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 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
As you’ve probably heard to death by now, the hit film Tropic Thunder has stirred up a little hornet’s nest in politically correct circles. (I would say wasp’s nest, but the PC folks would probably object to offending White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Those Saxons can be a gnarly bunch.) To promote Tropic Thunder, actor/writer/director Ben Stiller [...]
Tags:Ben Stiller·language·political correctness·Tropic Thunder·Urban Dictionary·words
"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.
