This is the best thing I’ve read in a long time.

No, I’m not aping the hyperbolic headlines you see in social media just to get you to read, although I’ve been meaning to write about that. I really mean it about this piece. The writer is a copywriter by trade, and he laments the overly complex and lofty language used in advertising and other marketing. He argues that if a company can’t describe its product and its benefits, then even a talented writer won’t be able to do it. And that’s when you end up describing something like accounting software as a “complete suite of solutions” or a “holistic, cross-platform experience.” And there’s that word – “experience.” Marketers often talk about selling an experience or an emotion. Or they describe a product as being “aspirational.” There’s a place for those things, of course, but I get impatient when I’m being sold a cleaning product with the promise that if I use it, I’ll have more time to live a more awesome life. I’d prefer more straightforward messaging, like: “decreases cleaning time by 30%,” even if the claim is a little dubious.

For Complex Products, Using Simple Language is a Value-Added Solution

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Each week, “A Linking Mess” offers a handful of articles that have recently caught the attention of our Sr. Copywriter.

This week, I’m linking to three articles about sleep. The topic of sleep seems to get ever more attention, and not just from people like Leggett & Platt employees who have a vested interest in the subject. If you read these articles, prepare to see the requisite stock images of people sleeping (or trying to sleep). I should reach out to the stock-image people and sell them the many photos my wife has taken of me sleeping and spooning one of our dogs.

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I’m Shela Bannasch, filling in for my boss Paul M. Johnson while he is attending the ISPA Expo this week. As I am a young whippersnapper, I spend a lot of my time on the Internet and, when I’m not perusing the Facebook or watching cat videos, I sometimes like to read interesting articles and stuff. This week, I’m examining one of my favorite places on the Internet – Wikipedia.

The Future of Wikipedia: WikiPeaks? – The Economist

I’m a big fan of Wikipedia as both a source of knowledge and a source of entertainment. I may go there with the intention of looking up some actor’s filmography, but through a series of links, I find myself an hour later reading about the ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. It’s fascinating. And while it may seem like a waste of time, it has made me pretty good at trivia.

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