Advertising insights and language tidbits

Creativity

• Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech
  • An illustrated deck of 64 creative thinking strategies that will whack you out of habitual thought patterns and enable you to look at your life and actions in a fresh way. Use the cards alone or with others to seek innovative solutions to issues. Created by best-selling author von Oech, the cards have been used by many organizations, including NASA, in strategy development and problem solving. Complete with detailed instructions.

Globish

• The English that everyone can understand - the English used around the world as means to communicate. Major proponents: Madhukar Gogate and Jean-Paul Nerrière.
  • Nerrière's Globish website. Mainly in French but does include links and examples for English readers. Highlights include parallel articles written in native speaker English and Globish (guess which one is bland). The glossary is pretty handy, too.
  • Observer. An article about the Globish revolution...what's this English-lite all about?

On writing

• The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr.
  • The bible of straightforward, crisp American prose. Read it. Memorize it. Emulate it.

A note on grammar

• Where's the best place to put the fullstop in English? Or the comma? It can all be very subjective and often depends what you're trying to say or how you want to say it.
  • Try putting the punctuation in this paragraph...
    • dear jack i want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yearn for you i have no feelings whatsoever when we‘re apart i can be forever happy will you let me be yours jill
      

(Click here or scroll to the bottom for some solutions)

Online articles

• The You Decade
  • Available at [[1]. Slate takes a fresh look at how the field of communications has re-appropriated the word ‘you’. A great counterpoint to the attitudes of the Me generation, too.

• Ad Report Card courtesy of Slate
  • Visit Slate [2] for a weekly column deconstructing the latest in American advertising. What works, what doesn't, and what's ahead. Some truly wonderful and tells-it-like-it-is criticism of live campaigns and marketing efforts.

• Your Voice [3]
  • A hip BBC examines how English is spoken across the British Isles today. Features
    • debates on how people speak
    • multilingual nation
    • stop talking rubbish
    • language change
    • classroom talk
    • language ecology
    • the linguistics of 'bad language'
    • language and place - untangle the links between language and geography
    • Received Pronunciation and BBC English
    • language and time - trace the history of the languages of the British Isles
    • accents and radio drama
    • politeness
    • language and age
    • when languages collide
    • why study language?
    • talking proper - is there such a thing as 'ungrammatical'?
    • the art of conversation

Plain English

• Center for Plain Language [[4]
  • The Center's mission is to increase the usefulness and efficiency of government, legal, and business documents, so that the people who use those documents can quickly and easily find what they need, understand what they find, and act on that understanding. Includes principles, benefits, and resources.

• The Plain Language Association International (PLAIN) [5]
  • A volunteer nonprofit organization of plain-language advocates, professionals, and organizations committed to plain language. Includes legal language, langage samples and resources, language in the news, conferences, literary resources, other organizations, and government initiatives.

• The Plain English Campaign
  • A UK based organisation championing clear, concise writing styles. The Plain English Campaign website[6] is full of useful references, jargon busting phrases, a ‘Hall of Shame’ for terrible examples of jargon filled copy and explains how companies can gain the Plain English Campaign’s seal of approval, the Crystal Mark, for their written materials.

Refreshingly good, best practice

Call a spade a spade. Say it as it is: a wonderful "hey buddy, look at this" American website, a far cry from German OTT technospeak. Give the author a prize: Pro-Tools

Podcasts

• A Way with Words [7]
  • Authors and language experts Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett tackle listeners’ questions about all aspects of language -- word origins, grammar, slang, regional dialects, pronunciation, good writing, and much more. Based in San Diego, California.

• The Advertising Show [8]
  • The Advertising Show is America’s only globally distributed weekly program focusing on advertising, media, marketing, sales and customer relations. The Advertising Show, co-hosted by Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, discusses advertising issues, marketing trends and strategies, and features weekly interviews with prominent industry experts. Listeners benefit from the weekly talk show features and practical marketing advice from experienced professionals and interviews featuring national industry leaders who share their wisdom through their own problem solving experiences. Also includes glossaries, archives, industry links, book series, and much more. Caustically witty!

• Writing for the Web [9]
  • Writing for the Web: Is it Really So Different from Writing for Print? A 15-minute crash course for editors and writers making the switch from print to online. Now that the Web has had a decade to evolve, we know a lot about what works online, what doesn't, and how users interact with Web sites. This is all crucial in understanding how to write online. In this Crash Course, journalist Manoush Zomorodi presents our exploration of how writing online varies from traditional writing in the print world. 1 video, 15 minutes, $15.

Websites & blogs

Advertising

• ihaveanidea.org
  • One of the world's largest online advertising communities. Thousands of advertising professionals from around the world read its famously candid interviews with the world's top creative minds, watch and share their two cents on the latest ads, converse with others in its informal forum, and even drop Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk (co-CCOs at Ogilvy & Mather Toronto) a question or two in the popular "Ask Jancy" column. Includes comprehensive listings of creatives, articles, blogs, resources, sponsors, etc.

• coloribus.com
  • Think you've got an original idea? Visit this website to find out and discover an amazing collection of identical ads.

• adsoftheworld.com
  • Showcase of ads impressing even the ad experts.

Branding

• brandchannel.com
  • Brandchannel.com is committed to providing a global perspective on brands. It challenges us to think further about the important issues that are affecting brands now and in the future. To further enhance our brand awareness, brandchannel.com offers a cadre of tools and information including global listings for conferences, courses and careers, and a streamlined version of The Brand Glossary as well as links to other valuable industry resources.

• Brand Republic
  • Brand Republic[10] is the place to go to find out all about the UK marketing, media and communications industries. The brainchild of Haymarket Publishing, whose magazines include UK industry bibles ‘Marketing’, ‘Campaign’ and ‘Media Week’, it covers a range of things including: industry news, research, communities, an archive, events and careers.

Denglish

• Transblawg: http://www.margaret-marks.com/Transblawg
  • Margaret Marks: Weblog on German-English legal translation from Fürth. A completely random collection of Denglish nuggest, English legal terms, and assorted cultural observations.

• The 'Living German' campaign
  • English straplines might be used in all kinds of German marketing, advertising and publishing materials, but do they do the job they're supposed to do? Are they well understood? Infact, are they always the right words? Find out more here[11].

Corporate and Internal Communications

• British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB)
  • Want to know what’s new in corporate and internal communications? Interested in an online knowledge bank? How about finding out about training courses? And a regular newsletter? The British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB) covers all this and more. Click here[12] to check out their website.

• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
  • Corporate and internal communications play an important role in international business. Find out more about the latest trends, research, awards and jobs at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) website. Check it out for yourself by clicking here[13].

Trends

• trendwatching.com
  • trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated trend firm, scanning the globe for the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. For the latest and greatest, the site relies on its network of 8,000+ spotters in more than 70 countries worldwide. Most findings are aggregated in a free, monthly Trend Briefing, which is sent to 130,000+ business professionals in more than 120 countries. To read the latest edition of the Trend Briefing, please go to www.trendwatching.com/briefing/. These trend findings help marketers, CEOs, researchers, and anyone else interested in the future of business and consumerism, to dream up new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) their customers.

USA/UK insights

• The Americans, from a German perspective
  • USA explained
• Britspeak from a US angle
  • The very best of British

A note on grammar solutions

• Here are just two ways you can interpret the piece of text in the 'A note on grammar' section.
  • Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we‘re apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours? Jill
  • Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we‘re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be. Yours, Jill