By Richard Laermer
Why can't people be careful these days?
Sure, you heard your parents mumble that at one time or another, but I'm talking about writing. Almost everything I read has errors in it - and not because Microsoft
Grammar Check stopped working its magic. I see a lot of carelessness emanating from PR people thinking (I think) that someone else is going to make the document perfect.
Who is this someone else? While everyone makes minor goofs, I see major ones all over the place, and they're uncanny. I'm here to ask every communications professional to take
a third and fourth look before hitting the "send" key or printing press releases on super-fancy copier paper.
Some say it's the fault of e-mail. Sounds like a big excuse coming on. People pass their documents back and forth and add rather than correct. Since I am part of the last
generation to use typewriters and once rejoiced at the invention of BIC's Wite-Out (a.k.a. Liquid Paper), I place blame on those large monitors on our desks. There's no way
you can catch a boo-boo onscreen, but most folks won't print out the written work.
Today things travel casually, desk to desk, until the work goes out without someone realizing, "Wait, wait. That's supposed to say AUNT." (That's a private joke for "Curb Your
Enthusiasm" fans.)
I am a kind of typo-savant. I see them out of corners of my eyes. As a matter of fact, where my mate and I live part-time outside LA, we laugh at crazy errors on "cable ready"
Time Warner ads constantly. I see them in staff and management reports - I was born a proofreader - where folks create documents using wrong words, or worse, being
grammatically incorrect. If an author doesn't even bother to use Spell Check I know s/he is simply sloppy.
Recently I have come undone by some doozeys that found their way to me from unexpected sources. Witness:
LA Times: A front-page Cars section advertisement that was nearly a quarter of a page; It actually said LOVE WHAT YOUR DRIVING.
Re/Max calendar: I got it in the mail - a mean feat because it was octagonal and printed with verve and style. Problem: The proud real estate professional calls herself
YOU'RE DESERT REALTOR.
TIME magazine: As Ms. Stewart headed to prison, it had a corner headline that read MARTHA'S JUST DESERTS.
Showtime: In announcing the first episode of "The L Word," the words blaring onscreen spoke of the upcoming PREMEIRE.
Needless to say, it's bad PR to present a sloppy example to the public. Not only does it debase your reputation, but it necessitates an embarrassing conversation with your CEO
or client. I'm not going to get into the incorrect usage of "less" and "fewer" in multitudes of costly print ads, nor the occasion a few years ago when The New York Times
ran a Sports Friday section on Saturday morning.
Books are worth discussing, since most are edited "from afar," where committees babble haughtily about plot or mis en scene or arc. Nonfiction tomes are merely about the phrase
everyone can use at cocktail parties (like, err, Blink).
A few years ago, a book on how companies steal corporate secrets contained so many made-up words (Exon, as in Valdez) that I had to put it down. Editors don't feel like
taking their time even though that's their job, and this holds true for PR professionals who are sending there communications initiatives - be they press releases, e-mails or PSAs
- into the mass marketplace.
All that cash lobbed at voluminous printing, expensive promotions and massive PR efforts, and what does it do in the end? It turns people who notice errors right off. In cases
like mine, products or parent companies are never purchased (from) again.
I definitely make mis-steaks, but I don't trust my under-caffeine-ated self and hand my work to others who see with a critical eye.
I'm not trying to be Ben Bradlee. I just like to read, look up, and watch TV without observing typos that stop me cold.
To some, it sounds like bellyaching, but being careful and deliberate is essential in this day and age.
I paraphrase Tony Soprano's shrink in a third season episode: Indeed, Americans get caught up in the little things. The big ones are all taken care of, and so we're lucky; We
have that ability to focus.
Contact: Richard Laermer is the author of "Full Frontal PR," cohost of badpitch.blogspot.com and CEO of RLM PR. He can be reached at 212.741.5106, ex. 225. or [email protected].
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