Is it time to rethink your choice of words?
effective communication, marketing, writing January 14th, 2010
Since hubby turned 50, we’ve become members of AARP; which means we receive (and enjoy) their excellent publications.
In the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of the AARP Bulletin, there’s a short article about a British survey commissioned by financial company AXA, and the subsequent renaming contest surrounding the word “pension.”
Turns out that nearly a fifth of 18- to 24-year-old Brits think the word pension is stodgy. (No duh.)
The winning replacement, submitted by 29-year-old Donna Wood of Hampshire, England is:
Save Now. Play Later.
Genius.
But what this really brings to mind is how we get stuck using words and phrases that have lost their relevancy. With business writing and marketing/communications, it’s far too easy to lapse into same-old, same-old boilerplate language.
No word or phrase should be sacred. Everything should be, at least periodically, rethought. Step back now and then and ask this question: “What does this word or phrase really mean to my reader?”
P.S. Hey, State Farm Insurance, are you listening? With the transient culture we live in, I’m pretty sure “Like a good neighbor” doesn’t resonate like it used to.
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