I've had writer's block for a while now.
Going on 10 years now, I guess.
I never realized my goal to be a copywriter at an advertising agency. What got in the way? First, a job making real money. The comfort that comes from making real money. Second, self-employment. It seems to suck everything out of you.
Now I'm to the point where I have to go after my goal. When I graduated, I want to become a copywriter. I guess, however, now I'll be the "world's oldest rookie copywriter."
The good news is that I took my stripped down portfolio to a creative director and he had some nice things to say about my work. He challenged me to write a campaign for a very specific and very odd product. It is one that will definitely differentiate my portfolio from those coming out of school and looking for work as a copywriter. So I took his challenge.
It will push my creativity to the very limits. Do I go over-the-top with it and focus on building a creative message? Or do I concentrate on building a coherent campaign that could be used by the client?
It will challenge my business sense because I've always been a proponent of pushing the creative edge just so far. It's a business, after all, and I want to show a prospective employer that I take it very seriously.
With this product, I can go over the top funny. But it's a very serious product which solves a very serious problem.
You definitely want to know what the product is. Don't you?
It's a drug called Guardian that cattle ranchers give to cows to prevent Scours Disease, which is cow diarrhea. This is a real problem that affects real families. Some have lost as much as half of their herd to this disease. You'd think this campaign would just write itself, but it only serves to bring up in me this concept of creativity for the sake of creativity versus creativity for the sake of business. I've got to figure out how to get this done in a way that proves my creative chops.
But first, I have to deal with this problem.
I've had writer's block for the last 10 years.
