Hemingway was famous for what he left out. His icebergs. The 90% below the surface that readers had to imagine for themselves.
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Six words. An entire tragedy. But notice what he doesn't tell you: whose baby, why they died, how the parents feel now. He trusts you to feel it without being told.
That's the silence between words. And in copywriting, it's where the power lives.
I've watched junior writers try to explain everything. They want to make sure you get it. They want to close every loop, answer every question, remove every ambiguity. The result is copy that's technically perfect and emotionally dead.
Because emotion lives in the gap. In what's implied, not stated. In what you're forced to complete in your own mind.
"Think Different" doesn't tell you what to think differently about. That's intentional. The silence is where you insert yourself.
"Just Do It" doesn't specify what 'it' is. That's the point. The silence makes it personal.
Or consider Nike's Colin Kaepernick campaign. "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." They don't tell you what to believe in. They don't define sacrifice. The silence is what made it powerful. And divisive. And memorable.
Compare that to most brand messaging: "We believe in innovative solutions that empower our customers to achieve their goals through our customer-centric approach to service excellence.”. Nothing for you.
The best copy I've written has been the copy I've cut. The adjective removed. The clause deleted. The entire paragraph killed.
Silence amplifies.