2025 Writer in Residence Talks Advertising, AI and the Joys of Writing
Alum Nihal Atawane returns to COM to share his experiences from a career in copywriting
COM’s Writer in Residence program, now in its third year, is designed to introduce students to writing careers of all shapes and sizes. Pulitzer-winning journalist John Archibald was the program’s first resident, in 2023. Emmy-nominated screenwriter Stacy Traub followed in 2024. This year’s resident, advertising copywriter Nihal Atawane, holds a distinction that even his decorated predecessors lacked: a COM degree.
Atawane (’19) grew up and studied in India before moving to Boston in 2017 and earning his master’s degree in advertising at BU. He’s a senior copywriter at the advertising agency FCB Chicago and has worked on campaigns for more than 300 brands, including Microsoft, McDonald’s and MTV. His residency, during the final week of March, will include classroom visits, workshops and individual consultations with students. He’ll deliver a plenary lecture on March 25 at Tsai Performance Center.
Atawane spoke with COMtalk about his work and his upcoming residency.
Q&A
With Nihal Atawane
COMtalk: What inspired you to apply for the Writer in Residence position?
Nihal Atawane: I’ve always had strong opinions on how writing should evolve, given the ecosystem we’re in, and I look at this as a test for whether or not my hypothesis resonates with the COM community. Beyond that, I want to see if it can help COM students feel better about adopting their own, unique writing style. AI is looming as a threat, and I hear concerns about students relying on AI to write assignments. That, to me, signals a lack of enjoyment in one’s own writing. I can’t imagine getting AI to write something I genuinely enjoy.
COMtalk: What is your hypothesis?
It’s that we’re in a time where originality in writing is more crucial than the quality of writing—which is a difficult line to walk. AI can mimic the baseline—it’s great at dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s. But it’s not going to be able to mimic your tone of voice, your personality. Weirdly enough, stupidity is going to be your superpower, because AI is designed not to be stupid, or at least to pretend not to be stupid. And what’s more human than stupidity?
COMtalk: What does an advertising copywriter’s day look like?
A client will tell our team a business problem. The accounts team or the strategy team will distill it into what needs to be done. Then, my job is to write and think, and write and think, and write and think, and do it a million times until everyone along the chain—my team, my bosses, the client and, hopefully, the consumer—can all agree [that] this is decent writing. It’s tough and it kills your confidence very often, but it is the most effective form of fiction that I think currently exists.
COMtalk: Why do you say that?
Because it is fiction writing on a clock. My job is essentially to change someone’s mind, to influence someone’s decision, to reinforce ideas in 300 words, or sometimes 30 words. That challenge is what makes it so intriguing and so demanding, but also fulfilling.
COMtalk: What do you enjoy most about writing?
Writing allows you to be who you aren’t or who you wish you could be. I don’t think of myself as funny, as sharp, as incisive, as articulate, as decisive, as opinionated all the time. But when I’m writing, I can pretend to be all of those things.
COMtalk: You mentioned the threat of AI: How is it impacting the advertising world?
People are still not sure to what extent they should use it or how they can use it. The way I see it—it’s raised the bar. A lot of projects demand mediocre copy for which, by all means, you should use ChatGPT. If you want to say that your peanut butter is 25 percent off, you don’t need to pay a human to write that. It raises the bar because the focus moves to originality. How we, as writers, stay ahead of this is by writing things that AI simply can’t—writing about feelings, emotions and stories that AI simply can’t. Famous last words, but I don’t see AI as a direct threat to what we do (yet), but rather as changing the scope of what we do.
COMtalk: What do you hope COM students will take away from your visit?
I would love to lower the stakes and the barrier of entry to writing. Writing in an academic environment is intimidating, especially if you have a background like mine and you’re not from here. I think writers are really low on confidence when it comes to their own writing and I hope to challenge the idea that writing is intimidating. If [I can convince] even a small group of students to write for the sake of writing, or because they think they’ll enjoy it, I would consider it a success.
