As Featured In:

The New York TimesThe Wall Street JournalThe Washington Post
EntrepreneurInc.CNNWebby Award Honoree

Selected as one of the best newsletters on the Internet by the Webby Awards!

AUGUST 4, 2005|BRANDS & MARKETING


All Marketers are Bullshitters?


Rohitblog_bull_small Mastering the art of bullshit used to be a badge of respect in college.  After all, who wouldn't want to have the ability to write endlessly about a topic without having to really ever say anything?  I suppose it prepares people well for the business world where this type of nonsensical writing is often expected.  I recently visited www.fightthebull.com, a site (and book) dedicated to helping business people not sound like idiots (no easy task).  They offer a downloadable tool that isolates bullshit in presentations and word documents and helps you get rid of it. 

Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun.

But why do we avoid paying the same attention to marketing or other business language and continuously create Dilbert-style idiotic communications instead?  Probably because they are easier, and most are under the mistaken belief that using this language makes them seem smarter.  It sometimes seems the only safe haven where good writing does usually prevail is in advertising copywriting.  In that environment, every word counts and clients are paying for creativity or effectiveness.  For the rest of us marketers, perhaps downloading Bullfighter is our only hope.

Share

Book Rohit To Speak

Want to bring these ideas to your next event?

Rohit turns the thinking behind posts like this one into keynotes for audiences around the world, from Fortune 500 leadership teams to global industry conferences.

Learn More About Speaking
Rohit Bhargava delivering a keynote

Related Categories

How It All Started

A Short Backstory Of This Blog

This is a blog about non-obvious ideas. Originally launched on the Typepad platform in 2005 as the Influential Marketing blog, the stories at first focused mainly on digital marketing while Rohit worked at Ogilvy Advertising. In 2015 Rohit officially rebranded to the Non-Obvious Insights Blog and published his WSJ bestseller Non-Obvious. For the past twenty one years, this blog has coined new terms, introduced future marketing practices and inspired the next generation of non-obvious thinkers and marketers.

Want More Non-Obvious Ideas?

Join 100K+ ReadersTo Get Weekly Insights

The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter brings you the five or six most fascinating and overlooked stories of the week, with a quick take on why each one matters.

    One email every Thursday. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

    ×