September, 2011
What’s the origin of Indian Summer?
There I was tootling along the M25 yesterday, on my way to Scotney Castle in Kent to meet a friend. It was a beautiful day and given the wet summer we’ve had, the glorious sunshine came as a welcome surprise. “Perhaps we’ll have an Indian Summer,” I said to myself. Then I started to wonder where the term comes from.
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Grabbing the headlines
Grabbing the headlines
Whatever we think of the reporting standards in our national newspapers, they have given us some great headlines over the years.
One of my personal favourites is The Sun’s “Super Cally go ballasitc, Celtic are atrocious” following Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s 3-1 win over Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 2000.
I spotted one of a slightly more sophisticated nature on the front page of The Guardian in April and have been meaning to write a post based on it ever since. It accompanied a front-page story by the paper’s Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis. She was writing about the alleged outrage of notorious French riot police – the Compagnie Repulicaines de Securite (CRS) on hearing they would no longer be allowed to drink alcohol with their lunch.
Apparently, up until now, even packed lunches provided to the CRS out of riot vans while they were patrolling demos, came with a can of beer or glass of wine. And the headline?
“Riot squad sees rouge as police vin gets bottled.”
It’s tempting to think that good headlines are the result of a flash of inspiration (an old stalwart, by the way, when I was Head of Press and PR for Nikon UK and writing about the company’s flashlights – yes I know, I know). But the majority of strong, memorable, and more importantly, effective headlines take time and a great deal of hard work.
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Painting with words at Dungeness
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about paintings that feature words after I’d been to the Royal Academy Summer Show. A week later we went to Dungeness and called in to see our friends, Paddy Hamilton and Helen Gillian at Dungeness Open Studios. And there, in both studios, was a series of new works composed exclusively in letters and compound phrases.
The works feature words made up from a new font Paddy is developing together with graphic designer friend, Andrew Sullivan of Blacknight Design The font will be called Dungeness and should be available later this year.
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Painting with words
After weeks of promising myself a visit, I only just made it to this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition before it closed on Monday 15 August.
As always it was a mixed bag and there was lots to see but I was particularly drawn to three pieces of work that used words rather than images.
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A lesson in clear, succinct copy… from an estate agent
I’m sure I’m not the only one to be inundated with leaflets from local estate agents clamouring to sell my house. And I’m sure I’m not alone in consigning the majority of them to the bin without reading beyond the headline. Especially the one with the headline that read ‘Recent Let’s Agreed’. Sadly, I kid you not.
Anyway, one day last week a leaflet dropped through the letterbox that really broke the mould. It was from the Surbiton office of Hawes & Co and it grabbed my attention immediately.
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Wimbledon tennis commentators serve faulty phrase
So Wimbledon is over for another year and I’m trying to adjust to tennis-free days. One thing I won’t miss though is that horrible phrase ‘the business end’ that too many of the match commentators used too often.
I got tired of hearing, ‘well, we’re at the business end of the set now.’ Ugh. Not only is it plain ugly, but like all phrases that become over-used, it jars. You have to be very careful, in writing as well as in speech, about becoming reliant on certain distinctive words, phrases, and devices.
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Is ‘solutions’ the most over-used word in the dictionary?
It may only comprise eight letters but the word ‘solution’ can drive me to hysterical rants. I really do loathe it. It’s just so over-used in marketing copy, and worse still, as part of a company name.
Businesses seem to think it makes them sound dynamic and professional. Well it doesn’t. It makes them seem dull, unimaginative, dated, and as a PR friend of mine suggested – ‘lazy-brained’.
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Why choosing the right words is essential if you want to engage your audience
A lesson in subtlety from World War ll
Writing copy for marketing materials is about much more than describing your business. In my post ‘Let me tell you a story’, I wrote about the power of painting a picture for your audience and the importance of choosing words that will engage them. Well, I’ve just come across a great example from the Second World War of why you need to keep your audience in mind all the time you’re writing.
The Home Publicity Division of The Ministry of Information managed to alienate its target audience with its first poster. Created to boost morale, the poster had the opposite affect because it read:
‘your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us Victory.’ Not surprisingly, it prompted people to wonder who exactly you and we were in that equation!
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Let me tell you a story
I’ve just read a great article in Intelligent Life – The Economist’s quarterly magazine – by Robert Butler an arts and environmentalist blogger.
Basically it’s about getting your message across, and Butler uses environmentalists to make his point. Now, I’ve no idea whether or not this is true but he claims they have a tendency to hit people with stats, results and conclusions.
He says this closes the subject down and doesn’t allow the other person’s mind anywhere to go. His recommendation to Greens is to ditch information overload, “in favour of suggesting details that actually catch people’s interest and allow the other person to get involved.”
It’s good advice that also applies to our marketing materials.
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Jargon alert: mid-weight copywriter needed
Imagine my bewilderment when this turned up in my inbox earlier:
Seeking a mid-weight copywriter
Our client, a well-established beauty retailer, is looking for a mid-weight copywriter…
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