (Respondent 2) ................................... 109

Appendix C ........................................................................................................................... 117

Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 3) ................. 117

Appendix D ........................................................................................................................... 129

Interview Responses of Advertising Professional & Teacher (Respondent 4) ................. 129

Appendix E ........................................................................................................................... 141

Consent form of respondent 1 ............................................................................................ 141

Appendix F ........................................................................................................................... 142

Consent form of respondent 2 ............................................................................................ 142

Appendix G ........................................................................................................................... 143

Consent form of respondent 3 ............................................................................................ 143

Appendix H ........................................................................................................................... 144

Consent form of respondent 4 ............................................................................................ 144

emphasis on creating a soft image of the country. As a result, a significant number of TV

new and old institutions.

professional copywriters in advertising agencies. With the rapid technological developments,