Screenwriter Smile

Have you seen it yet? The toothpaste ad that interviews ‘a normal person’ who then says something along the lines of how their teeth would have fallen out if they didn’t use THAT particular brand on their brush. Pretty standard practice for products of this type: soap, tampax, shampoo, you know the drill.

The ‘normal person’ they interviewed in the ad was a bloke, which was interesting in itself as it’s usually lots of smiley girly girls doing the selling. But what’s really freaky is that underneath his name they put his profession down as: Screenwriter.

I don’t remember people’s professions being important or being used for these kind of ads but when I saw ‘Screenwriter’, admittedly after a few Stellas on Saturday night, I thought I might be seeing things, y’know obsessing about myself that little bit too much.

But no. People are talking about it. Sad people like me and the crew at Shooting People. And we’re asking important questions: does this mean that ‘Screenwriter’ is as commonplace or as ordinary as any job occupation you might want to drift into after you rustle up a few O levels?

And who is this guy anyway? Did the advertising and production team deliberately target a screenwriter (“they don’t go out, they’ll have good teeth”) or is he the boyfriend of the production coordinator and she said: “my boyfriend’s a screenwriter and has done some acting, he’d be good? He also needs the money.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great and fair dues on the bloke, whoever he is (if you’re reading, say hello and tell us how you got the gig - oh my god, did you write the advert?), but if it’s a con, then shame on you toothpaste people (I forget who it is, I’ve only seen it once) for putting a shiny smile and presentable sheen (who did his hair?) on the typically miserable and jaded band of screenwriters around the globe.

Something a bit more ‘on topic’ from The Observer where they interview six leading UK TV writers to ask them what they think of what’s going on, what’s hot, what’s not, and who really holds the power in TV drama. Interesting stuff from Andrew Davies, Paul Abbott, Tony Marchant, Abi Morgan, Neil Biswas and Paula Milne. Click HERE to read the article.