Sensually rich copy helps readers ‘pre-experience’ a product, so they want it for real. Or it can do the opposite, warning them off something bad.

This email copy tries the second approach, but with mixed results.

The beans are a synecdoche for a cash-strapped retirement. But the concrete imagery is stronger than grammar. If I say ‘don’t think of beans’, you do the opposite. So despite the idyllic sunset-years image, and the implicit exhortation to aim for a lobster-thermidor retirement, what I actually latch on to is… beans.

They’re intended to be meagre and dreary, but in fact they sound hearty and satisfying. Particularly in the context of stock imagery and financial services.

Beanz meanz a lot to Brits. My granny used to make them for me. She put mixed herbs in the beans, like my granddad liked, and I’d munch away in front of ‘G-Force: Battle of the Planets’.

For me, this is a meal with powerful connotations of family, love and comfort. In other words, the true wealth we all wish for in old age.

So while emotive, this image ended up pushing me away from the product instead of drawing me in.

There’s more on evoking an experience in chapter 11 of Copywriting Made Simple.

Tags: Battle of the Planets, beans on toast, financial services