Copywriting without Offending the Faiths this Christmas

Write House founder and copywriter, Daniel Waldron, explores why copywriting feels the need to adapt its stance when 'religious' holidays come around.

With Christmas 2013 fast approaching, I have become more aware that my home city of Wolverhampton has become very adverse to using the word 'Christmas' across a number of its beautiful lighting displays. Terms such as 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy Christmas' appear to have become obsolete, leaving me rather dismayed.

Instead, I find myself greeted by phrases such as 'Seasons Greetings' or 'Happy Holidays', but the question is why has Wolverhampton City Council taken the decision to withdraw the word Christmas from its displays? 

I thought there must be some reasonable explanation so I pondered some scenarios. I imagined being sat around the table with Wolverhampton City Council leaders, contemplating valid reasons for removing the word Christmas from lighting displays.

Perhaps Christmas is too long a word to make it fit on the display, or a display costs more to run because there are more letters to light if it includes the word Christmas.

However, it would appear that such scenarios were not the reason behind the omission of Christmas from these elegant displays. Further investigation revealed that Wolverhampton City Council had withdrawn Christmas for fear of offending other faiths.

As a Christian, as a worship leader at LifeSpring Church, Wolverhampton, I found this hard to bear.

The situation became even more perplexing when receiving literature from the nursery of my two sons. The copywriting had also omitted use of the word Christmas, substituting it for 'Seasons Greetings', 'Enjoy the Festive Season' and 'Happy Holidays'.

Forgive me, but I'm not offended when Sikhs let off fireworks to celebrate Diwali, nor am I offended when Muslims fast to celebrate Ramadan. So why is it that individuals, of potentially no faith, assume that those who do not celebrate Christmas are offended by Christians celebrating Christmas?

The fact that I have witnessed copywriting on Christmas literature 'altered' is disturbing and a really sad state of affairs. The truth is that if you ask followers of other faiths outside of Christianity whether they're offended by Christmas, a high proportion would say 'no'.

It is remarkable that in a society that pushes for equality, allows Muslims to build mosques, allows Sikhs and Hindus to build temples, thinks that faiths cannot be respectful of the beliefs of other faiths.

Wolverhampton is a diverse, multi-cultural and multi-faith community. Why should copywriting at Christmas be adapted to omit the word Christmas? If this is the stance that local councils are to adopt, should those who follow the Christian faith protest against the building of mosques and temples because it 'offends' them? Absolutely not.

Doesn't society try to teach us to be tolerant and respectful of others? Don't societal leaders encourage mankind to live harmoniously?

Omitting the word Christmas from seasonal literature and displays takes away the very meaning of what Christmas stands for. Christmas is a time to love, forgive and reflect on the things we are to be thankful for. 

In my experience Christmas does not create offence it creates compassion, love and kindness, acts to be embraced, not to be cast aside.

The truth is the faiths are not offended, it's those that lack understanding that fear causing offence. It's this lack of understanding that leads to irrational acts.

Hire the Write House copywriting service today. We specialise in creating captivating and compelling copy for websites, press releases, articles, social media and blogs.

We also cover a range of specialist topics including:
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Write House Copywriting Service | My Copy’s Better than your Copy - Copywriters in Competition

Professional copywriter Daniel Waldron, founder of Write House Wolverhampton, blogs about the competition among copywriters.

In my regular perusing of copywriting service websites, in order to assess the competition of course, I was struck by some of the ‘shameless’ self-promotion tactics employed in order to win much coveted gigs.

Whilst I am under no illusion that competition for writing gigs is fierce, I think what disturbed me most was a heightened ‘win at all costs’ mentality that appears to have infiltrated the world of the freelance copywriter and copywriting service companies.

I enjoy some fabulous relationships with fellow professional copywriters, to the extent where I will often share work or recommend a writing gig that is not within my remit, but would suit a fellow copywriter.

Now I’m not sure if it is just me, but as a copywriter I have noticed a seismic shift in the number of ‘copywriters’ using underhand tactics in order to secure work. To a certain extent I can understand why this happens on projects of high monetary value, after all they are few and far between. However, projects of relatively low value appear to result in copywriters resorting to inexcusable tactics in order to oust the competition.

In one particular instance I came across a project whereby two ‘professional copywriters’ had engaged in online warfare, resorting to personal slander and abuse and completely neglecting all manner of professionalism and for what? A project worth £100 which, needless to say, the customer awarded to neither of the two so-called ‘professional copywriters’.

Whilst I was on a copywriting forum page, I read intently as a contributor described how they had once hacked the website of a copywriting competitor in Northampton and sabotaged the site. The person described how they posted lewd images on the home page of the rival and using ‘online graffiti’ wrote ‘my copy is, and always will be, better than yours.’

I swiftly voiced my outrage at such behaviour, reprimanding this particular individual. From my perspective freelance copywriters have it hard enough with a minority of customers expecting ‘top-notch’ copy and expecting to pay pennies. The very notion that professional copywriters are turning on each other with such despicable acts is beyond my comprehension.

Thankfully, up until this point at least, I’ve not been subjected to such underhand tactics, but there is now a heightened suspicion that this could certainly happen to me. Therefore, I urge you fellow copywriters, those of you that value business relationships, morality and ethics, stand against this behaviour so that together we can stamp it out.

If you’re a copywriter that has fallen victim to underhand tactics Write House would like to hear from you. Leave your comments and let’s display a show of unity against ‘copywriters’ that undermine our profession.

To learn more about Write House and its services visit the official website – www.writehouse.co.uk 

Write House copywriting service, Wolverhampton, was founded by copywriter, Daniel Waldron, and was established in February 2013.

Dumbing it down - Is Text Talk Devaluing the English Language? Write House Founder, Daniel Waldron, Investigates

In my general perusing of my Sunday newspaper recently, I came across a very alarming article, which showed a PDF image of a recent GCSE English examination completed by a 16 year old student at a top UK secondary school.

At first I thought nothing of it, expecting the article to be heaping praise on another successful student from one of the UK’s leading academic institutions. Imagine my horror then, when upon closer observation of the said PDF image, I noticed an exam paper littered with ‘text talk’.

The said image had focused in on an essay question requesting the exam participant to provide a detailed analysis of two characters featured in Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I was shocked to see phrases like: ‘She really h8D him’ and ‘They cud not av been more in luv <3’.

For those of you unfamiliar with text speak (or txt spk) I will translate the aforementioned. ‘h8D’ should be taken to mean ‘hated’ and the ‘They cud not av been more in luv <3’ should be taken to mean ‘They could not have been more in love’.

I couldn’t believe what was I was seeing. Has the youth of British society succumb so much to social media, smartphones and other such demons that defile the English language that they have lost all appreciation of the English tongue?

Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid user of social media and smartphones etc…But never would I resort to sub-standard English, which, in my opinion and it’s my opinion only, reduces the value of the English language and portrays our youth as a generation completely devoid of any language intellect.

Am I looking at this from the wrong perspective? Is it that the English language I know is becoming obsolete and as a copywriter I am rather sensitive about the subject? Or, should I see the positives and embrace the idea that the next generation has developed a whole new English language that will shape the future of society, not just in Britain, but all over the world.

I almost convinced myself then. Absolutely not, I refuse to accept that ‘text talk’ is the replacement of years of our beautiful language, represented in many different accents across the UK and in many different cultures across the world.

Embracing the idea that my children would not understand me when I tell them ‘I love you’ unless I wrote it ‘ i luv u’ or I <3 u’, I just can’t entertain the notion. Again, for those of you unfamiliar with ‘text talk’ this image <3 is meant to depict a heart shape.

Maybe I’m being too harsh; critics of my opinion would suggest that ‘text talk’ is not dumbed down English. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Those who support ‘text talk’ believe it’s a very inventive form of shorthand, which requires a high level of grammatical intelligence in order to alter letters with numbers to create a ‘word’.

Whilst the article I read is only one instance of such an incident, a number of education experts have said it has become a widespread problem. Whilst the ‘language’ is perfectly eligible to the youth of today, traditionalists struggle to interpret text language.

Having been in copywriting for a number of years, maybe it’s my age and the generation in which I was taught was very particular about the use of English language. Supporters of ‘text talk’ stress that the majority of children passing through the current education system are intelligent enough to decipher between where to use text talk and where not to.

In fact a recent study conducted by Coventry University revealed that the more text speak teenagers used in text messages, the higher they scored in tests of reading and vocabulary.

So maybe I've been proved wrong, perhaps text talk is not dumbing down the next generation, it’s actually enhancing their ability.

Maybe it’s just a sign that I don’t like change… I am certainly a traditionalist ‘I 8 txt spk’ – I was being ironic. I’m going to stick to my copywriting roots, good old fashioned English language, served neat. ‘Viva la resistance’.      

Write House, Wolverhampton –Writing ‘What You Know’ Versus Pushing the Boundaries

In this blog, Write House founder, Daniel Waldron, looks at arguments for sticking to writing ‘what you know’ and broadening the horizons.

Write House founder, Daniel Waldron, comments: “As a copywriter, I come across the phrase ‘write what you know’ on a regular basis. Whilst to some degree it’s a great piece of advice, it also raises the question of whether it limits creative capacity. As a writer, should I be afraid to expand my horizons because I’m not an expert on the subject? I’m not convinced.”

Perhaps the obvious point to raise here is that becoming an expert in a particular topic or topics means that a writer would have had to push boundaries in order to achieve expert knowledge in that particular subject. Therefore, it makes sense then that a writer should not be afraid to keep on expanding their knowledge across a diverse range of subjects, doesn't it?

Well, according to some experts, no. Psychology experts argue that certain people simply have a natural affinity with certain subjects and tests show that this is true of writers. With this evidence in mind, many copywriters are of the belief that writing about what you know is the best route to writing success.

There is an argument for this belief, after all, some of the best articles ever written are produced by writers writing about subjects that they are passionate about, have an in-depth knowledge of and are ready and willing to carry out extensive research in order to do their specialist topic justice.

However, sceptics of this way of writing argue that it restricts creativity and limits the scope of what many writers can write about. The obvious question is, how will a writer know what they are good at writing about unless they push the boundaries of their writing capabilities?

Daniel Waldron states: “Yes I do have certain specialisms in terms of writing capabilities; however, I would never have discovered them unless I stepped outside my comfort zone. I’m not sure about natural affinity as I am a strong advocate of ‘if you apply yourself to something there’s no limit to what you can achieve’.”

In some respects, whilst a writer, who has a vast knowledge of a particular subject, has an ‘advantage’ over a writer who doesn't there’s no reason why the ‘less knowledgeable’ writer cannot become a specialist in a particular subject.

However, critics here would argue that the acquisition of knowledge is not the issue, the issue is passion. Is the writer stirred by the subject? Does it interest them? Does it provoke a reaction to dig deeper?

Even if it does, the argument then comes down to this – does it matter? After all, a writer should be writing for the audience not personal preference. But, this in itself is also a stumbling block, as writers need to develop the skill of removing themselves from the article on a personal level as the written word often conveys what’s on the heart. Unfortunately, many writers have suffered as they’ve been unable to remove themselves from an article on a personal level, leading to an unwanted backlash from audiences.

Write House states: “Any piece of written work is always subjective, it’s open to interpretation and will be viewed from many different perspectives. Copywriting in itself is an art and the best advice for copywriters is to do what feels comfortable. If you’re seeing results from sticking to a particular subject continue to write in that manner. If you’re a writer who likes a challenge, expand your horizons.”

Founded in 2009, Write House emerged with assistance from the Princes' Trust. Business owner, Daniel Waldron, established the company with the vision of putting the 'personal service' back into the media industry.