This sign recently appeared on a gate into Marble Hill Park in Twickenham. We’ll ignore the random capitalisation and pompous phrasing (although they tell us plenty about the mindset of the person who wrote it) and get straight to the heart of why this fails as a piece of copywriting.

Half an answer is worse than none

Our marker-wielding commenter didn’t accept the explanation because the so-called health and safety risk couldn’t be less obvious. It’s a gate. There’s a path and some trees and a few twigs and leaves. Where’s the danger?

By only giving us part of the answer, English Heritage looks officious and evasive. It would be easy to say what the risk was but the sign writer either couldn’t be bothered or the risk didn’t really exist. Both possibilities piss people off.

Good copywriting needs empathy

Here’s the real issue though: what we have here is a failure of imagination. The sign writer didn’t consider the audience, didn’t think about what they would want to know, didn’t empathise. And if you don’t know what your readers want, you’re going to fail, every time.

In one respect, our sign writer is lucky: you don’t always get good feedback when you miss the point. It’s far more likely that your readers will simply shake their heads, then walk away.

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