There is a fantastic article getting passed around the internet about the decline of craft in copy. It is about the best, most coherent piece of writing I've seen about the current state of copy. Here's the kicker: it concerns juniors, but really the entire industry.
In this article, R/GA ACD (that's a mouthful of acronyms) Sanam Petri laments a trend she noticed among people trying to break in. While they can certainly think, what they produce is a pile of the same trite expressions. They're making ad-like objects. Pale imitation of the ads we see every day on TV.
That's not good. So if you have a phrase like these in your book: "Do you ever wish you could [x]? Well, now you can!" "But wait! There's more." "Why not pop in and try [x] today?" you should probably read this article this instant.
My co-worker and I talked about the article at lunch. He remarked that it was the exact opposite advice he received while in school. Creative Directors visiting his college talked about the importance of your work showing that you can think big, think across all media, think strategically. There was considerably less emphasis on craft.
Perhaps at that time craft was already implied. Their advice was simply to stretch the limits of what you do with that craft. Or, perhaps, it was at a time when digital advertising was so new and exciting that no one really knew what craft on it should look like. (My money is on the former.)
But our conversation also led me to another conclusion. Should you be lucky enough to score a interview with a CD, rather than the HR department, craft should be implied.
Yes, you can learn some of it on the job. But if you're a writer you have to be able to write. And if you're an art director you have to be able to art direct. All for the same reason you wouldn't hire a custom cabinet maker who only made end-tables in shop class.
But the real problem is that when creative directors dole advice out to ad classes they're giving it to a large group of people. They're, most likely, saying something that gives everyone a direction. The real way to get attention, and ultimately a job, is to do something that surprises the creative director. That's all they want. Something shocking, something they haven't seen before.
Something that isn't just another ad-like object.