How to make your writing stand out from AI-generated candyfloss copy
A question someone asked me on LinkedIn the other week: How can I make my writing stand out as a human voice in a sea of AI texts?
My answer may sound strange, coming from a copywriter: Don’t write anything that sounds obviously like “copywriting”.
In other words, writing that relies too heavily on rhetorical devices, at the expense of meaning.
Let me share an example. Nowhere are you more likely to find copy that sounds nice but says little than in a brand “narrative” — that’s corporate for “the bit of blurb that tells people what we do and why we do it”.
Here’s a not untypical example of what might be a brand’s “sustainability narrative” — i.e. the bit of blurb on “how we do business responsibly”:
At the heart of our brand is a simple, powerful belief: that meaningful progress begins with human purpose.
We champion people — their ideas, their dignity, their potential — and channel that energy into solutions that serve both society and the Earth. Every decision we make balances human impact with planetary responsibility.
From the way we work to the way we grow, we are committed to building a future where people thrive and the planet flourishes — together, not apart.
Sounds good, right?
Clear. Balanced. Inspiring, even.
And obviously produced by a writer that knows how to wield a rhetorical device, like:
Parallelism (repetition of the same grammatical structure), underscored by alliteration (repetition of the same sound)
meaningful progress and human purpose
people thrive and the planet flourishes
Antithesis (use of opposites)
human impact v planetary responsibility
together, not apart
Anaphora (repetition of the same words at the beginning of a phrase)
the way we work, the way we grow
The rising tricolon (a three-word phrase where the words build in length), paired with anaphora
their ideas, their dignity, their potential
All tools of persuasion with a rich history that goes back to ancient Greece. All tools I have used in my own copywriting. All tools I have taught to aspiring copywriters.
(See what I did there?)
But here’s the problem. That sustainability narrative is saying absolutely nothing. For example:
Could you tell me what the brand is actually doing to champion people’s ideas, dignity and potential? To balance human impact with planetary responsibility? To build a future where people thrive and the planet flourishes?
Could you cite even the smallest example of the way they work and the way they grow?
Could you even say what industry the brand is in?
No, me neither. It’s all sound and no substance. All music and no message. All noise and no narrative.
(Again, SWIDT?)
The reason? It was written by a stochastic parrot. A machine that can mimic, without understanding, human-sounding text — by recombining word patterns it has found on the internet.
Yes, reader, I, myself, prompted this rhetorical guff out of ChatGPT.
(Such meaningless rhetoric screams ChatGPT more loudly than any number of delves or em dashes, btw).
The word people usually use for this kind of AI-generated content is “slop”. But such an unattractive word doesn’t capture the superficial appeal of writing like this. Writing that many people might be impressed by. Writing that sounds like writing.
I prefer to call it “candyfloss” copy. Light. Sweet. Full of air and not much else.
So how can a writer, especially one skilled in rhetoric, avoid producing writing that sounds like it was created in ChatGPT, even if it wasn’t?
Here are three pieces of advice:
Emphasise what’s different
This post was partly inspired by my having read a similar bit of candyfloss copy. One that had been created for an org I’m familiar with, but would not have recognised from the words that had been assembled to describe it.
So if you’re producing any kind of “narrative”, sustainability or otherwise, test every draft by asking if it communicates:
exactly how we’re different from our competitors
the one thing we do or offer that no one else does
what’s unique about our culture / approach
the special thing we’re known for (or want to be known for)
If the copy isn’t recognisably you — if it could equally have come from a competitor or even an org operating in a different industry — back to the drawing board you go.
2. Don’t try to impress
In some respects, the best writing is invisible. It doesn’t call attention to itself with nice sounding words. It just feels right when you see it.
For example, in the words of one of our clients: you know you’ve nailed your brand language when it doesn’t get a standing ovation (and equally, no one says “that’s bollocks”).
Don’t get me wrong, I love me a bit of rhetoric when it adds music to a meaningful message. But the more candyfloss copy we’re exposed to, the more we’ll start to value writing that captures the speech of real people, untrained in the writing ways of the ancient Greeks.
Which brings me to tip 3…
3. Listen to people and write down what they say
The most persuasive words aren’t the ones statistically most likely to occur based on billions of phrases scraped from the internet.
They’re the words your audience is already using.
Yes, those words might have a poetry to them, as our Sapia case study shows.
But our approach to brand language will always be founded on listening not just to what your customers, employees or investors are saying, but also how they’re saying it.
Which is why we’re always able to show clients very specifically how every word has earned its place.
To articulate your brand narrative in a better way, get in touch.
