Weird Al Yankovic Is Making Fun Of Your Branding

by | Jul 24, 2014 | Brand Messaging

Weird Al Yankovic has been poking fun of pop culture for decades, but now he’s released an amazing song about business. “Mission Statement” is a biting mockery of business speak.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Weird Al says, “I wanted to do a song about all the ridiculous double-speak and meaningless buzzwords that I’ve been hearing in office environments my entire life … I just thought it would be ironic to juxtapose that with the song stylings of CSN [Crosby, Stills & Nash], whose music pretty much symbolizes the antithesis of corporate America.”

Check out his brilliant music video:

Take the Jargon Free Challenge

Weird Al’s song highlights many of the commonplace jargon we use every day, and don’t even realize it:

  • World class
  • Solutions
  • Synergy
  • Strategies
  • Core competencies
  • Holistically
  • Best of breed
  • Globalization
  • Mission critical
  • Administrate
  • Operationalize
  • Functionality
  • Client centric
  • Downsizing
  • Proactively
  • Incentivize
  • Paradigm shift
  • Transitioning
  • Viability
  • Diversity
  • Commitment to quality
  • Monetize
  • Fundamentals
  • Value-add
  • Bring to the table
  • Cross platform
  • Seamless integration
  • Robust
  • Scalable
  • Day-to-day

Search your website, marketing collateral and proposals. How often does your company use these phrases? Is there a better way to say the same thing without jargon?

Jargon are weeds

If you’re not careful business speak will sprout up in your marketing. The phrases are like weeds.

I redid the Jargon Free Challenge today, and realized I’m guilty of using strategies, paradigm shift and value-add far too often. I have some weeding to do.

How about you? Is your marketing free of business speak weeds?

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Jeremy Miller

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