When buzzwords attack, AKA we’re not going to publish your press release
Does your agency have a “penchant for disrupting, injecting emotion and turning communication into conversation”? Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor Josie Tutty reveals adland’s most sinful buzzwords, and offers a sincere apology to all the press releases she has let evaporate into the depths of her Gmail inbox.
As Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor, I get sent a lot of copy.
So when I stumbled across Houston PR’s ingenious tool for busting buzzwords yesterday afternoon, I’ll admit I spent more time than I probably should have copy and pasting press pieces that have been sitting in my inbox for an awkwardly long time.
The Buzzsaw’s purpose is to eliminate doublespeak from copy, in an attempt to highlight how passing off meaningless jargon as honest communication has become the norm.
Thanks for the piece – will revert after assessing synergistic collaboration opportunities.
Use of the word ‘gun’ in job adverts for our industry. What the heck does that even mean?
‘Gun’: we will pay you peanuts, expect you to do everything and take all the credit. Oh, and you need to work 100 hours this week.
Yeah,
Gun = No mentors, we expect performance
Energetic = Tonnes of overtime
Guru = We are older people wanting a younger person
Great office vibe = We have an unused table tennis table, so we can pay you less
If I read any of these in a job description, I automatically pass.
Nailed it Josie!
I’ve asked my team to really lean into the buzzsaw to increase our engagement rates.
Josie has been most helpful and instructive in my getting pieces published here, so I’d recommend this guidance to anyone trying. That said, I love the word ‘robust.’
Yup de-tuned and mindlessly embellished with snore inducing headline and a buried lead …and ensure it’s on letterhead with a big logo
Ironically, this “piece” is so fluffed out that it barely makes a point that could easily have been made in 3 or 4 lines.
Of course, there is ALSO the possibility that, while these missives do not say much at all, the originator of their message MAY ACTUALLY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY.
Thanks for this refereshing article Josie – why are the majority so afraid to use the word ‘sell’? That is after all what every business wishes to be successful at!
Thanks Josie. You made me laugh.
Sad such jargon infects our language.
Except humour, we have no antidote.
Speaking of jargon, this extract from the Dentsu results announced earlier is a ripper –
“Dentsu in Japan continues to deliver against our digital ambitions and remains focused on our People Driven Marketing (PDM) initiative – an integrated framework which executes full-funnel marketing through the integration of on-line and off-line activities”
Why didn’t they just meld their ‘digital ambitions’ with their ‘full-funnel marketing’ and call it Funnel Web Marketing © – marketing with a real bite.
Thank you for actually understanding. Particularly for those of us in PR who are journos by background, it is excruciating having to send former colleagues the kinds of shit we end up forced to write.
We all make the switch with these amazing intentions to finally “fix PR” and write the releases (or rather news stories) that we know we would be happy accepting as journalists.
But faced with the usual combination of corporate ignorance, arrogance, and a hefty dose of cowardice swirled with heavy handed bollocks from “our legal department”, you’re probably going to end up with a two-piece page of unmitigated grandiloquent bullshit.
That’s why many of us rewrite the release as far as possible and send it to you in the guise of a “cover letter”.
Use of the words engaging or engagement totally disengage my interest!
The late and great media planner and pundit Erwin Ephron once made a great comment when asked about the importance of engagement and when you knew the engagement was effective
His answer was along the lines of … it’s round, it’s gold, and it goes on her ring finger.
Taking out your use of examples this article had a Buzzsaw score of 3% (8 words)
Job ads not immune either. I don’t even bother applying if they’re full of this crap.
I can’t believe you have chosen to dial up a thinkpiece on buzzwords.
The connections industry aims to maximise cohesiveness and holisticality, by ramping up the learnings. This is something you guys should consider circling back on in your next WIP.
Perhaps a framework for respectfully interrogating the big data available to you on many platforms and environments would bring laser focus to your results, Mumbrella.
Were there any queries on the overarching approach to the strategic response I’ve just overdelivered to you guys?
How much is the dole these days?
I will continue to stand by the term “deep dive”
I had a tutor at uni who said ‘Don’t ever use jargon – you’re just doing it to make yourself feel smart. It’s not helpful for the person you’re talking to’. She was right.