Thanks to email and the many other technological innovations that are now available, we communicate much more quickly. And, in our eagerness to fire off another message, sometimes we forget to take our time and do the things that were the norm with more archaic technologies such as typewriters.
LOCATION, LOCATION AND SOMETHING ELSE
I haven’t decided whether a choice of business location was an ironic accident or a stroke of marketing genius. While traveling through an Indiana city, I frequently pass a facility for a hospice and can’t help but notice the tenant sharing its building: a life insurance agent.
P.S. I LOVE THEM
Way back when people used to compose something called “letters,” they often ended them with a brief afterthought called a postscript. If you’re too young to remember “duck and cover,” you may not have heard of these quaint messages, but they would begin with the abbreviation “P.S.”
GETTING SOMEWHAT WEALTHY VIA EMAIL
John Stanton recently forwarded an email with an irresistible pitch. According to the sender, “all you need to do is buy the e-book I have written for just $1.50, read through it and follow the instructions and within a week you will have more than tripled your money!” John says he was tempted to buy … Read more
SHOULD REPETITION BE REPEATED?
When writing an ad or a brochure (or even a blog post), repetition generally isn’t very helpful. You have a limited amount of time with your reader, and you need to make every word count. Besides, if you mention something once, you usually don’t need to do it again.
I’ve seen people try to apply that same logic to copy for websites. They’ll ask me delete an item or section on one page, noting that another page carries the same information.
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT – OR THE WORDS
In a recent blog entry, I mentioned an experience in which a client insisted a word that I used really didn’t exist. After writing that, I remembered writing a brochure for an apartment developer, in which I mentioned that the centralized recycling program would “minimize the project’s environmental impact.” “OH, NO!” the client’s manager yelled. “It should … Read more
A COMPLEMENT OF COMPLIMENTS
Rarely have I encountered clients who become furious over word choices, but it does happen. I was working on an ad for a company in human resources, and used the phrase “to complement your staff.” Upon reviewing it, the client changed the largest word in that sentence to “compliment.” I changed it back, and the client took a vertical leap into his ceiling.
SKIP THE SHORTHAND
A local car repair job has one of those changeable signs, and this week they were promoting a special on something called LOF. I’ve eaten lox, but not lof. Or maybe it’s an animal of some sort.
DO YOU PARLEZ-VOUS?
People like to stick foreign-language phrases and expressions into copy because they think it makes them appear to be intelligent and sophisticated, n’est-ce pas? And it can, except when they either don’t understand the phrase or are unable to spell it correctly.
MOLLY & BUSH’S MANHOOD (RATED PG-13)
Used book sales are one of the joys of life, because they appeal to two corners of my personality – the reader and the cheapskate. A recent find was a collection of Molly Ivins’s best columns. A native Texan, Molly was one of the sharpest, most fearless, most acerbic political writers of our time, and wherever she is, I’m sure she verified that there was a source of good bourbon before she agreed to go there.
In a column written during then-Vice President Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, she recounted his tendency to activate his mouth in front of reporters before his brain was fully engaged (an affliction that must have been genetic). It’s a cautionary tale for politicians and writers alike about choosing your words and expressions most carefully.