Betsy Dickerson is Copy Lead at Mother Design. She takes what she learned from clamming and applies it to writing: Keep digging for better. The petiter, the sweeter. Use your toes when it’s not your turn with the clam rake.

Previously, she attended Wesleyan University and cut her copy teeth under the writers at Mythology (formerly Partners & Spade). After further ad education at SVA and a stint as a market writer for BuzzFeed, Betsy joined Chobani’s first in-house creative team to help execute the company’s 2018 rebrand. She joined Mother Design in November, 2019, just before the world caught fire.

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What’s your hometown? 

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Mattituck, New York. Currently residing in Brooklyn.

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In a few sentences, describe what you do. 

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I help companies translate their purpose and personality into language their consumers can understand. 

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Many people in our industry have a career path that isn’t exactly linear. How and where did you get your start as a copywriter? 

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Ha, yeah, that was me. After school I was A LOT OF THINGS before finally getting a job as receptionist at Partners & Spade. My mom, my greatest supporter, actually found the listing; she was like, “Bets, this place is very artsy! What if you start here, and someone believes in you?” And they did. The CD and writing team thought my email blasts were funny, so they taught me how to write for brands.

Before then, I didn’t know copywriting existed. But I always loved writing and poetry (read: was unstable) and had taken courses when I was studying film theory at college.

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What are some skills beyond good writing that make the biggest difference in your work?

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Editing (obvious). It may feel tedious, but clarity and economy are paramount in copywriting.

Reading (also obvious). You need to fill your tank constantly with new words, styles, and tones. Or else you end up on thesaurus.com all day, like me.

Doing hard things and staying curious. Writing has to come from somewhere. Go places, challenge yourself, feel emotions, figure shit out. It’s a copywriter’s job to relate to so many different kinds of people and human experiences. Don’t, and risk sounding inauthentic or trite. 

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Can we talk about Chobani for a bit? What was it like to work on one of the most beloved rebrands of recent memory? 

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We really had no idea at the time that the rebrand would make the splash it did. But in hindsight, it makes sense. The in-house creative leadership was brilliant (Lisa Smith of JKR, CDs/filmmakers Conor Dooley and Eric Johnson, Leland Maschmeyer of COLLINS), the team was ridiculously talented, and Chobani’s a company with a great story and mission. It was a beautiful, scrappy mess, and I learned so much, so quickly. 

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You’ve spent time working in-house, and are now on the agency side. Coming from one side to the other, did you find that your approach to creative work was different? 

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I don’t know that my approach was different. But it was certainly an adjustment. When you’re in-house, you know a company deeply. You know everything from the high-level mission all the way down to what shelf-talker terminology the yogurt lawyer is going to reject. But eventually, it can feel redundant.

Going agency side was a challenge at first. But you get the opportunity to fan out, and flex different tones. I’ve done flamboyance for the Park Lane Hotel, empowerment for Brooklyn Org, wit and weirdness for Realm, charitable chaos for Mother Goods. It’s a total joy.

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Mother Design has a lean but talented team. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working on a small creative team?

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The level of autonomy we have is almost dangerous, and probably both the biggest advantage AND disadvantage of being on a small team. Everyone must be on their game, hold themselves accountable, and truly, (madly,) deeply trust each other, because there is no handholding and very little bureaucratic oversight. I’m a one-person writing department at Mother Design. But the team is so intelligent and discerning, and the designers have a great eye and mind for what could be said and where. 

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Where do you see the industry going in the next 1-3 years? Any predictions on the state of verbal branding?

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I can’t speak much to the state of industry, honestly. But I do know that AI language models like ChatGPT can feel threatening, and because of social media, there’s so much more written content to cut through. It’s up to us copywriters to keep innovating and put messaging out there that’s worth reading—to really fascinate and provoke and inform and entertain people—rather than litter the ether with more mindless sales-trash. 

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What is the most frustrating feedback or element of working with clients? This is your permission to gripe. 

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I’d say when clients aren’t forthcoming with what they expect from a verbal scope. 

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Biggest career win? What is something you feel most proud of?

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My biggest career win is having one. And having it at a place like Mother Design. It’s such a rare Earthly privilege to enjoy what you do for a living, where you do it, and who you do it with.

But I’m not above admitting I’m driven, in part, by external validation. So when a client or higher-up or fellow creative likes my stuff, it’s like getting scooped up for a lil’ forehead kiss by God. 

Most recently, when we were branding Netflix Is A Joke Fest 2024, we made the clients laugh out loud. What a feeling.

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Where can The Subtext readers keep up with you? 

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betsydickerson.com 

@little__spoons (instagram)

@fertilegerbil (X)

mother-goods.com

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Bonus Round:

Dream brief: what does it say in 1 sentence or less?

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Prune sales are down! (Enter: “dried plums” rebrand.)

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In one word, what is the enemy of good creative work? 

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Haste.

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