Should we ever copy copy? Or is copying key to good copy?

Every year that passes we see another pop star or songwriter hauled up in court accused of pilfering melodies from older hits. Earlier this year, Ed Sheeran won his copyright infringement trial which alleged that he borrowed from Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On for his song Thinking Out Loud.

Sheeran’s defence relied on the fact that many musical standards and chord progressions are ubiquitous and therefore cannot be ‘owned’ by one artist. During the trial, he got out his guitar and seamlessly jumped between the two songs in question, as well as tracks by Van Morrison, Blackstreet, Nina Simone and Bill Withers to prove his point.

It made me think about when and how we borrow, imitate or pay homage to other brands in copy, tone of voice or messaging.

At the innocuous end of the scale there’s the well-worn copywriting trick of reworking well-known quotes or sayings. Like the infamous line from The Economist: ‘Great minds like a think’.

It works because people already know the line, its rhythm and cadence. You instantly have something memorable, tethered to your audience’s existing knowledge. And this must be the logic behind producing copycat tracks of well-worn hits in the music industry as well. It’s much easier to get everyone to groove to your latest track if it’s a beat they already know. But is it copying? To me, it feels similar to the Ed vs. Marvin case: using the building blocks of culture to make something new that has a high chance of instant popularity.

But choose with care who you ape from. A quick Google search tells me that the particular saying ‘Great minds think alike’ has been attributed to several different 17th-century writers. None of whom are likely to hound The Economist for royalties. It explains why you won’t find big brands messing with lines from movies or songs, keen to avoid the wrath of the legal department.

Then you have brands who tailgate on an idea of their competitor. IBM has used the slogan ‘Think’ since 1911. Then Apple came along in 1997 with ‘Think different’. The line established a competitive link between Apple and IBM, with Apple borrowing a bit of IBM’s success while also declaring themselves the young upstart. You might wonder if Ed was (subconsciously) doing the same with Thinking Out Loud: declaring himself this generation’s answer to one of the all-time greats. Again, I’d argue it’s not copying, but piggybacking? Perhaps.

Indeed, ‘copying’ often seems to be tactical, strategic. Think about perfume ads at Christmas or car ads any time of year.

They’re carbon copies of each other. Brooding men in dangerous situations. Wide lens shots of cars sweeping down grand, curved roads. Notice that it’s usually luxury products that behave this way. Because these brands rarely want to rock the boat. To imply heritage, quality, timelessness, they need to speak the same visual and verbal language. You see the same in industries where safety is a top priority. If most dentist or doctors’ clinics websites sound the same, it’s not by accident. They want to reassure their reader, not be original. Much like Sheeran and his “ubiquitous musical standards and chord progressions”, this is about taking long-standing verbal and visual signifiers, and constructing a brand identity with them. It’s not strictly copying.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are brands who thrive purely because they copy as little as possible. ‘Disruptors’ like Uber need to prove they’re different from any predecessor to stake their claim in the market. If their copy sounded like everybody else, would they have been as successful? What we did see after Uber changed the game, is that brands in other sectors that took inspiration from the Uber model also borrowed their informal and matey tone of voice. Copying, yes? But harmful? When the brands aren’t in direct competition with one another, I don’t think so.

After all, the creative process can’t move forward without outside inspiration. We don’t create in a vacuum and it would be foolish to try. So, naturally, subconsciously and consciously, some of it will find its way into your work. Just in the same way that Ed probably heard Let’s Get It On at every wedding he’s ever been to and so never thought to question the origin of those chord progressions.

So perhaps it all comes down to intention. By settling on ‘Think different’, Apple are actually paying IBM a huge compliment without taking anything away from the older brand. The Economist are hurting nobody with their clever line. The perfume and car brands are helping each other out, lifting each other up by reinforcing classic tropes. When one sparkles, we all sparkle. And the Uber piggybackers? Well I think the old comedy rule of ‘punch up not down’ applies here. If a global superbrand is stealing lines of copy from a freelancer, that’s a clear imbalance of power. If two giants are playing copy tennis by adapting each other’s lines, it’s fair game.

If you’re worried, ask yourself: am I creating this work in good faith? Do I feel confident that I’m not impinging on anyone else’s right to receive credit for their work?

When I’m working on tone of voice or messaging for a client, we always look outside of the organisation and its customers to see what’s going on in the market. What can our brand bring to this party? Sometimes, depending on the organisation and its customers, it means doing something totally different, standing out from the crowd. But I don’t believe in different for different’s sake.

If you sell shelves, you’re not going to spend four days workshopping a new name for shelves, finally decide to call them horizontal wall storage planks and take over the world. If you’re writing an About page, it doesn’t have to be the most original, genre-defying layout in the world. It just has to introduce you and what you do. It’s not copying, it’s using the building materials that society, culture and your industry already have available.

Because if it’s not authentic to the team, if it doesn’t serve a purpose, pushing for originality can hinder, not help, a brand’s progress. How? Because the writing and marketing team don’t nail the tone of voice because it feels like wearing a jacket that’s too small. Because the messages feel mismatched with the organisation’s core values and goals. And because customers can smell the inauthenticity a mile off.

Ed Sheeran threatened to quit music if he was found guilty. And I can imagine copywriters being similarly affronted if we were expected to reinvent the wheel – even if it didn’t feel like the right thing to do – every time we write a bit of copy.

If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business, I’d love to hear from you .