THE DEATH OF THE COPYWRITER?

Recently, Ryan Reynolds turned to ChatGPT, an AI-assisted writing tool, to generate a TV script for his cellular brand, Mint Mobile. The result is surprisingly good. So good, it may terrify some copywriters. It begs the question, “Will AI be the death of the copywriter?”

I got into the ad business as a copywriter, so this isn’t just business, it’s personal. I love the blank page and the challenge of distilling a compelling message from some data, a good strategy, and a goal in mind. Working with an art director to figure out how a big idea can best come to life. There’s so much more to it than that, particularly that rare chemistry between the creative team that gives birth to work that often transcends the boundaries of advertising to become content that people seek out, talk about and share. Like Reynolds’ video about the ChatGPT experience.

Art directors aren’t immune from the threat of AI either. ChatGPT has a sister tool called DALL-E that’s evolving daily (DALL-E 2 is now out). But if you’ve played with either of these tools, one thing becomes clear: To get useful content from AI, you’ve got to be a good curator.

The script Ryan Reynolds reads probably took a good deal of curation. You’ve got to ask the right questions in the right way to get good raw material from any of the AI programs out there. And then you’ve got to be a good editor. It would be interesting to get a more detailed look at what his team went through to get ChatGPT to generate the script he reads in the video. I doubt it was as simple as one request and a single set of parameters.

The real genius here is Reynolds’ gift for creating the content about the experience, and getting so many views (over a million in the first week on YouTube) without putting media dollars behind it. Turning it from advertising to something more newsworthy. Click on the tombstone below to watch it.

It will be interesting to see how AI changes the advertising landscape. Will it eventually kill off the copywriter? And bigger picture, will it give birth to a new generation of AIgencies that leverage artificial intelligence to create campaigns more quickly and cost-effectively?

Will we even need ad agencies at all?

“Hey Siri, create a 30-second Superbowl spot for Doritos.”