Copy of an ad meant in a broad sense the whole of an ad, with words and pictures and other elements. In a narrow sense, it means the written communication in the ad, omits the visuals. A copy writer thus writes the copy, and is a key player in creating an ad. He works in an advertising agency, or as a free lancer. Copywriting is a creative profession, and quite a challenging one too. A copywriter has a flair for language just like other creative artists — like a poet, a novelist, a short-story writer or an essayist. However , he is not free to express whatever comes to his mind like the other creative artists.His communication is integrated to the business objectives of the company for which he is writing, and achieves the tasks the brand manager or advertising manager has set in his briefing. Copywriting is thus not mere by artistic attempt. Copy may or may not have literary merit, but it must meet the advertising objectives. While doing so, if it also has literary merit, well and good. Many literateurs have attempted to write copy, but have failed. Copywriting is thus a combination of skills — linguistic skills, business acumen and the ability to turn out good copy under the pressure of short dead-lines. It is thus very challenging, and at the same time very rewarding profession.

Copywriters have individual styles and approaches. But one thing is sure, it is sheer hard-work. It involves a tremendous amount of planning by interacting with a number of professionals — account executives, client, art directors and research specialists.Besides, we have to do and re-do the copy till it becomes acceptable to the client. But whether doing and redoing is really possible under the pressure of dead-lines is a moot point.

The copy that we see in the ad relates to the head-lines and the body copy. Besides these, copy extends to writing a lot of promotional material such as posters, catalogues, press releases, radio copy, TV commercial’s audio part etc.