Speak up and speak clearly, boy!

Isn’t it funny that with all the talk these days about how thanks to our ability to mine data, particularly from social media, for insights that will help us target audiences with more meaningful message, we still seem to go out of our way to turn those messages into “corporate speak.” You know, lots of synergizing innovative technologies, incentivizing customer engagement and integrating frameworks of excellence. Right now, the Bon mot, d’jour award goes to “Curate.” I remember when we used to cobble stuff together, preferably after a visit to the pub.

One of my favorite Churchill stories is about the time an American general asked him to look over the draft of an address he had written. It was returned with the comment ‘Too many passives and too many zeds.’ The general asked him what he meant and was told: ‘Too many Latinate polysyllabics like “systematize”, “prioritize”, and “finalize”. And then the passives. What if I had said, instead of “we shall fight on the beaches”, “Hostilities will be engaged with our adversary on the coastal perimeter”?

Yes indeed, there’s far too much of this kind of thing going on these days.

I write more on this subject in my new book, “Confessions of a Mad Man.” There’s also a liberal helping of sex, drugs, rock & roll. Unfortunately, there’s less and less of that going on these days. Confessions of a Mad Man