UK English versus US English

Yeah, that was good. I do wonder though if Americans generally can spot whether copy was written by an American, or someone from the UK, as the differences (even though slight) do exist.

From our company point of view, we always try to match up American briefs with American writers, and UK briefs with UK writers. It could be problematic for a writer if, for example, they were working on a US brief and an Australian brief at the same time as they both have different spellings and grammatical rules.

Is this ever an issue for people?

Why would you UK cats be snatching our womenz?

And by womenz, I mean clients based within the U.S. Didn't you all learn anything from Season 3 of Mad Men?

I love this one

It's also wise not to ask someone on the street in the US for a 'fag', whereas in the UK it's perfectly normal.

I brought up this very topic a long time ago. Which sparked off a fair amount of controversy back then, if I recall correctly? I have to say, I still disagree with the common consensus. Wouldn't be surprised if Vin and a few others came out of the bag again vehemently arguing otherwise. I'd still disagree with him and others advocating this tactic.

Ross states, "...to be safe, go American with everything. Spelling, terminology, slang, everything." No disrespect to you you Ross but I absolutely 100% disagree with you.

Pigeon holing all copywriting into American English is a recipe for disaster. You misunderstand the very strong dislike in many other parts of the globe for American speak. This is definitely not an industry where one cap fits all. Far from it.

Copywriting is all about understanding the local lingo and psychological nuances - what makes people or the collective consciousness tick.

The Americans often don't mind the hard sell, they're more accustomed to it but try the same approach for a similar market in the United Kingdom and chances are your conversion rate will suffer. The British do not appreciate at all the hard sell approach. You have to adopt a much different and sometimes a much softer and dare I say it, a more sophisticated methodology if seeking to persuade this audience.

Yes we're seeing a lot more American style advertising, for example, on the TV these days, but, for the most part, the adverts are absolutely crap compared to the British approach. You can of course beg to differ.

However, here, the American copy approach is beaten by a factor of pretty much 99 to 1, that is, for every 100 different adverts appearing on the TV from various companies, the American approach is adopted perhaps just 1 out of every 100 TV commercials and then usually it's an American company trying to break into the market over here, not knowing any better. They make the assumption that we'll just take to their style of communication automatically.

So why this massive difference? Why do the other 99% of British companies stick with the British approach to reaching into the collective subconscious mind of their target audience? Here we have companies spending a small fortune for advertising space on the box - does it stand to reason that given this vast expenditure that they would automatically presume to assume that the British market would be more receptive to a style of communication not familiar with the vast majority of it's residents?

Why do they stick with the British approach for a British audience? Because to convey the company or product benefits in American speak represents a massive risk, a leap into the unknown.

These advertisers they want the best return possible for their investment and of course they're going to use and tap into methods which over time have been proven to work over and over again. In other words... minimising their risk. And obviously in doing so greatly increasing their chances of making a sale, turning a decent profit for their advertising investment.

If persuading or selling to a British market, you have to be prepared to adopt a British approach. American sales language won't cut it. Fair enough it may convert. It may not. But if I wanted to increase my chances of making sales with a British target audience the last language on earth I'm going to adopt, is American English.

It pays of course to really research the receptiveness under local conditions in advance, to not do so is folly indeed. To assume a one-size-fits-all language for copywriting ignoring local market conditions without understanding what makes a particular audience feel and think as they do is fraught with danger.

Best,


Mark Andrews

I never realized just how many until I immigrated to the US from England in 1999.

It really is a different language at times, but a lot of fun to learn.

--- Ross