“Next to analysis, communication skills must count among the most important for future masters of the universe. To their credit, business schools do stress these skills, and force their students to engage in make-believe presentations to one another. On the whole, however, management education has been less than a boon for those who value free [...]
Tags:business·communications·jargon·Matthew Stewart·MBA·philosophy
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC + Part-Time Shark Jumper Despite an economy that resembles roadkill, America still excels at media, including entertainment and news. We give good hype, and the Internet brings it to the rest of the world 24/7. One problem: all this unfiltered Yankee content poses a linguistic challenge [...]
Tags:beer·communications·expressions·Happy Days·Jim Jones·Joe Six Pack·John Kerry·Jonestown·journalism·Jumping The Shark·language·media·Miss South Carolina·Nixon·slang·Soccer Moms·swiftboating·Urban Dictionary·Watergate·words
As a USC Trojan, I have a twisted interest in the Ohio State University football team this season. I was thrilled when my Trojans throttled them earlier this season 35-3, but this weekend, I’ll be rooting for the Buckeyes as they play Penn State. (Penn State is ranked higher than USC, and therefore must be [...]
Tags:automobiles·Buckeyes·cars·communications·Dan Neil·grammar·language·marketing·Ohio State University·Toyota·Trojans·University of Southern California
So there’s this common symbol that’s being used to justify everything from industrial pollution to obscene spending. No, I’m not talking about the letter “W” — that’s become a punchline. I’m referring to the once humble and inoffensive % sign, now exploited as a tool of self-righteous justification. I stumbled across two flagrant examples of [...]
Tags:business·communications·fuzzy math·green business·marketing·Patrick Byers·Responsible Marketing·Sallie Mae·Sarah Palin·statistics·Tom Cruise·waste stream·Yellow Pages
As yet another Cool Rules Pronto public service, I’ve identified a few words and phrases that have been so overused, misused and abused that they no longer have any meaning. (Kind of like the joke in an average Saturday Night Live sketch.) These terms sound important without saying anything, which makes them ideal for press [...]
Tags:advertising·business·communications·jargon·language·marketing·PR·public relations·slang·terminology·words·writing
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder of the L.A.-based creative strategy agency Atomic Tango LLC, and marketing instructor at UCLA Extension and Robert Kennedy College of Zurich, Switzerland.
