There aren't many sitcoms with the same cult status as Friends. It ran for 10 seasons and ended over 20 years ago. Yet it is still quoted today. If you shout "My sandwich!" in the lunchroom, people know exactly what you mean. Young workers might just think you've gone mad.

But why is a series about six friends who drink coffee and talk about everything and nothing still relevant in 2025? What can you, as a copywriter, learn from it?

The human rhythm of language

When you binge-watch Friends for the 30th time, you may not pay much attention to the structure of the script. You probably pay more attention to how the dialogue flows between friends, with all its pauses, repetitions, and minor linguistic errors.

We can thank the actors for a large part of this, but it is just as much down to the scriptwriters. They leave in everything that other writers would normally edit out: the things that make a text sound authentic and full of life.

Texts for bus advertisements must, of course, be extremely short, as the message needs to catch the attention of thousands of eyes in a flash. But when you have the chance to unleash your creativity, it is precisely texts that feel like a conversation that perform best. It is quite often the case that spontaneous content goes most viral. When you dare to let your text be human and a little chaotic, but with a clear message.

Why we love the familiar

Everyone knows a Monica. A Chandler. A Ross. The series is built around recognizable characters who develop, fail, and end up in the most embarrassing situations throughout all seasons. And that's exactly why they're so easy to relate to. Maybe you haven't exactly stood in your girlfriend's bathroom with your leather pants pulled down, smeared with Vaseline and moisturizer like Ross. But you've probably spilled water on yourself in a public toilet, making it look like you peed your pants.

The situations in the series are exaggerated, but very relatable. The same principle applies in marketing: you write to evoke something recognizable in the reader. If the reader thinks, "that could have been me," you've hit the mark. That's why it's not always about coming up with new things, but about giving the familiar a fresh twist.

Monica's need for control, Joey's naive charm, and Phoebe's strange metaphors are all little lessons in storytelling. Without a good mix of chaos, order, structure, and spontaneity, it all becomes too perfect. No one but the Danish Language Council would bother reading that kind of thing.

Could AI have written Friends?

Probably not. The script would have been grammatically correct. The plot in each episode would probably take the three-act model too seriously. And Joey would probably never have said "How you doin'?" more than once, because repetitions are unnecessary and illogical. But it is the repetitions that become catchphrases. Everything that makes Friends Friends would have been edited out. What we would be left with is a series without heart.

Therefore, don't rely too much on ChatGPT. If you ask it, it will always insist that even your 117th draft can still be improved, which is why professional copywriters still exist. Experienced language nerds can guide you better than AI can (yet).

No matter how hard your elementary school teacher tried, and no matter how hard ChatGPT tries to convince you, there is no one right way to write. Writing in any form is an art form. Our minor mistakes, nuances, complex humor, and the meanings between the lines are what make a text come alive and worth reading.

Sometimes you just have to trust that your text has remembered to put on pants before you send it out into the public. Sometimes it's precisely the pantsless text that works. As in Friends, the magic typically happens in the midst of chaos, which is often what people remember you best for.