Gary Does: Roald Dahl Centenary

08.12.16 · Copywriting

As a lover of language with a childlike curiosity that’s never really satisfied, the Roald Dahl dictionary nestles nicely on my shelf between an Ogilvy bio and a creative journal.  It’s the perfect way to celebrate his enduring genius, 100 years after his birth. We’ve even got our young creative in waiting on the Quentin Blake ABC book. 

Yep, some of his work can be borderline terrifying if you’re young, but fiendishly fun at the same time. Who doesn’t like wrapping their tongue around his hundreds of made up words (he sho’ nuff got the gobblefunk) and soaking up the mischief and mayhem.

Just to sharpen my skills, I mused on bringing his wonderful language into my world, as an adult and as a copywriter. Take a moment to have a read, see if you can decipher it (its underneath if you need to), and if you like it or hate it, let me know, just don’t be a poisnowse snake about it.

Time to turn off the dreaded red line of dictionary auto-correctness….

The design team were swogswallowed when working on a new kiddle's product campaign. The work should have been whoopsy splunker, with ‘phizz whizzing!’ coming from all quarters, but alas, they were too busy splatch winkling about, admiring their hairy faces in shiny surfaces.

Once the CD had cast a critical goggler over their work, he loudly exclaimed “It’s like being in a trogglehumper I can never awaken from”.

“We’re jiggered”, he said scornfully. Any chance of meeting the deadline was slowly being svolloped.

“I’ll tell you exundly what we need – an idea so simple it will be a time-twiddler of a zozimus that will live forever in the annals of advertising history”.

Slowly but surely, the copywriter at the back of this hullabaloo tentatively raised a well chewed pencil and meekly proclaimed “I have been squibbling all day and think I have exactly what you need…”

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The design team were caught hands down when working on a new children’s product campaign. The work should have been fantastic, with ‘brilliant!’ coming from all quarters, but alas, they were too busy rushing about, admiring their hairy faces in shiny surfaces.

Once the CD had cast a critical eye over their work, he loudly exclaimed “It’s like being in a terrible dream I can never awaken from.”

“There’s no hope”, he said scornfully. Any chance of meeting the deadline was slowly being destroyed.

“I’ll tell you exactly what we need – an idea so simple it will be the immortal stuff that dreams are made of, that will live forever in the annals of advertising history”.

Slowly but surely, the copywriter at the back of this hullabaloo tentatively raised a well chewed pencil and meekly proclaimed “I have been writing all day and think I have exactly what you need…”




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