Now That's How You Write Copy

We worked on the X-Games brand last year. Very cool assignment. Very tough assignment.

Before we got started, the Martin Agency showed us some past X-Games work. One of the campaigns they showed (from 2006, out of the LA-based shop, Ground Zero) stood above all the others, and was the all-too-familiar dual punch of being both intimidating and inspiring.

Not just beautifully put together, shot and animated, but surprisingly, beautifully written. (ACD/CW Kristina Slade, ACD/AD: Rodrigo Butori)



COPY: Would the world look different if you had the eyes of Paul Rodriguez? Would ledges and rails that have faded in the background secretly reveal themselves to you? Would you have the vision to liberate them from the architect's intentions? And if you did, would this view of the world change you? …Or would it change the world?



COPY: You can see it in a smile like Rob Machado’s. Just look at the man and you know you’ll never see anyone so happy to go to work. He’s got that inborn style that only happens when true talent is motivated by sincere pleasure. You can see it between him and the wave, how he surfs in harmony. And those long, soulful lines he carves are the love letters he leaves behind.



COPY: He may not look like the nicest guy, but Brian Deegan’s got heart. The kind that gets on a motorcycle and tries to make it fly. The kind that believes physics can be tamed. That you can soar upside down with a motorcycle above you and the ground closing in. The kind that knows that only the desire to win can overcome the fear of consequence. Brian Deegan’s got that kind of heart.



COPY: If you could pick any superhuman power, it should be Dave Mirra’s focus. With it you could fly. You could leap tall buildings in a single bound. You could win more X Games medals than anyone in history. And you could be in last place, with only one chance of redemption, and walk away with a gold medal around your neck and a stadium full of hanging jaws. You could, if you had Dave Mirra’s focus.

I suppose great copy is made greater by the peerless voice of Alec Baldwin.

dubs. out.