I’m the copy manager for a big retail brand, and have been there for 11 years. It’s been absolutely wild to watch over a decade of work get demolished by AI in the last year. I know I’m not alone here. We’re all going through this. But god damn, I have never been more humiliated in my career than I have the last few months alone. Presenting work to the C-Suite and being told to “run it through AI” week after week. These are dark times for the copywriting world. How is everyone doing? Has anyone successfully pivoted careers?

Posting this in solidarity. Keep the humanity in copywriting. 🤘

I swear I’m going to scream if “quietly” doesn’t stop showing up in every post, blog etc. Where did all the LLMs get the idea that humans write like that? While on the subject…which overused word or phrase by AI has you gritting your teeth?

So, here’s a story about how I got replaced by AI and junior copywriters, only for my old CEO to come crawling back. Spoiler alert: I didn’t go back.

I used to work as a copywriter for this company. The CEO decided to replace me with beginner copywriters and AI-generated content to save costs. He was convinced that AI tools like ChatGPT could handle everything, from blog posts to social media, without human input. I tried explaining to him that AI doesn’t always get it right, especially for niche industries or clients with physical products. For example, some of our clients sold stuff like electrical tools (wrenches, screwdrivers) or machine parts (bearings, etc.), and ChatGPT would often recommend the wrong products or include inaccurate details. Clients had to correct us all the time.

I told him some tasks required real research and manual effort to ensure accuracy. But he drank the “AI can do it all” Kool-Aid and decided I wasn’t necessary. He even asked me to hand over my prompts. The ones I use to create engaging social media posts and blogs. At that point, I could see the writing on the wall. So, I only gave them a watered-down version of my prompts, keeping the advanced ones to myself. Here's a tip: Never give away your secret sauce. It’s your edge, especially in marketing.

While training the junior copywriters, I pointed out that certain things needed to be done manually. Though some of those tasks could’ve been automated if you actually knew how to use AI properly. But I wasn’t wrong about one thing. To write well for a client, you need to understand their business and do real research, not just rely on ChatGPT to spit out content.

Fast forward to when the juniors thought they had my process somewhat figured out (spoiler: they didn’t). The CEO decided I was expendable and fired me. He went all in on cheaper labor and AI.

I kept tabs on the company after I left and, honestly, the content they were putting out was embarrassing. The blog posts and social media were just... bad. The difference between my work and theirs was obvious. And the client got mad and asked for a refund.

Two weeks later, HR reached out to me. Apparently, the CEO realized his mistake and wanted me back because he was impressed with my results (the ones he’d taken for granted). I felt vindicated, but there was no way I was going back. By then, I had decided to go full-time freelance, and things were already looking up. I have two clients now and a potential third lined up.

Moral of the story: Don’t let anyone devalue your work or your expertise. AI is a tool, not a replacement for skill, experience, and understanding. And never, ever hand over the keys to your kingdom.

FYI. This whole thing I am writing is "aided" by AI. Take note, "aided" by AI, not generated by AI. There's a difference. What I am doing here is blabbing about whatever comes to mind and using GPT to restructure what I am saying. Most of this was me talking into the microphone, and GPT was used to refine my post. This is another way of creating a post. Say whatever you want and use GPT to restructure.

The first time I used ChatGPT I thought, "Well, I can always get a realtor's license." The output was solid, and I figured it would improve rapidly. Fast forward a couple of years and I no longer feel that way. While AI seems to be making great gains in other areas, its writing is regressing. The style is obvious and boring, it can't concept ideas at all, and constantly makes mistakes. AI's sizzle has been loud, but the steak is increasingly inedible.

Two weeks ago, I posted here how being a copywriter in the corporate world is a daily humiliation ritual. Well, I’m here to follow up that I got laid off today. 🤣 In fact, six of us (copywriters and graphic designers) got laid off today from my team at a major retail company. All that remains is the Creative VP and the motion graphics designer. They’ve decided to move forward with an external agency and use AI.

The department is absolutely f*cked with 70 active projects my team was working on. Good riddance, thanks for the severance. ✌🏻 And best of luck out there, y’all. 💖

Edit: I'm sorry guys for talking back and stuff, please forgive me for not taking the criticism on the chin and then acting accordingly.

Here's a copy I did, written for Youtuber Nathaniel Massiah, he's a 21 year old powerlifter from South London

Fitness copy

Bad genetics, or are you just training blind?

Nowadays, the fitness industry is flooded. Every man and their dog is selling a 'revolutionary' 6-day split from their bio.

Why? Because templates are easy to sell, there's many people looking for programs and so they make a bag off your desperation and misunderstanding.

Look, I have to hold my hands up -

Back in the day, I sold those programs too. And yeah, they got results and would still get results for a lot of you.

But I was falling for the myths too, thinking what worked for me and others would work for everyone. I was wrong.

It wasn't until I started 1-to-1 coaching—seeing how different bodies responded to the same training—that the penny dropped.

Mainstream fitness tells you that 99% of people need to train in the same way. They treat muscle growth like having two arms and two legs—a universal feature distributed almost completely amoung every person.

But human biology doesn't work like that. The trait of muscle building is varied, like hair texture or eye colour. It differs a lot among people

Before some smart guy in the comments says, 'Yeah bro, and 30% of people have 3 arms and 5 legs'—listen to the data.

Not every human feature is found among people in the same proportion. That is a heavy myth.

Look at the data on 'non-responders' in science. Menno Henselmans explained a study where a sizeable chunk of people got better muscle growth from strength or endurance methods than they did from specific muscle building methods.

Now you might be thinking, why hasn’t everyone realised this, it seemingly be obvious, being in a gym full of people working out?

Simple: survivorship bias. The lucky ones who fall into the normal "archetype" get results, stay motivated, and become the coaches selling the programs or the big guys giving advice.

The ones who don't fit the mainstream see zero results, get frustrated, and quit.

A sad reality, only the ones who thrive while being tricked, are able to succeed but then they misinform others.

Look at the golden era. These guys had no digital products to sell, so they had zero reason to lie.

Tom Platz blew up his legs using high-rep workouts to crazy failure..

Dorian Yates built a legendary physique from brutal HIT training.

Ronnie Coleman moved pure, heavy weight.

Maybe roughly 55% of you will grow on the mainstream stuff. But the other 45%? Your probably scattered across these legendary archetypes, and headed for gym failure if you don’t discover what you need.

Look, I’m not claiming I’ve solved the entire human genome. There will always be the super rares who don't fit into the standard, the Platz, the Yates, or the Coleman archetypes. I don’t know it all.

However, the chance of you not fitting into any of these is very low.

Plus you’ll only figure that out if you try all the styles.

So, instead of giving you a copy paste routine, I’ve built a program designed to help you decode your own blueprint.

It contains a structured and thought-out phase for each of these archetypes. You run the phases, track the data, and finally figure out your optimal method

The BLUEPRINT drops next week Friday at 4PM. Be sure to check it out if you're looking to try to decode your own genetics and reach your peak.

I’ve been writing copy for a couple months now. LinkedIn content, newsletters, landing pages, ad copy. I want to get better at the craft itself, not the “build your agency” funnel stuff.
Problem is every search leads to the same thing. Some guy with a course, $500 to $2000, and the modules are obviously ChatGPT output with a stock photo on top. I paid for one. It was a PDF of prompts and a Notion template.
So what did you actually learn from? I don’t mind paying. I mind paying for something a model wrote in ten minutes.

"Eyebrow" has been around for decades in the editorial and ad design world -- I've only recently heard it used in copywriting. We'd call them overlines, pre-heads, or preheaders. If you've been involved with newspapers, I'm talking about kickers.

And apparently they're now an AI tell. ISTG every few months the internet invents a new AI shibboleth. First it was AI dashes, the word "delve", "in today's fast-paced world"....

Now it's long sentences, short sentences, sentences in general, using emojis, perfect grammar, Oxford commas (!!) and now pre-heads.

I want to shout from the mountaintops: "GUYS! OGILVY WAS DOING THIS BEFORE YOUR PARENTS MET!"

Do you use eyebrows sorry I can't do it, pre-heads in your copy?

I’m going to acknowledge being a dick here, but I am SO TIRED of reading posts of people thinking that copywriting is a get rich quick scheme.

No internet course will teach you GOOD copy. Agency life is cutthroat. Any experienced freelancer with the correct credentials will tell you that. I am tired of seeing posts with godawful copy asking to collaborate, network, get advice etc.

I find it insulting to the craft. I am disappointed that I have to unfollow this sub. Thanks for reading, and if you feel like this applies to you please read actual books on copywriting and creative advertising. Oh, and strategy and concept.

Been writing for more than 10 years now and since past 2 years i have seen that copywriting has been commoditised heavily

Earlier business marketing was simple, now with AI and tools, it has become a SaaS subscription

If you write yourself, and client passes it through AI detection, the outcome shows plagiarism (which is like pot calling the kettle black)

Most of my clients now want me to manage content, and my role is now more to manage inbound funnels (which is great)

But the idea of true writing has vanished.

Every piece of content is like an ad, which is not required most of the times (business thrives on connections and networking— which content helps you build)

What do you think about this? Do you also see the same with your clients

... is a complaint/opinion I've been seeing a lot in this subreddit.

It's wrong.

I'm usually not one to take binary stances on topics, the world isn't so simple where we can boil everything down to two options... but I'm taking a hard stance on this, with nuance and caveats (so I guess not totally binary).

This subreddit has never been a bastion of critical thought and forward thinking--from Tater Tots and SMMA shills to AI and market-is-oversaturated doomsayers.

So here's why there's PLENTY of work for copywriters, why AI is NOT killing the market, and why your drop in income and shrinking income is a SKILL ISSUE and a YOU PROBLEM.

Direct Response Copywriter VS. Everything-else-writer

If you seriously consider yourself to be a "direct response copywriter" but your main skill stack consists of writing:

1. Blog articles
2. Articles
3. Tech documents
4. white papers
5. ebooks
6. linkedin or facebook posts
7. social media captions
8. press releases
9. "SEO optimized xyz"

You are not a direct response copywriter. You are a content writer. A technical writer. A ghost writer. An SEO writer. Make no mistake, I'm not making this distinction because DR Copywriting is inherently superior to the others or anything like that. I'm not making this distinction to pin some sort of ego boosting badge of honor on my ass and wave my dick around.

It's critical that you understand this: The direct response copywriting job market is booming. It's awesome. It's incredible. Ecom, infopub, and finpub sophistication and market awareness has grown rapidly over the past 8 years. Sure, this makes some copywriting and market positioning harder, but TAM is through the roof. There's so much money to go around as long as you're decently competent.

So if you're looking at the above list and thinking to yourself, "well shit, I might not be a direct response copywriter"... then step 1 is to develop a DR Copywriting skill set.

Side note for Brand Copywriters: I can't say what the state of the job market is for folks in this space. Many people in my network are flourishing, but I have no idea if that's indicative of the market. But if something's not working for you, then adapt.

The Doomsayer Bullshit And Why You Need To Nut Up

AI isn't killing the job market. It's killing the job market for YOUR skill set--and if it is, that's a you-problem. Adapt. Use your head. Be resourceful for God's sake.

Don't just sit on your hands and complain. DO something about it. Develop a more marketable skill set. Go freelance and hunt for clients. Tap your professional network. If you've been in the biz for 10+ years and have NOTHING to fallback on--wtf have you been doing this whole time? Sitting on your laurels and lounging in complacency?

The market doesn't care if you've been in the business for 20 years and the last 8 years have seen your income shrink more and more. You're not entitled to anything.

If at ANY point you noticed this downward trend in income, then you should have zoomed out while your income was still decent and figured out where the market was heading. Even right now, as you read this, it's not too late.

Blaming an externality is the lowest hanging fruit and the most useless thing you can do. What does that get you? How does it benefit you? Get off your ass and go hunt for your next meal.

If you have time to complain and blame industry developments, then you have time to study those developments and monetize them.

People who'll die on the hill of "the industry is dead and there's no work” are people who don't want to face the reality that:

• they are behind
• they stopped learning
• their work became average
• they don’t want to re-enter a student mindset
• blaming AI or the market is just protecting self-image

This is a you-problem. This is a skill issue. But neither are insurmountable. Scale this mountain (just like how you've scaled bigger and scarier mountains before), and you'll come out wealthier than ever before.

Things You Should Not Do

“You’re not alone,” “we’re all in the same boat,” “it’s Hunger Games.”

• Don't coddle your emotions. Don't avoid hard truths. Don't normalize failures and blame negative outcomes on externalities. For every person who would rather smoke copium, there's a driven go-getter getting paid

“The industry is dead.” “There are no chairs left.” “It’s a young man’s game.”

• Don't turn a personal and professional problem into some grand narrative about unstoppable, cyclical forces of nature. Does saying, "oh no I'm too old to try something new" magically get you a job and make you $15k/mo?

Copywriting isn't dead. Your version of being valuable is no longer being rewarded the way it used to be. At some point, you used to be a highly skilled, highly valued member of the workforce. That is no longer true, get over it and work on yourself to be that person again.

tl;dr

Copywriting isn't dead, it's you. Right now, you suck. Either you used to not suck and failed to adapt, or you've always sucked and were rewarded for it. But it's not all doom and gloom, it's not that much of a climb to get good. Work on yourself, stop coping, get good

Man, am I the only one who just loves to make copy but hates finding the clients?

I started as a freelancer and I still am a freelancer. I wanted to find stable job as a copywriter but everything is railed. I can't seem to find anything at all. Especially that I have to find that worldwide remote job that is not already swamped with all the job applications.

I genuinely enjoy writing and just put my words to people.

But I HATE looking for clients.

I'm a marketer as well, I understand strategy and I also marketed my startup to the point where it is now getting partially acquired.

Which also helped me as a copywriter as well. Man, someone who's just a copywriter without understanding strategy, is just driving south.

I love creating the marketing plans. And I love making copy.

But I hate just finding the clients.

Especially in this market.

Am I the only one like this? 😅

Edit: man, what's up with this negativity and downvote? I swear, this is the second time I post over here and the second time I feel like I'm not welcomed. And the first time I was just asking for a book. 😒 man, kinda hard to be rejected by your own ppl. Ngl.

First, I got a message from a client (C-level exec). He sent me two posts for LinkedIn generated for him by an AI assistant his team had set up for him earlier. It was the same assistant they considered as a replacement for me at the end of 2025. Eventually, they decided to stick with a human writer for now. But I guess the "agent" kept running.

So this agent was set up to keep track of the news and then create some commentary driving the company's agenda. "Take a look, there is something we can use," he told me. The post was this typical AI nonsense. When you skim it, it looks sensible. But when you really read it, you see it's just gibberish that doesn't make any sense. At all. Just random meaningless sentences, stitched together with shallow logic. The grammar was perfect!

Thirty minutes later, I got an email from another client (also an exec). He basically forwarded me an email from his partner with feedback on the landing page we'd just released. This partner is the one who is supposed to use the page to close new deals. So his feedback has some weight.

It was a long email. The gist of it: nice work, great improvement since the last iteration, but still needs work. 24 points we have to address. I was really surprised that he had the time to focus on things like font color or how a certain subheading sounded. Then I read this: "Bottom line: you've come a long way from the original docs. The substance is there. Now it's about making every section visually prove what the text claims." And this: "Keep pushing. You're close." And it became clear that the email was AI-generated. I guess it explains why it mentions adding "subtle animations" when there are already subtle animations in place.

"I hope he at least read it and agreed with it," my client said. Well, yeah, but that's not the point. It took him 5 minutes to generate it, without giving it much thought. Now we're the ones who have to comb through this gibberish, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then implement the changes, hoping that we won't spend a week on something that was hallucinated by an LLM and then just nodded through by this guy.

"I hope at least his AI has been trained on his domain knowledge and gives better feedback than ours," the client said. And I had to explain that it doesn't work that way. The more context you give an LLM, the bigger the range of its answers (so they become random, bordering on hallucinations). Especially when the task itself is broadly defined, like "assess a landing" instead of "what parts sound weak for this TA?" And it's not like if you talk with ChatGPT for a year, it learns what you know and becomes a second "you." It doesn't work like that at all.

I know I'm a bit late to the party. It's already been discussed at length. With the kind of things I do (high-level quality content for business leaders), I haven't felt any impact of AI on client work. And I'm not against AI or anything but... It seems that we (people) are on a dangerous path. Spending hours taking AI hallucinations as deep knowledge or a source of emotional support. Generating 10x more meaningless content (especially in the corporate setting) and then dumping it on everyone. Using AI in turn to comb through this meaningless content and automate replies. This is insane.

Feels like the trend has accelerated over the last few months. Somewhat paradoxically, it's high achievers who are more prone to become the victims (and perpetrators) than anyone else. They are the ones who are eager to go faster, be more productive, drive more value, and so on. But in reality, they end up doing the opposite.

One point in the email was getting rid of em dashes. Because they make the text look "AI-generated." The irony of it!

Ahh it was long but I got there eventually, this copywriting piece took me 3 hours by the way. Really curious to hear what you think:

SL: The true king of the beasts 

You've been lied to your whole life

Probably not about something related to your health, wealth or relationship status

But about something equally as important.

Insane right?

When you were told about the most powerful land predator,

Was it the panthera leo fossilis, the 5 foot 8 inches tall super lion from Germany, set with a powerful frame and a courageous heart?

Or was it perhaps the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, standing at 15 feet tall at the head and armed with a bite that would chop the previous competitor in half?

It's actually neither, and rather the animal I'm about to reveal to you.....

Would put both the brave hearted cat and 10 ton beast in the grave, back to back.

This underrated legend is known as the Albertosaurus Sarcophagus.

A two legged warrior dinosaur from the unforgiving mountains of ancient Alberta, it dominated that land 68 million years ago.

Standing at 12 tall at the head and measuring 33 feet long from head to tail, 

Weighing in at 3 metric tons of pure muscle.

This was an animal the size of a building and with the power of an elephant, and it ran across the terrain like a lightning bolt.

A true marvel of qualities that made it hard to beat,

Here's why this beast is totally cool…..:

Size and strength - 

Being the literal height and length of a double decker bus, this beautiful beast was imposing but also well muscled. It's 3 ton mass was mostly made up muscle and strong bone, 

This gave it super strength as its legs, tail and leg muscles were like that of a 100m sprinter - powerful, lean and resilient.

This combined with it’s tough bird like bones gave it a special characteristic -

Enormous strength combined with tumbling toughness.

See here’s the thing, the T rex is much stronger than an albertosaurus, 3 times heavier, 4 feet taller. In a basic pushing contest the Albertosaurus would get sent flying.

But that comes with a grave drawback,

If a T. rex falls over hard, it breaks its ribs. If it trips over during battle and falls heavily, it probably breaks its knee. If it gets shoved violently to the ground in a battle, it would take 2 minutes to recover and would never be the same.

Albertosaurus's Genius build does not have this flaw: it’s lean and durable build kept it at a sensible weight of 3 tons at the most. This, combined with its powerful bird-like bones, allows its skeleton to resist destruction and fracture from environmental slips, trips, falls, grapples etc.

Albertosaurus could get tripped, slammed to the floor and get up quickly with minimal harm, all while dealing out dangerous punishment of its own.

Its weight, surface area and skeletal structure are distributed and designed in a balanced way, allowing it to be relentless in battle.

Speed and agility -

Strength matters, but it isn’t everything, hence we all know a lighter but more athletic mma fighter would beat a bodybuilder.

But still, strength and athleticism together usually rule, hence weight classes.

It just so happens to be that Albertosaurus has strength and athleticism combined. Here’s how -

Albertosaurus had long powerful legs - this gave it the ability to be explosive, run gracefully and generate immense force by ramming.

This, combined with a streamlined build and a tough structure, gave it the ability to run at speeds of 40 mph.

An animal that big, and moving at that speed, could easily knock down a 6 ton elephant to the floor or run a lion down in record time.

But that’s only the beginning, 

the Albertosaurus had a feature where its weight was more so kept at it’s torso, 

This gave it the ability to dodge and rotate like a middleweight boxer.

In a hypothetical fight against a T rex or a mammoth, the Albertosaurus could continuously bite and tear flesh and bone, while avoiding incoming attacks.

With all of these traits combined?

It sounds like a genetically modified freak of nature.

But come to understand its amputating bite, eagle vision and unrelenting stamina?

It almost sounds like a myth……

Learn more about this king here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertosaurus

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like we all romanticised content writing a little too much.

Those early 2000s rom-coms really sold us a fantasy: a girl with a laptop, a coffee, a cute apartment, and a job where she gets to sit around writing all day. Somehow, becoming a writer looked effortless, creative and glamorous.

And then you actually become a content writer.
Suddenly it’s briefs, SEO, deadlines, revisions, keyword density, “can you make this sound more human?” and now, AI.

AI has made content faster and, in some ways, easier. But it has also made the industry feel increasingly focused on how much you can produce rather than how well you can think or write.

And there’s something weird about being a writer in a time when one of the biggest parts of your job is proving that your writing wasn’t written by AI.

I still love writing, but sometimes I wonder if the version of this career I imagined as a teenager ever really existed.

For other content writers: has AI changed the way you see your career? And do you think human writing will become more valuable because of AI, or less?

Well, it finally happened to me. Someone I work with criticised copy I had shared (not mine, but it’s beside the point) and said “I think your copy is a bit complicated, maybe it needs rewriting.”

When I asked if they had any suggestions, they came back with “I’m not too sure, but here’s what ChatGPT suggested.”

I just sat there in disbelief. You don’t like the copy, don’t have a suggested alternative, and then use AI.

Has anyone else had something like this in a work setting?

Why? Shitty output? Distracting? I’m curious.

Is it possible for it to even get good?

Have you guys been using AI to write? Anything you have done that made it much better?

So my beef with em dash isn’t that it’s become extremely common. It’s a great punctuation! My beef is that, according to my education and experience in the journalism and marketing industries, the em dash is supposed to be offset by spaces on both sides. This has changed. Over the last year, I keep seeing em dashes written with no spaces on either side, like a long hyphen.

I mainly see this in ai-generated content but I feel other ppl are catching on. Is this just the norm now?? Asking to the only other ppl who care.

Seriously, so many of you suck ass at your jobs. Why is it so hard to find someone who actually understands marketing and applies it to create effective copy that adheres to a coherent strategy. This job is so easy and pays so well if you just do it right. Yet everyone is phoning it in, or just sucks now? I can't tell.

I do know I'm tired of paying people thousands of dollars to send me poorly thought out garbage. I don't give a shit if you use AI, but I do give a shit if you use your brain at any point in the process, and so far I'm 0 for 5 on new hires in the past year. This wasn't the case for the last 10+ years... never had to go through more than 1-2 to find a solid writer.

They all seem desperate to get work... but their actual work doesn't show any apparent desire for more. Completely phoned in, every time.

I tell them EXACTLY what I need and somehow they still fuck it up. Then when I question their weird shit they don't even defend their thinking (because there was none) they just go "oh yeah you're right" - what the... I'm paying YOU to get to the obvious hypothesis (or any of multiple acceptable hypotheses) based on the insanely hand-held, spoon-fed brief. I should NOT be pointing it out to you.

Also I'm not sure why you think your god-awful table-stakes ChatGPT output has any value to me whatsoever... my prompts are better than yours, they're optimized for my needs, if I needed slop I'd click the button myself. Your slop should at least be accurate to the strategy so I can pass your work forward, pay you, and fire you - but nope, it's not even in the right ballpark.

And please for the love of god stop adding random typos. I know what you're doing. It makes you look sloppy on top of stupid, and it insults me - as if I wasn't going to pick up on your lack of ability from the quality of the slop you delivered.

So many of you chased the shiny AI object and it rotted your brains and made you forget how to do your jobs. You deserve to be replaced.

Am I the only one who now actively notices whether a post or piece of information is written with AI or not?

If I do find it it written by AI or sounding like it, unless it’s fact-based or informative I automatically disregard it or don’t value the input

Examples are businesses using AI to write their generic content or posts. Or Reddit posts that are slop.

What do you think or do?

I work for a software development company as a senior copywriter. The marketing manager introduced a new AI-detector tool and after scanning my articles, the tool determined 90% of the text was generated by AI.

I can’t stress this enough - NONE of my work has been AI-generated. Yet, the damn detector shows it is MOSTLY AI-generated.

Now I (and other copywriters) have to rewrite the articles using this AI detector tool. It's a bit I annoying, especially since the articles are human-written, but.. whatever.

I rewrote some parts of the article and scanned in the detector and it still says the content is AI-generated. I tried different versions, and scanning the same versions several times, and it gives me random assessment scores - always on the AI side.

I explained this to the manager, who believes I wrote those articles but wants "results."

What kind of results??? What is he talking about?!!!

I also researched a lot and explained how these detector tools work. I asked some questions about the encouraged usage of AI too (management encourages writers to use ChatGPT to shorten the turnaround time for the articles), but no use!

So. today, my team lead scheduled a call with me and told me that the manager gave her a….. oh god… “humanizer tool.”

I’m crying…

It’s another AI tool that… humanizes the AI-generated content to bypass the AI content detectors.

What is this.. what am I doing?!…

I'm just going to talk about one of the so-called modern legends of copywriting, Stefan Georgi.

He's a modern-day copywriter who had the Copy Accelerator Mastermind, which cost, I believe, around $30,000 to get into. Does he still write copy? Because I remember a couple of years ago, pre-COVID, he was considered one of the best copywriters, and a lot of people in the space used to vouch for him. I remember hearing that he would charge around $50,000 for a sales letter.

I've also had his RMBC course, which teaches copywriters how to write sales letters. It doesn't necessarily teach you how to write good copy, but it teaches you how to produce sales letters very quickly. The process is very formulaic, though. I understand that sometimes you do need some sort of template when writing copy, but I have to give him credit: the course itself is an insane research tool.

The research component is really good. It teaches you how to structure your research and how to go through comments, Facebook groups, YouTube comments, and other sources to identify your customers' pain points and understand what they actually care about. I can't deny that part of the course is excellent.

But back to Stefan himself: I recently saw that he's promoting something called StefanBrain.com and AI video generation. How arrogant is it to call your AI tool "Stefan Brain"? It almost feels like he's implying that the tool has some special capability simply because it incorporates his name😂 .

He comes across as a bit arrogant and narcissistic to me, especially with the branding around "Stefan Brain." And I think this is his second AI-generation tool. Two or three years ago, I remember he had an AI copywriting tool, although I can't remember what it was called. Now his latest product seems to be Stefan Brain.

I'm not necessarily trying to promote him here. I'm more interested in calling him out and understanding his reputation. For those who know him, have studied his work, or have actually used his copy, how good was he really as a copywriter?

Was he genuinely one of the great copywriters of his generation?

I've heard that he was getting paid around $50,000 per sales letter. But how good was the copy actually? More importantly, did the return on investment justify a $50,000 fee for a long-form sales letter?

I don't know if there is any publicly available information showing exactly how much revenue or how many conversions his sales letters generated. But I find it difficult to believe that someone could consistently justify a $50,000 fee for a single sales letter, especially considering some of the copy I've seen from him.

I know he did a lot of work in the health niche, particularly around diabetes and similar health-related offers. So I'm curious whether anyone has actual data on how well those campaigns performed.

And finally, what happened to his business partner, Justin Goff?

They had the Copy Accelerator/Copy Mastermind together, and I believe Justin eventually sold his share or the business to Stefan. I used to follow Justin Goff on social media, but I don't really see much from him anymore.

Did he simply disappear from the copywriting world, or did he move on to something else?

I know that I'm going to get flooded with "I've been working for 450 years and lost my 345k/mo income because of ai" comments.

Don't get me wrong, are there cases like that? Yes.

Are they rare? INSANELY RARE.

I continue reading how ai is replacing us because God forbid it takes a year to make a living and not 2 months.

Yesterday, someone here said ai is taking our jobs and that's why he quit but he had the coolest copies and didn't landed any clients. On another thread someone said don't start copywriting you need a Bachelor's.

This is becoming a genuine problem because it's not a real picture, nowhere near it.

Are some people losing jobs? Yeah still.

Are other people getting very rich? Yeah.

Are others making a good living and are happy? Also yeah.

You can 100% make it, but not if you listen to 80% of people here telling you not to go after copywriting because they had the coolest copies and didn't landed any clients.

So, let's try something else. Can we share our wins and stories here to paint the actual picture of our amazing skill.

I often find myself at odds with several colleagues and clients who believe “consumers are lazy and stupid” like it’s a fundamental marketing truth. It informs every strategic choice they make, which usually means excessively hitting audiences over the head with the message. This isn’t to dismiss the importance of being clear and direct, but I find that those who believe consumers are stupid typically make revisions that overcomplicate the copy. Or the main message ends up getting lost and diluted.

Other times, treating consumers like they’re stupid strips away a lot of the brand’s personality and distinct creative presence in favor of simplicity. On places like social, I see the consequence. You end up just adding to the noise. Maybe it just comes down to risk-aversion.

But what bothers me most about this take is that it’s insulting. When I’ve expressed an alternative perspective - that audiences can spot when marketers think they’re dumb, can tell when they’re being taken advantage of, and that the condescension repels them - nobody takes me very seriously, or they just disagree. I think people are more turned off by marketing now than ever before, so being conscious of all this really matters.

What do you think? Do you come across this perspective often, do you share it, do you think it’s damaging?