Copywriter Wants to be Treated Like She's in Kindergarten

She's cute and she's young but she's mostly wrong. Not that it matters that she's cute or young. But she's still mostly wrong. Of course a creative brief should be brief, concise and not an attempt to share the entire strategic plan or be misused as a CYA document. But when Rapp Worldwide Senior Copywriter Lauren Warner tells us a creative brief should be written as if we were speaking to a kindergartner, well, that's just stupid.

Yes, we need to avoid throwing the kitchen sink into it. It needs to offer insight. It needs to distinguish the brand from another. It needs to form basis for the development of a great idea. But to argue the brief should be oversimplified to the point it leaves out important information (um, demographics, competitive information), that it should be "fun" and that it should be akin to something like "short sentences + action verbs = happy creative team" makes all creatives sound like a bunch of whining twentysomethings. Oh wait.

Seriously? Seriously, Lauren? Do you really think creatives should be spoken to as if they were five-year-olds who can't interpret anything more complex than a Dick and Jane book? Seriously?

I've always had a simple solution when it comes to dealing with people who complain about process and it's simple: do your fucking job.