Since yesterday was so much fun I am back again with installment two of “Shoot that term in the head.” Today’s victim is “this is a critical time.” This unfortunate group of words is often employed by managers who are trying to impart a sense of urgency to their troops….
This post by Julien Smith on the perils of saying “I love you” inspired today’s post, the first in a new video series called “Shoot that term in the head.” In business there are sorts of fucked up and vague terms that people use as ways to obfuscate, betlittle, exploit,…
I had the pleasure of chatting with Aimee Davison (pictured above) of One Hundred Jobs and Fashion Ambush today. So much of the conversation around social media/new PR/marketing 2.0 takes place between industry “experts” so the idea here was to profile someone from outside the industry who “gets it”. Aimee…
Today’s post relates closely to yesterday’s in spirit and maybe even topic. This may mean I am incapable of thinking up new ideas and need to stop blogging now. Anyway, here goes… ———————————————————————————————————————— You may have noticed the happy little fellows in the header of this blog. They are holding…
I ate at a ridiculously dope restaurant called Garde Manger last night. It was my second visit and the first for two of my companions. What struck me as I sampled quail and lobster risotto was that the place, while high end and priced as such, had no pretensions. The…
On this day in 1737 Thomas Paine was born. Happy 273rd Tommy! I hope it is a good one for you. Paine is arguably one of the most influential thinkers of the last 300 years, having played key roles in both the French and American Revolutions. More importantly for this…
Today, despite the massive increase it would mean in terms of my personal revenue stream, I am glad I am not the Senior VP of Marketing at Pepsi. Why? Two basic facts: It seems the Super Bowl was the most watched TV show ever. There was not one Pepsi ad…
I just grabbed Seth Godin‘s All Marketers are Liars. True to form, it’s bomb ass. The book details how marketing is really about telling stories – a premise you’ve definitely heard if you’ve been near a business in the last 5 to 5000 years. So, if telling a story is…
Tintin, the popular French speaking comic book character, speaks a slang known as “joual” (at least in books sold in Quebec). Profs, columnists and others in salons in the Plateau Montreal and Outremont are outraged reports the National Post. The above piece singled out two reactions from members of the Quebec intelligentsia that…
Length matters. I say this partly because, in the last few days, I’ve come across several items on the amount of words needed to convey news. Two in particular spurred on some thoughts: This post, that touched on whether the 140 character world might eventually kill traditional news media. A…