English what art thou?

Way back in the 1990's a brilliant broadcaster called Melvyn Bragg, produced an epic series called History of the English Language .

I'd strongly recommend this series and Melvyn's other work including his Podcast "In our Time", which now has over a 1,000 episodes, and predates all the narricists who think anyone wants to listen to them witter one about nothing, by about 30 years.

Today I want to talk about one of the things Melvyn discusses, which is where English is heading. His contention was that Legalese was turning English into a type of contractual computer code, unable to be read by normal people, but only understandable by expert lawyers. If you've ever read a Software license agreement I think you would probably agree he was right.

But there is another type of English in the world today. Not that of poets and writers, not that of the average people, not even that of lawyers. I speak of Marketing English.

Marketing English has become so flowery, so concerned with attempting to reach everyone and offend no one that it has simply lost all meaning. These modern marketing messages are not really trying to speak to a human, but to compete in the the bizarre world of SEO.

But here's the rub. There seems no point in trying to get through to real people, that once you find them they have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

This is a probably fruitless call for some clarity. Of course I didn't optimize this article so I guess no one is going to see it anyway. Sigh.....

#Marketing #wordsalad #English

Here are some examples, as if you need any. I found both of the examples in less than 3 minutes. If you need some examples of your own I would suggest you simply look in your own email inbox.

Here from a Company describing itself and what it does (I think).

Born digital in 2014, we apply Customer Experience Solutions, Data Analytics and AI, Digital Infrastructure and Security, and Platform and Product Engineering expertise to help clients quickly innovate for growth, create digital products, build service platforms, and drive smarter, data-driven performance. With delivery locations across United States, Romania, Canada, Mexico, and India, our growing global workforce of over 6,000 blends the latest technology and design thinking with digital fluency to solve complex business problems and drive competitive differentiation for our clients.

Or this.

We seek to ignite that passion by setting high standards, championing teamwork, and creating work-life harmony as we collectively navigate rapid growth on a global scale while striving for greater equity and opportunity – inside and outside our organization.To flourish here, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: Acting with autonomy, having accountability and being open to new perspectives are essential to our continued success. Our deep curiosity to learn and our eagerness to share diverse passions with others gives us balance and injects a one-of-a-kind vibrancy into our culture.