Welcome to words Hurt
WHERE COPY MEETS STRA–
LOL JUST KIDDING. Could you imagine?
WORDS HURT* is a rebellion against everything and everyone that tries to force us into pretty little inoffensively clean-cut & standardized boxes labeled SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION while they profit off of us disfiguring ourselves to look like the only version of success they ever sold us.
WORDS HURT* is for the underestimated, underrepresented underdogs.
ENTER STAGE RIGHT:
KALYL KADRI
Brand Drama Director and Resident Word-Reviver.
If this was my Grindr profile, I’d tell you that I am 1,69m, 74kgs, and into bears.
Buuuuut, it’s not. Aaaaand I'm also married. Ok ladies?
So instead, I’ll tell you that I’m a Lebanese/Brazilian ex-theatre director & current creative director, making a scene with brands around the world!
I moved away from the stage and towards the page quite a few years ago when I became the ‘Creative Guru’ of a PR agency in 2018.
Yes, it said that on my business card.
No, I did not come up with the title.
BORING BRANDS WERE FKG KILLING ME.
Each one a diluted
COPY OF A
COPY OF A COPY of a COPY
LIGHTS DIM. A HAZE FILLS THE STAGE.
Over the years, I tap-danced my way up to Head Copywriter, but I was really tired of having my outrageously creative ideas squashed by the most uncreative pieces of toast who were above me in the office hierarchy. God forbid a guy has an overactive imagination.
LIGHTS INTENSIFY. KALYL SCREAMS:
So I quit. AND NOW!
I'm the cutie-patootie behind Words Hurt*, where I use & abuse my overactive imagination and my theatre background to create brand identities that people obsess over, turn your audience into stalkers (but in a cute way), and make competitors cry delicious, green, envious tears. Yum.
I use almost 2 decades of theatre-making and +8 years of writing for brands to help you bring more SHOW to your BIZ, so your audience starts lining up to grab a seat.
Because, who doesn’t love a good show amiright?!
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Your brand gets the same pizzazz I brought to PR agencies, luxury brands, music festivals, F&B and hospitality projects worldwide. I used to do it for them, now I do it for you.
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Your multi-ethnic, multilingual, culturally complex identity isn't something to water down. I turn that beautiful chaos into universal appeal that transcends borders.
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Your audience is bored to tears by everyone else's generic copy. Good thing I spent a lifetime learning exactly how to grab attention, hold it hostage, and move crowds.
Manifesto
WORDS AS POWER
A Words Hurt Manifesto
Being human is a mess.
A beautiful mess (sometimes),
But a mess nonetheless.
So why is your brand so squeaky clean?
Like, deceptively clean.
Suspiiiiciously clean, even.
What are you hiding behind those
Blurred lines and smoothed out filters?
We’re drowning in artificiality.
Bombarded by domesticated and
irritatingly opaque messaging day in and day out.
“Welcome to XYZ. Where innovation meets strategy to empower your business.”
Where creativity comes to die and your words come to cosplay as someone else’s.
I’m tired of this. Aren’t you?
I want brands that represent the true you.
You're not some sad, bland boiled chicken brand without so much as a pinch of salt or seasoning.
You're a crispy-crisp chicken taco with tangy red cabbage slaw and that perfect dollop of lemon aioli on top.
You're a 4-in-the-morning drunk chicken kebab dripping unknown but strangely delicious sauce on someone's shoe.
You're habanero-jalapeño-carolina-reaper-rip-your-ass-off-spicy chicken tenders.
Beautifully imperfect.
Positively unique.
Just like us.
We want brutal. We want real.
Fuck ‘nice’.
WORDS HURT*
