One of my favourite blogs is Steven Poole’s Unspeak, in which he continues the deconstruction of corporate and governmental rhetoric begun in his book of the same name.

In a recent post, ‘Standard procedure’, he examines the killing of an ape which had escaped its cage at an English zoo.

When asked why it had been necessary to shoot the chimp, the zoo authorities responded that it was ’standard procedure’.

As a copywriter, I find Steven Poole’s work extremely valuable because he makes me think about every single word I use. He reminds me to avoid complacency, and, above all, to question what my words are telling readers.

The zoo’s somewhat lazy reference to ’standard procedure’ not only indicates alarming inflexibility, it also reveals how in thrall we are to the power of certain phrases. Terms such as ’standard procedure’ seem to draw a line in the sand beyond which further questioning is prohibited.

The response they elicit is almost invariably the same - no further questions. As a copywriter, this effect is something of a paradox. Yes, we seek language that is supremely authorative but we don’t want it to turn off the ‘think’ button in our readers’ brains.

I’m thinking of words like optimize, cutting-edge, value-adding, enhance, core competencies and best-in-class. I’m as guilty as the next guy when it comes to falling back on these old favourites but I’m wondering if overuse has now diluted their effectiveness irreparably.

Overall, I find much corporate messaging lacks spark and humanity. And while I’ve already posted some general thoughts here about how marketers need to adjust their thinking in order to remain relevant in the global marketplace, I’m also wondering if we have a specific problem with our reliance on ‘corporatese’.

Are companies so focused on churning out benefit-led messaging that they are failing to spot that people are less and less inclined to trust corporations which lay on the spin a bit too thick?

As I tend to, I am diverting off down a series of blind alleys here when all I really wanted to say was sometimes ’standard procedure’ isn’t necessarily the right procedure.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 2:38 pm by Anastasya Partan and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.