Does Your Copy Go Weeeee?
We're peeling back the curtains to share an internal resource that our writers use when crafting creative copy.
I've written somewhere north of 100,000 ads. I've sat in rooms with clients who begged us to "take the handcuffs off," and I've sat in rooms with clients who wanted every syllable pre-approved by legal. Here's the internal framework my writers use whenever we get the green light to actually write -- not just fill in a template.
When a client lets us take the handcuffs off, we deliver.
Our goal is to make the copy go WEEEEEEEE!
What's "WEE"?
It's a gut-check we run on every piece of copy before it leaves the building: is it WEIRD, is it EMOTIONAL, and is it EASY TO READ? Nail all three and the copy goes wee wee wee all the way to its new home -- a customer's brain, and hopefully their wallet.
W: Weird
Is your copy weird? Different? Unlike the wallpaper of ads that fill your prospect's feed? Good. That's the job.
The weirder the better. Weird is what makes someone's thumb stop scrolling for half a second -- and half a second is all a headline actually gets to earn the rest of the read.
Make your copy as unique, entertaining, and strange as the product allows.
Push the boundaries -- weird doesn't have to mean controversial. Make jokes. Use casual language, colloquialisms, cultural references. Sometimes weird is nothing more than writing like a human talks instead of how a brand manual says it should.
E: Emotional
Does it evoke emotion?
When you read your copy out loud, does it make you feel sad, happy, angry, introspective, or ready to take action? If you can't name the emotion by the last line, you haven't written an ad -- you've written a description.
Use CAPS, ellipses, and line breaks on purpose. Write the way you want someone to hear it in their head, not the way an English teacher would grade it.
E: Easy to Read
Is it easy to read?
Would someone with an elementary-school education understand exactly what you're selling? That's not an insult to your audience -- it's respect for their time.
Does it lean on industry jargon? Are there long words you could swap for shorter, punchier ones? Any run-on sentences that make a reader work harder than they should have to?
Break up your paragraphs. Use short, punchy sentences, bullet points, lists, even the odd emoji if it fits the brand. (One of our go-to tools for checking grade level is the Hemingway App -- if it flags your copy as "Post-graduate," you've lost most of your audience before they finish the first sentence.)
How We Actually Use This
Before our writers submit their work to QA, we ask that it hits all three marks -- Weird, Emotional, Easy to Read. QA runs the same check and makes adjustments before anything ships to a client.
That said, if a client doesn't want "out-of-the-box" copy and would rather stay formal to connect with a certain audience, they just say the word. We've written for buttoned-up B2B brands and we've written copy that made a client's legal team sweat -- the framework flexes either way.
Our clients control the tone, style, and format of the copy we write, and they can request edits within 5 days as part of our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Trust is built by delivering work that hits the brief, not by hopping on another call to explain why it will -- something we cover in more detail when we talk about what clients actually need from an agency.
We're sharing this framework because it works, and because most copy dies from being safe, not from being wrong. Run your next draft through WEE before you send it out the door.
And remember... keep it weird, baby.
Frequently Asked Questions
WEE stands for Weird, Emotional, and Easy to Read. It's an internal framework Ad Zombies writers use to ensure their copy is creative and engaging before submitting it to their QA team.
Weird doesn't have to be controversial—it can be as simple as using casual language instead of formal tone. Make jokes, use colloquialisms and cultural references, and write in a way that's unique and unlike other ads flooding timelines.
Ad Zombies uses the Hemingway App to ensure copy is at the right grade level. The goal is to make sure someone with an elementary education could understand what you're saying or selling.
Yes, absolutely. If a client doesn't want out-of-the-box copy and prefers to stay formal to connect with a specific audience, they just say the word—clients have full control over tone, style, and format.
Use CAPS, ellipses, and line breaks to your advantage. Write the way you want someone to read it, not necessarily the way it 'should' be written—your copy should evoke a specific emotion by the time someone finishes reading.
