This week, we laid bait of lofty vision statements and years of intricate tax dodging, to lure one of Britain’s most-awarded copywriters from the shadows. Locked and loaded to lob a few volleys at brand purpose, he’s Nick Asbury.

A brilliant writer and a thoroughly good bloke to boot, Nick crafts witty and charming words for branding and design.

Pile your plate high as Nick talks to us on how a poem about the England football team got him in real trouble, differentiating between writing for design versus writing for ads, Paul Newman’s salad dressing, using wit (properly), a Friends NFT, why the Innocent imitators in packaging copy need to cut it out and his plans to dismantle brand purpose. You won’t be disappointed.

Check out Nick’s Substack

Especially his blog Start with why, end with wire fraud

Follow him on Twitter

He’s one half of Asbury & Asbury

Alongside, Sue Asbury, whose ace paintings you should check out here

Read The Nations Prayer poem that got him in real trouble

Buy the Perpetual Disappointments Diary

Here’s Realtime Notes

Timestamps:

(02:05) - Quickfire questions

(05:22) - First-ever job

(13:31) - Writing for design versus writing for advertising