A copywriter is the person who writes the words to the advertisements you see in your newspapers, magazines or posters, and on the piece of Direct Mail that's fallen through your letterbox, and the ads you hear on your TV or radio.

A copywriter takes (or finds through research) the existing information, data and statistics available relating to the product and, using that knowledge, writes the headline, text or script to promote or advertise a person, product, brand business or idea, in a way that the advertiser wishes to be perceived and in a way that is extremely attractive to the specific target audience. In other words, in a way that will sell.

Many of the greatest admen of all time were copywriters; Bill Bernbach of Doyle Dane Bernbach, whose timeless Volkswagen ads were recognised by many as the top advertising campaign of the 20th century; Leo Burnett (oddly, of Leo Burnetts) who was the king of the campaign character with the Pillsbury Doughboy, Jolly Green Giant and Tony the Tiger; and, of course, the legendary David Ogilvy, (originally a cook at the Hotel Majestic in Paris) often referred to as The Father of Advertising and a founder of Ogilvy Benson & Mather.

Three of his most memorable lines were the iconic "The man in the Hatherway shirt" which featured the mysterious Russian aristocrat, Baron George Wrangell wearing an eyepatch. "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock" and "Pablo Casals is coming home - to Puerto Rico" which perhaps totally changed the image of a country.

He also famously said "that odious little shit" when asked about Sir Martin Sorrell (who had just taken over his beloved company) and then moved to his house in France vowing to never work again.

Many famous creative artists and speakers also spent their formative years as copywriters; Frank Zappa, Hugh Hefner, film makers Terry Gilliam and Alan Parker, actors Sir Alec Guiness, Rick Moranis and authors Salman Rushie, William S. Burroughs, Dorothy L. Sayers and Fay Weldon. All ex-copywriters.

Great copywriting is the cornerstone of great advertising and no-one knows that better than the Americans, the inventors of the modern advertising industry and their immense respect for the writer began in the earliest days of the business.

In 1900 a copywriter named Claude C. Hopkins set a new benchmark with his ads for Schlitz beers. He believed that in copywriting, information wasn't enough, that he needed to 'understand' the product, experience the sight, smell and taste (interesting with a beer product!) but most of all be the customer, not the advertiser. I'm quite sure that this is the single most important factor in advertising, sadly lost and forgotten to many of today's adpeople.

Sales of Schlitz went through the roof and Hopkins was so revered that he was hired for an astonishing salary of $3.8m in today's money.

Other great writers set standards with new ideas such as Clayton Makepeace (and his 'Total Package') and John Caples with the powerful first person singular story, and "They laughed when I said I could play the piano" arguably the greatest press ad of all time.

Great copywriting demands respect and can do more to help sell your product than you could possibly imagine

Odd note: Ironically, the word 'copywriting' appears in neither The Cambridge nor the Oxford English Dictionaries.