Cultural critics and wordsmiths gather around for this outstanding foray into verbal investigation.
- Have we lost our way when declaring ideas?
- Why has the declarative been exchanged for the inquisitive?
- Have we lost our ability, or our nerve, to declare our thoughts with confidence?
Highlights include:
“We’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know . . , a long time ago.”
“It is not enough these days to question authority, you’ve got to speak with it too.”
How inspirational during a Friday morning lull.
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Taylor Mali is great. I’ve heard this many times, but never thought of it in the context of marketing. Interesting…
It raises an interesting problem for marketers. Should copywriters attempt to write with classical articulateness, or is it more effective to write copy in the modern vernacular? The definition of ‘articulate’ seems to be changing. Words are only useful to the degree that they affect the reader, and the reader may be most influenced by words written in language with which he can identify.
Jay, thanks for the thoughts.
I don’t think it raises a problem at all. As a marketer, we should first and foremost understand our audience. That determines how we write to influence action.
Nothing replaces clarity, and i don’t believe that the definition of articulate changes – it’s a simple questions of speaking or writing with clarity. “Classical,” is the word that would be up for changing, as no one really understands the outdated (and completely random) rules of “whom”, “shall” and “will.”
Even thought you may adjust your language to reach a specific group of people, you still need to write and speak with authority and clarity.
Back in the late 80’s I spent 2 years in New Zealand, and as a female I didn’t get very far selling my ideas to my male Kiwi boss until I adopted the voice inflection Taylor Mali makes fun of in this video.
Not long into my stay, I heard a news report about this inflection, and that sociologists had determined that it was a sign of low self-esteem; their conclusion that as a nation, Kiwi’s were unsure of themselves. My U.S. confidence came off as arrogance.
I adapted the inflection and it was like magic. It’s still my first instinct to “declare unequivically”, but some people just can’t take their meat served up raw. :)
This is the first time that I watched Mr. Taylor Mali speaks. And I must say that he’s got a certain style. He made me laugh but he also made me think, too. Maybe, the reason why people won’t listen to my ideas sometimes is that I’m not articulate enough. Next time, I’m sure I’ll do better.
Back in the late 80’s I spent 2 years in New Zealand, and as a female I didn’t get very far selling my ideas to my male Kiwi boss until I adopted the voice inflection Taylor Mali makes fun of in this video.