Corporate Cringe

I’m no stranger to cor­por­ate cringe.

Have you ever been in a situ­ation where you take a step back and look at your company’s com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts — and some­how feel that it’s just not very good? 

In many cases, it’s not a lack of effort.
Not a lack of strategy.
Not a lack of resources.

No, it’s the lack of some­thing else.

It’s the lack of good taste.

Communication = The Language of Emotions

In PR, met­rics and best prac­tices are essen­tial. Instincts are not to be trus­ted, we think. But com­mu­nic­a­tion is highly situ­ation­al. Communication is con­text. While feel­ings might hinder ration­al ana­lys­is, com­mu­nic­a­tion stems from our emotions.

Without that emo­tion­al lay­er, we know something’s off.
It’s human instinct.

Many have spoken to Alexa or Siri. I don’t know about you, but speak­ing with them … makes me want to stop talk­ing to them. Alexa and Siri have some emo­tion­al matur­ity to do before they pass the Turing test. ¹For more on the invent­or Alan Turing, I recom­mend the film The Imitation Game star­ring Benedict Cumberbatch.

As pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­nic­at­ors, we can con­vey our cor­por­ate mes­sages by the book (as in no-one-will-get-fired-over-this) and still miss the mark by a mile. The PR industry must be cau­tious in rely­ing upon tem­plates, scripts, clichés, auto­mated mes­sages, jar­gon, plat­it­udes, hyper­boles etc. No amount of data can sup­port a “text­book approach” in cor­por­ate communication. 

Emotions will always be our bot­tom line regard­ing PR and estab­lish­ing human connections.

Organisations Must Learn To Speak Human

We’re all hard­wired to com­mu­nic­ate emo­tion­ally. You and I would have no trouble passing the Turing test. And this is why we all cringe when organ­isa­tions speak to us in their cor­por­ate voice. 

Naturally, we feel uneasy when some­thing is try­ing to com­mu­nic­ate with us non-humanly. 

A few reas­ons come to mind:

There’s the fal­lacy of tra­di­tion; if an organ­isa­tion has been doing some­thing in a cer­tain way for ages, then we con­vince ourselves that it must work well. 

Read also: 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases

Also, cor­por­ate ton­al­ity is a form of art and, there­fore, dif­fi­cult to quantify.

How do we get it right?

An Industry-Wide Shortage of Good Taste

Having worked as a cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions adviser since 2005, I’ve told CEOs that their strategies are plain wrong. I’ve told mar­keters that they’re hurt­ing their brand from short-sighted­ness. I’ve told com­mu­nic­at­ors that they’ve spent huge budgets on unne­ces­sary activities. 

After all, my cli­ents pay me to tell them the truth and noth­ing but. 

If you drench cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion with plat­it­udes and unin­spired, stale, and corny hyper­boles — why shouldn’t that matter? 

Read also: The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Speak

We might adequately plan, execute, and meas­ure our activ­it­ies, but that won’t mat­ter if our com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­it­ies sound corny.

However, tell a com­mu­nic­a­tions depart­ment that they have poor taste in com­mu­nic­a­tion, and you’re out faster than they can slam the door behind you.

Perhaps we’re drown­ing ourselves in cor­por­ate cringe since we’ve nev­er had this conversation.

Read also: Corporational Determinism: Grandiose Product Launches

Symptoms of Platitude Sickness

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Platitude Sickness: The Symptoms

I hate cor­por­ate plat­it­udes every­where I see them. I swear, a kit­ten dies every time. 

“A plat­it­ude is a trite, mean­ing­less, or pro­sa­ic state­ment, gen­er­ally dir­ec­ted at quelling social, emo­tion­al, or cog­nit­ive unease. The word derives from plat, the French word for “flat.” Platitudes are geared towards present­ing a shal­low, uni­fy­ing wis­dom over a dif­fi­cult top­ic. However, they are too over­used and gen­er­al to be any­thing more than undir­ec­ted state­ments with an ulti­mately little mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion towards a solu­tion.”
Source: Wikipedia ²Platitude. (2023, December 9). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​P​l​a​t​i​t​ude

Here’s my “trig­ger list” of platitudes:

• “Synergy” = Overused to the point of becom­ing mean­ing­less, it refers to the coöper­a­tion of two entit­ies to pro­duce a com­bined effect more sig­ni­fic­ant than the sum of their sep­ar­ate effects.
• “Leverage” = In a busi­ness con­text, this is often used to mean using some­thing, such as a resource or an advantage.
• “Disruptive” = Refers to tech­no­lo­gies or innov­a­tions that dis­turb estab­lished mar­kets or processes.
• “Pivot” = A fun­da­ment­al shift in strategy or approach is often used for minor changes.
• “Value-add” = A term that refers to an ele­ment some­thing gives that some­how enhances it, but it’s often unclear what value is being added.
• “Bleeding-edge” = Refers to the abso­lute latest or most advanced tech­no­logy or innovation.
• “Actionable” = Generally refers to strategies or insights that can be acted upon, but are often used loosely.
• “Holistic approach” = An approach that con­siders the whole situ­ation or sys­tem rather than focus­ing on indi­vidu­al parts.
• “Scalability” The abil­ity of a sys­tem or a mod­el to handle growth is often overused.
• “Game changer” = An event, idea, or pro­ced­ure that affects a sig­ni­fic­ant shift in the cur­rent way of doing or think­ing about something.
• “Paradigm shift” = A fun­da­ment­al change in approach or under­ly­ing assumptions.
• “Cutting-edge” = Like bleed­ing-edge, it refers to the latest or most advanced tech­no­logy or innovation.
• “Thought lead­er.” = An indi­vidu­al or firm recog­nized as an author­ity in a spe­cial­ized field.
• “Empower” = To give power or author­ity, but is often over­used without con­crete meaning.
• “Innovate” = A buzzword for mak­ing changes in some­thing estab­lished, espe­cially by intro­du­cing new meth­ods, ideas, or products.
• “Low-hanging fruit” = The easy tasks or prob­lems to tackle first, but can be seen as a cliché in busi­ness language.
• “Outside the box” = Used to refer to cre­at­ive think­ing, but has become a cliché.
• “Streamline” = Simplify or make some­thing more efficient.
• “Strategic align­ment” = Ensuring that the plans or activ­it­ies of a com­pany are coördin­ated and con­sist­ent with its objectives.
• “Customer-cent­ric” = Placing the cus­tom­er at the centre of a com­pany’s philo­sophy, oper­a­tions or ideas.
• “Robust” = The over­used term implies that a product, ser­vice, or strategy is strong, dur­able, and able to with­stand demands or difficulties.
• “End-to-end solu­tion” = A ser­vice or product that solves a prob­lem from begin­ning to end, but is often seen as a buzzword due to vague definitions.
• “Unprecedented” = Overused to describe any­thing that’s nev­er happened before, often loses its impact due to fre­quency of use.
• “Breakthrough” = A sud­den, dra­mat­ic, and import­ant dis­cov­ery or devel­op­ment, but is often over­used to describe minor advancements.
• “Optimise” = To make the best or most effect­ive use of a situ­ation or resource, but it is often over­used and can lead to ambiguity.
• “Bandwidth” = Originally a tech­nic­al term, it’s now used meta­phor­ic­ally to refer to someone’s capa­city to handle tasks or issues.
• “Ecosystem” = Refers to a com­plex net­work or inter­con­nec­ted sys­tem, espe­cially in the con­text of busi­ness envir­on­ments or technologies.
• “Alignment” = Frequently used to describe the pro­cess of bring­ing dif­fer­ent aspects or depart­ments of a busi­ness into har­mony or agreement.
• “Agile” = Originating in soft­ware devel­op­ment, it’s broadly applied to describe flex­ib­il­ity and adapt­ab­il­ity in vari­ous busi­ness processes.
• “Deep Dive” = Used to describe a thor­ough ana­lys­is or exam­in­a­tion, but often over­used to mean any detailed look.
• “Touch Base” = A cas­u­al way to refer to check­ing in or fol­low­ing up with someone, but it can be seen as a cliché.
• “Granular” = Describes look­ing at some­thing with a high level of detail, but it is often used unne­ces­sar­ily instead of simply say­ing “in detail.”

Getting rid of cor­por­ate plat­it­udes is an uphill battle. They are such a waste of edit­or­i­al space and only lead straight to mediocrity.

Join the resistance!

Learn more: The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Writing

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Examples of Corporate Cringe

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Corporate Cringe (Examples)

Many cor­por­ate texts are writ­ten in poor taste. Unlike many oth­er cre­at­ive pro­fes­sions, cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions have some­how for­got­ten that hav­ing great taste is an actu­al skill.

Here are some typ­ic­al examples of cor­por­ate cringe:

• Over-exag­ger­a­tion. Corporate mes­sages are often tone-deaf due to excess­ive emphas­is or embel­lish­ment. “No, people aren’t that excited on account of your new piece of news.”
• Implausible claims. Communications that present dubi­ous asser­tions can erode cred­ib­il­ity and gen­er­ate unne­ces­sary scep­ti­cism. “No, you’re not a leading‑, revolutionary‑, innovative‑, or game-chan­ging company.”
• Unintended awk­ward­ness. Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tion will often inad­vert­ently appear clumsy or out of touch, cre­at­ing a dis­con­nect with the inten­ded audi­ence. “No, it’s not cool — and nev­er will be — to say you’re cool. That’s not the way that works.”
• Excessive self-glor­i­fic­a­tion. Communications that overly focus on an organ­iz­a­tion’s achieve­ments or vir­tues can be per­ceived as insin­cere or self-con­grat­u­lat­ory. “No, you didn’t just save the plan­et, so please stop pat­ting your­self on the back so furiously.”
• Prescriptive mes­saging. Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tion that dic­tates opin­ions or beliefs can be per­ceived as overly con­trolling and may ali­en­ate audi­ences. “No, everyone’s not lov­ing your new products or services.”
• Overzealous efforts. Striving too hard to impress or engage can res­ult in com­mu­nic­a­tion that feels inau­thent­ic or con­trived. “No, scream­ing louder and mak­ing stronger and stronger claims won’t make any­one care more about what you’re saying.”
• Monotonous ton­al­ity. Corporate mes­sages that lack dis­tinct­ive­ness or per­son­al­ity can fail to res­on­ate with audi­ences, lim­it­ing their over­all impact. “No, your con­tent reads as if it was writ­ten by unin­spired middle man­agers who lost their pas­sion some­where along the way.”

By being cog­niz­ant of these poten­tial pit­falls, organ­isa­tions can refine com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies to ensure more authen­t­ic and effect­ive engage­ment with their stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics.

More examples: https://​www​.red​dit​.com/​r​/​c​o​r​p​o​r​a​t​e​c​r​i​n​ge/

Learn more: Corporate Cringe

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Great Taste is a Public Relations Skill

Unlike many oth­er cre­at­ive pro­fes­sions, cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions often seem obli­vi­ous to the import­ance of being … taste­ful. Our industry’s ignor­ance of what con­sti­tutes good taste is pecu­li­ar because we ought to know bet­ter. ³This is ana­log­ous to cor­por­ate storytelling: while we might be aware of the storytelling ele­ments in the­ory, there’s still the chal­lenge of telling a great story in prac­tice.

We are com­mu­nic­a­tion pro­fes­sion­als, after all. 

Read also: Top 5 Communication Skills Everyone Should Know

Tonality isn’t just for copy­writers. Look and feel isn’t just art dir­ect­ors.
Great taste is a PR skill, too.

But there’s a way out of this poorly lit tun­nel of mediocrity. We’re in a pos­i­tion to mit­ig­ate cringe-worthy cor­por­ate messaging:

Join the fight. Never settle for unin­spired PR messages. 

Lead with Clarity

The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

Being a great lead­er can be daunt­ing. However, with effort (and atten­tion to detail), all lead­ers can prac­tice express­ive and pre­cise communication.

How can you ensure your lead­er­ship is express­ive and pre­cise in prac­tic­al situations? 

As a rule of thumb:

Make sure to pass these com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship checks:

“Expressive and pre­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion styles have a stronger link to lead­er out­comes than per­son­al­ity traits extra­ver­sion and con­scien­tious­ness.”
Source: Human Performance ⁴Bakker-Pieper, A., & Vries, R. (2013). The Incremental Validity of Communication Styles Over Personality Traits for Leader Outcomes. Human Performance, 26, 1 — … Continue read­ing

Communicative Leadership (Infographic)

Learn more: The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

PR Resource: Free Writing PR Course

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Writing PR Course

Discover the power of effect­ive PR writ­ing with this free Writing PR Course. Find tips and inspir­a­tion. Boost your skills and boost your career pro­spects today.

• Write Well, Write Fast
• Never Use the Word ‘Unique’ in Your PR Writing
• How to Write a PR Pitch: Step-by-Step Guide
• The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Writing
• The Stoic Tonality: Rise Above With Integrity
• Corporate Cringe
• How To Write About AI: A Beginner’s Guide
• The PAS Formula for PR Writers

PR Writing Inspiration

• William Faulkner on Writing From the Heart
• How Nick Cave Turned Down MTV With Some Classy Writing
• The Things That Do Attain
• Existentialism for PR Advisers

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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