When Did Writing Become a Commodity?

In my ongoing pursuit to carve out a slightly better lot for myself in this city, I've been noticing a painfully disturbing trend that I'm pretty sure has been going on for a long time: Writers get paid shit.

Or, moreover, most writers get paid shit.* Those who have managed to distinguish themselves above the rest, I'm assuming, get paid well. Or, at least get paid livable wages. But what I'm finding on websites like Sologig.com, Craigslist.org, and Elance.com, is that most people are not willing to pay writers much. For a few years now, I've understood that most people think they can write well, and that this is one of the reasons most people are not willing to pay much for someone else to do the writing for them. Which is a shame, because its been my experience that that is very much not true. Still, it seems more and more that those looking for superb, quality writing are not willing to shell out anything close to what is fair. What people seem to neglect is that when you pay fair wages for some amount of writing, you're not paying for the actual content; you're paying for the education and experience that has given that writer the ability to produce copy that is above reproach. And you're paying to have that copy returned to you in exquisite form in a timely manner. The same goes for designers, art directors, and most other creative services. You pay a top-notch photographer $100/hour for a photo shoot because of the time, effort and experience they've put into their profession to reach top-notch status. So, when I see a Craigslist post offering $5 an article for a writer, I can't help but feel a bit irate. Let's do some quick math to get a better understanding.

If you write a 200 word article, $5 means that for each word you write, you get 2.5 cents. To make $100, you'd have to write 4,000 words, or 20 articles. If it takes you an hour to write that article, you are getting $5/hour, which is illegal unless you're a waiter. If it takes you a half-hour to write that article, you're getting $10/hour, which is still not all that much. And that's assuming you can put together a 200-word article in a half-hour, keeping in mind 200 words is less than what I was "required" to have in a paragraph for a paper in high school (250 words). If this is an article that requires an interview or some research, you're probably not going to get it done in a half-hour.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "Well, that's Craigslist." I did a quick search on Elance.com a few weeks ago. There were freelance writing jobs that were accepting bids for writing the content for an entire website. There were writers bidding $50 for the entire project. In all fairness, this is a perfect example of writers undercutting each other. My guess is that those claiming they would do the job for $50 are not very good writers. Not the point, though. Because there are those offering to do such a massive job for such a small amount of money, it makes it that much harder for a decent or very talented writer to negotiate a fair wage for their services. No matter how much the talented writer brings to the table in terms of experience and proof of quality, the client now has the super-low-cost bargaining chip of the shitty $50 writer. In a plush market, the talented writer can just walk away. But in the economies of late, it becomes harder and harder to walk away from projects, even if they pay an unfair amount because the sheer number of projects out there is decreasing.

Am I beating a dead horse? Perhaps. Lots of professions are experiencing downsizing and undercutting. But it's something that I've been thinking about as of late, especially since even in the advertising field where the standards for entry are prohibitively high, quality writing is extremely hard to find.

*I currently make $1000/month at my internship and $10/hour at my part time job. I'm also early in my career and don't have too many chips to bargain with. Yet.

Becoming a Beer Guy

Now granted it's only been a few weeks that I've been interning at an ad agency whose sole client is a foreign beer conglomerate, but I'm already starting to ponder the possibility that I've started on a path that so many in my earlier formative years of advertising suggested I avoid: Becoming a Beer Guy.

In advertising, a Beer Guy (or girl) is a creative whose entire career is banked on their ability to create witty, funny, effective, award-winning and/or absolutely amazing beer advertising. Usually, they end up working for clients like Bud Light (oops), Miller Lite, Coors Light, Corona, Heineken, or any number of major brands. They're so good at it, no one will hire them to do anything else. They won't be given opportunities to work on other clients. If they do, it's not often. And it's probably done early in their career. The only way they are promoted is if they are promoted to a higher position on the same account or are plucked from their current agency by another agency to work on a different beer account. My guess is, once they reach a certain point, the likelihood that they actually get to work for beer clients that brew quality beer is not very good, because most quality brewers don't have the revenue to hire the type of agencies that can afford to pay the successful beer-guy-creative. Thus, the beer-guy-creative spends most, if not all of his career, working on one type of client doing sophomoric, immature humor-style advertising (see link above).

I don't know how I feel about this. This could be the path I'm heading down. I do enjoy writing about beer (obviously). I do enjoy doing advertising for beer, especially when I have the freedom and latitude to use all aspects of my sense of humor and writing style. But could I honestly do this for my entire career, however long it might be? I have no idea. That answer seems to change on a daily basis. If you asked me yesterday, I would've said "sure." Today, I want more than anything to not be here. Even though I am drinking a beer (non-alcoholic; we're running low on water and the restroom on our floor is Out o' Order). It's not that I don't like the job. I just don't feel like being here today. Which leads me to the following question:

Do I even want a full-time, staff position?

I'm pretty sure I'd be much happier as a freelance copywriter (what I'm technically doing now). I just don't know if I have the credibility, work background, accomplishments, connections, etc., to do so at this point. It would also help if I had a design/art direction partner. But, I digress. Back to the original subject.

I don't have anything else to write about it. An awkward farewell.

Southern Tier Choklat

Holy crap.

I didn't think beers of this magnitude of deliciousness existed. Even with its elevated 11% ABV, Choklat tastes like its misspelled namesake, resembling something more along the lines of chocolate milk, but with a slightly heavier consistency. A melted, extra milky chocolate milkshake, if you will.

Imbibe slightly chilled, this liquid dessert will satisfy just about any palate out there, even for the picky beer drinker looking to avoid anything that actually tastes like beer. Do yourself a favor though: Before you try this delicacy, give a smell. Take in that aroma. You will probably never smell a beer like this again in your life. Unless you drink another Choklat. Which I recommend.

Type: Imperial Stout

Brewer: Southern Tier

Location: Lakewood, New York, USA

ABV: 11%

Foreigners

My most recent experience with my new employment digs aside, I've been noticing a trend in the advertising of foreign beers in America. Well, perhaps a trend with foreign premium beers. Chalk it up to inexperience in the American market, creatives or brand managers that don't have a full grasp of the English language, or a "that brand has been selling using this style of advertising; I want to look like that," foreign premium beer brands seem to use the same boilerplate layouts with similar lines about quality and taste. A large glamour shot of the beer in a specially designed glass, phrases like "the choicest hops" and "finest barley." It all melts together.

Before I go on with my unfounded opinions, an aside: The major foreign beer brands like Guinness, Stella, Radeberger, and most others, actually are of high quality that make major-label American beers look like shit. In other countries, especially Germany, they have purity laws that only allow brewers of beer to use water, malted barley (or wheat), hops and yeast. No other additives. In the US, it is much more likely that the major beer brands produce sub-par beers brewed with sub-par ingredients (Budweiser and its rice). Of course, there are the Coronas, Heinekens and Amstel Lights of the international world, whose tastes are about as inspiring as an incoherent, rambling speech from George W. Bush. (Yes. I'm still making jokes at the expensive of W.) That being said, these brands' claims of quality are actually grounded in truth. That aside, their messages tend to be mundane and redundant.

My solution? I don't have one.

My suggestions: Take the time and do more research. Sales numbers and figures that show expanding market share among blah blah blah segments are great. But the American beer market is crowded with about 1675 microbreweries, all touting high-quality craft beer. Now that craft beer has taken America by storm, the major brands are jumping on the bandwagon and trying to introduce their versions of craft beer. (I have no idea how successful that has been, but I know I haven't tried all that many. Don't care how pretty it may look, Michelob's craft beer line is still made by Michelob). Messages about quality ingredients, especially delivered so dryly with the same product shot/glamour shot of the bottle & glass, will not impress much.

Differentiate. Find out where you might fit in. Really get in to what motivates people to try new beer. Is it a free sample? The recommendation of a friend? Promos? Trashing the category leader? Non-childish humor? Savvy, original ideas with exquisite copy? Or idiotic Bud Light/Miller Lite style advertising; or worse yet, the Silver-Bullet Train?

Personally, promos, recommendations and free samples will get me to try just about any beer. It's also great to see a brand beat the category leader at its own game, especially if in doing so it also takes a shot at said category leader. But, if the craft beer movement in America has taught me anything about beer advertising, (it probably hasn't), it's that you don't always need huge advertising budgets to grab a share of the market. The success of brewers like Sam Adams, Magic Hat, Dogfishhead, and many others are evidence of this fact. They all managed to get where they are on word-of-mouth, passion, great sales reps and an excellent product.*

And while you foreign brewers are at it, send me free samples so I can rate your beer and plug it into the phone app I'm developing. Or don't. But, please, do.

*I'm well aware that Sam Adams advertises nationally on TV. It took them at least a decade or so to generate the revenue to do so, though.