notes from the lab

The Words I Hate by Loyd Case

Because of what I do, I get more press releases than, say, the average human. I also get a lot of marketing drivel disguised as technology white papers and often get redirected to Web sites that will enhance my understanding of some wowie-zowie new tech that will change our lives. Along the way, I get inundated with words that just make me want to gag.
So here are my picks for the words and phrases I hate. If you're a PR person, and you're reading this, take notes. You may learn something. Reading for pleasure

• Consumption. As in "The Future of Content Consumption" and other similar uses. If there's a word I loathe, it's the word "consumption." In the last century "consumption" meant you were going to die of tuberculosis. Consumption is everywhere, though. Once upon a time, the Internet, and other electronic media, such as video games, were once heralded as the end of passive consumption of content. Now, though, we "consume" games and other content. That's a lowblow—even gamers are now considered passive consumers of content in the eyes of marketers. How far we've fallen… The idealist in me wants to kill that word as it's currently used because the model of the consumer in the era of global warming, peak oil, and seven billion people is no longer valid.
• Sustainability. The idea behind this word is a laudable one. We want human endeavors to use resources in a smart way, so that we have as little impact on planet Earth as possible. After all, until we develop cheaper oil, travel faster than light, and there's a human diaspora to the stars, we're kind of stuck with our planet. But the word "sustainability" is just a terrible word. It's meaningless, or has too many meanings (which is the same thing). When the local organic farmer and British Petroleum both talk about "sustainability," you know they can't possibly mean the same thing.
• Landmark Event. This is usually used in conjunction with some trade show, usually a for-profit show hosted by consultants trying to feed at the trough of companies looking for some exposure to the press and public. From my perspective, some of these shows can be useful, but they are not "landmark events." Neil Armstrong taking his first step on the moon is a landmark event. The Berlin Wall being torn down is a landmark event. Your local seminar on the goodness of ultrawideband is most certainly not a landmark event.

• Unprecedented. "Our new product has received unprecedented support" is a good example. I suppose this statement is sort of accurate, as it didn't exist before the two or three developers lined up to make stuff for it. No product existed, ergo there was no precedent. Please, spare me.

• Redefine. "Our hot new game, SimShooter VI, will redefine the genre." Uh, right, whatever. If you're at sequel number six, you're not "redefining anything." This highlights an interesting conundrum for marketers, which we'll touch on in the next word. Open Book
  

Read an article on Why Cable TV Sucks and Why I Got Rid of It

• Franchise. "SimShooter VI is the hot new entry in the SimShooter franchise." So on one hand, you're redefining a genre, but on the other hand, you're continuing the franchise.

My real beef with this word is that I don't want to buy into a "franchise." It smacks of a lack of creativity. But it also highlights a problem that marketers have. After all, they want people to feel warm and fuzzy, and familiarity breeds warm and fuzzy feelings. But they want their product to seem very cool and new, and a "franchise" doesn't feel cool and new.

One good example of this was Call of Duty 4. I suppose it was part of the Call of Duty "franchise," but it was very much a different beast than the earlier iterations, while having some surface similarities. But I sort of wish it had been called something else. But then, I'm no longer in marketing.

• Webinar. The less said about this word, the better "Please, just stop!".
• Porn. I'm not talking about content that deals with sex. I'm talking about the word "porn" overused in other contexts, like "geek porn", "car porn," and "tech porn." It's tiresome, and just not funny or edgy any more.
• Seminal. "Today is a seminal moment in technology." See "Landmark Event," above. It's another word that's so overused as to be utterly meaningless.
• Hacking. Recently, we used this word in a headline about the Dell XPS 630, "Hacking Dell…," about overclocking the new Dell gaming system. One reader took offense at the word, due to its negative connotation. Of course, in our geeky enthusiast word, hacking can be positive ("I hacked my BIOS to tweak the FSB clocks…") or negative, "some clown hacked my blog with porn spam."

So I'm not sure I hate the word hacking, but it's meaning is so diluted and varied, it's not a particularly useful word any more.

What overused words or phrases do you hate? Drop by the forums and let us know.

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