Nothing rem(Oatly) boring about this little snippet of copy…

Some not-so-boring copy from ‘the boring side’ of this humble milk carton

Doing the job I do means I can’t help but scan every ad, product packet and even restaurant menu for copy inspiration and missing apostrophes. Sometimes I spot both.

Happy to report there are zero missing apostrophes in this gem from Oatly — just some super smart copy that made me smile as I waited for the kettle to boil this morning (no mean feat when I’m pre-coffee).

Why does it work? Because it catches you off guard and is utterly unapologetic about what’s going down on this side of the carton (aka ‘the boring side’).

There’s also a clever bit of reverse psychology going on. By suggesting you might find it dull, the copy kinda challenges you to see for yourself and then boom… you’re reading it anyway.

It’s a bit like me saying “don’t bother reading the next sentence of this blog”.

Or an email newsletter starting with “nothing to read here”.

(By the way, you’re still reading this blog).

Smart copywriting is as much about understanding how our brains tick and what they respond to, as it is about finding the right words to go on a page (or the side of a milk carton).

In fact, it’s a perfect amalgamation of the two (and the reason I like to think my own A-level in psychology was a good choice for the future-career-I-didn’t-know-I’d-have, way back in the nineties).

So hats off to Oatly for grabbing my attention here (again, not easy to do pre-coffee).

And if you’d like some help psyching people up to read your stuff, you know what to do… drop me a line below. 👇