Advertisingese

One of the things I learned early into an advertising career was to avoid the idea or phrase "The best just got better." Clients love this message and always insist that it's a good message because it's true (and in some cases it is). But as you all know, the truth is not the point of advertising. The point of advertising is to motivate people to do something. And I'm sorry, but "the best just got better" is not a motivating statement- it's a boast. To be motivating, it requires the customer to first agree that your product is the best and people rarely think about things that way. Just like "new and improved" is a dangerous message because it might make people think, "What was wrong with the original stuff that they had to improve it?"

What made me think of this was an ad by Comcast for some kind of sound and light show at their headquarters in today's Inquirer, which manages to jam two bad cliches into the same ad. The headline says "The most wonderful time of the year just got more wonderful." So song lyrics aside, how many of you really think this is the most wonderful time of the year? So if you don't think this is the most wonderful time of the year, the ad's lost you already. And if you do think it's wonderful, are you really longing to make it wonderfuller?

So now let's move on to "a New Philadelphia Holiday Tradition." Of the traditions you know, how many of them are new? Well, none of course, because there's no such thing. If it's new, it's not a tradition. All it's missing is "fun for the whole family." And don't get me started on the picture of the girl looking up in wonderment.