If you have a few minutes to spare, take a look at this humourous video compilation of the plethora of advertising phrases used by corporations. In both printed and video ads we are bombarded with phrases like these.
“buy one, get one free”
“limited time only”
“offer only available to the first 100 customers”
I found this video over at Tom Wanek’s site where he has also assembled an incredibly simple yet profound Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator to measure the amount of cliched content in your copy. Whether it is a new blog post, a sales squeeze page or an article you have penned, run it by the Ad-Speak Calculator to see how it scores.
With only 17% of young Americans giving credit to the veracity of corporate advertising, knocking ad-speak on the head might just be the best thing you do for your future copy writing efforts. (ref: 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer, as cited on Tom’s site)
I found Tom’s post via a very helpful post written by Cheryl over at Aspiring FEMpreneur. If you’re a female entrepreneur, Cheryl and Susan write some amazing content mostly aimed at you. Check out their site after you have run some of your content through the ad-speak calculator.
Why don’t you run the text of one or more of your affiliate blog posts, squeeze pages or other copy through the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator then come back here and share what you discovered. With just a few tweaks of some cliched words, you can easily get it down to 0% ad-speak content.
I put the content of this page through the calculator and got a moderate 3% score, mainly due to the example phrases near the top.
Share your results below.
Related posts:
Ohhhh, I miss Carlin
It’s really annoying hearing the same, tired ad speak over and over again. Being young, I can say that it actually really deters me from becoming a customer of those companies simply because if they don’t care about their message, how much will they care about me?
You gotta make your business unique, speak to your audience, don’t just aim for everyone because no one will be important.
Murlu´s last post..How To Over-Deliver With Every Blog Post
He certainly had a great talent. I hear you re the lingo. Even at my age I am tired of the nonsense that is thrown at me in the name of marketing.
Good advice Murray! and you do it well on your blog.
That was a cool tool.
I scored low on my latest post – 2%. It was chock full of babbling so I’m glad the meter didn’t measure that.
Toronto Dentist´s last post..Dental Sins and Dentists to Avoid – Pain Exploiters II
Hello and welcome Joe. Thanks for dropping by. I haven’t seen a babble-meter yet
Twitter: barry_wells
says:
Hi again Michael, another great post. I liked the video and the test facility.
I scored 2%, which would be impressive right? As long as the salespage is as impressive ha ha.
Its a great resource for us that are just starting out, one that i’ll use over and over for all my writings.
Thanks again Michael, always a pleasure coming here.
Respect and regards, Barry
Barry@The Newbies Guide´s last post..Part 10 of The Newbies Guide: Generating Traffic To Your Website
Barry, 2% is good. The lower the better. There is no harm in a bit of ad-speak but if it overwhelms the sales page or article it is going to cause a lot of people to hit the back button. I am glad to be of service. Michael
Nice post and what a useful video. I’ll have some fun with the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Justin. It is amazing how much ad-speak there is but when I watched the video for the first time I recognised every one of the phrases as something I had heard time and again. Thanks for dropping by.
Hey Michael,
Yep the times are definitely changing and not just in our industry where even a newbie is savvy and a little numb to ‘ad speak’!
The ad speak calculator is a resource I’ll be using so thanks very much for sharing!
Rob
(** RJB **)
** RJB **´s last post..Really Important But Often Overlooked…
I’m glad you found the calculator of use.
It is not just ad-speak that is turning off audiences, I think that some e-books are also going out of fashion. I am looking at this with the hope of writing about it soon. E-books will probably always have a place on the market but perhaps not so prominent as has been the case over the last 5 or so years.
I don’t really have any ad speak as I just post content descriptions, and on my main site which is about meditation and spirituality I post reviews and articles so have nothing to run through this thing. Having said that—I just LOVE the video. George Carlin was a master of words. I’ll head over the the site you recommended now.
gwen@divacostumes´s last post..Movie Star Costumes
Hi Gwen, yes he had a unique way with words. Best wishes on your diva site. Add a link to your main site as well for some link love
I took away a lot good points from this piece and will definitely save it in my favoritse. Thanks for taking the time to write about this matter so throroughly. I look forward to future posts.
Glad to be of service
Hey its a good post and video is also very good and useful too. I had fun with the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator.
thank you very much for sharing with us…………
It is a good tool – Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator – and worth using on any new sales page or promotional email you’re putting together. Thanks for your comment.
Personally I am not the biggest advertising person but I honestly don’t mind companies that have “ad speak” as long as they back whatever that are claiming.
I feel their “ad speak” is their attempt at a USP. Which I am all for but when a company states something and doesn’t produce what they have promised, this is what upsets me.
-Equity release calculator
That’s a fair comment George. Integrity is important and anything that leaves it intact is okay I guess. On a related topic, what really peeves me is when packaging (a type of advertising) is much bigger than the product inside.
I never knew that ad-speak is very useful, I really appreciate the video you have shared this is useful and at the same time very helpful.
Kate Brown Wilson´s last post..home loan singapore