Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Choose your words carefully
As PR professionals we must be mindful of the words we use, and I was reminded of the importance of this a few times this week.
Starbucks is being criticized for its skinny latte campaign because some people believe the women-centric ad campaign is sexist. In my view, this is ridiculous. We are bombarded with images of skinny women...and men...day in and day out, but Starbucks uses the adjective to quickly identify a sugar-free, fat-free coffee drink and people are offended. C'mon! The bottom line is, women order lattes. Men simply order coffee, regular of black , or the occasional macchiato, and if they do order a latte, few are worried about the syrup and fat content in the milk.
A more serious language blunder was committed by Michelle Obama yesterday in Wisconsin when she claimed, "This is the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud to be an American." Later in the day, Cindy McCain, who rarely speaks out, responded (but isn't officially saying it's in response to Michelle's earlier comment) by saying, "I have and always will be proud of my country."
I'm sure Michelle has been and will be a proud American for many years to come. However, she should have been much more cautious with her words. In the 24-hour Internet news age, everything is reported, every adjective and noun.
It will be interesting to see how much hay is made out of this statement. I'll be watching.
As PR professionals we must be mindful of the words we use, and I was reminded of the importance of this a few times this week.
Starbucks is being criticized for its skinny latte campaign because some people believe the women-centric ad campaign is sexist. In my view, this is ridiculous. We are bombarded with images of skinny women...and men...day in and day out, but Starbucks uses the adjective to quickly identify a sugar-free, fat-free coffee drink and people are offended. C'mon! The bottom line is, women order lattes. Men simply order coffee, regular of black , or the occasional macchiato, and if they do order a latte, few are worried about the syrup and fat content in the milk.
A more serious language blunder was committed by Michelle Obama yesterday in Wisconsin when she claimed, "This is the first time in my adult life, I'm really proud to be an American." Later in the day, Cindy McCain, who rarely speaks out, responded (but isn't officially saying it's in response to Michelle's earlier comment) by saying, "I have and always will be proud of my country."
I'm sure Michelle has been and will be a proud American for many years to come. However, she should have been much more cautious with her words. In the 24-hour Internet news age, everything is reported, every adjective and noun.
It will be interesting to see how much hay is made out of this statement. I'll be watching.
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