The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Writing

There’s a plat­it­ude sick­ness in cor­por­ate writing.

I’m a PR pro­fes­sion­al.
And I some­times hate what I do for a living.

Most nor­mal people hate cor­por­ate bull­shit. As a writer, I loathe those cor­por­ate plat­it­udes with a fever­ish intens­ity. But my cor­por­ate broth­ers and sis­ters cling to them. And it seems as if it’s get­ting worse.

What can we do about this plat­it­ude sickness?

Here we go:

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 ¹Platitude. (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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It’s Not My Fault, I Swear

As a cor­por­ate writer since 2005, one could eas­ily assume I am respons­ible for at least two hun­dred shitty press releases. But I’m not, I swear.

Every time I present some­thing to an organ­isa­tion, I speak plainly. When I write, I always rewrite to avoid clichés. I strive to add some bounce to my copy — if noth­ing else, to pre­vent tired and stale sen­tences that ring too famil­i­ar. ²At this point, I should point out that English is my second lan­guage and that I do most of my writ­ing in Swedish. Still, I strive to improve my busi­ness English.

I do my best to avoid plat­it­ude sickness.

But my efforts don’t always pay off.

While some organ­isa­tions appre­ci­ate my efforts, a size­able por­tion of everything I’ve writ­ten for cli­ents has passed through numer­ous fil­ters before publication.

And the res­ult is noth­ing but a dwind­ling tirade of cor­por­ate cringe.

Not. My. Fault.

Oh, How I Loathe Corporate Cringe

I’m not alone in being frus­trated. We’re all exposed to cor­por­ate speak. These plat­it­udes are every­where in mar­ket­ing and communications. 

And for some reas­on, plat­it­udes are becom­ing the go-to format for all cor­por­ate texts. It’s get­ting worse, not better.

I some­times think this is a pidgin lan­guage for dif­fer­ent busi­ness tribes. We fall back on cor­por­ate plat­it­udes to let every­one know we belong in this money-mak­ing space. Ensuring we belong to a com­munity is more import­ant than mak­ing sense. ³Pidgin lan­guages are a mix­ture of two or more lan­guages, and they typ­ic­ally devel­op when two groups in con­tact with each oth­er can­not speak each oth­er­’s lan­guage. Many pidgin lan­guages have evolved … Continue read­ing

It’s mind­bog­gling how many hours organ­isa­tions spend pro­du­cing utter garbage.

The “Carpe Diem” Business Mafia on LinkedIn

Corporate plat­it­udes are such a waste of edit­or­i­al space. Unfortunately, plat­it­ude sick­ness tends to do quite well on social media.

A text loaded with obvi­ous state­ments and no actu­al sub­stance can still attract a lot of social engage­ment. People often hit that “Like” but­ton (emoji but­ton or whatever) without read­ing the linked article. 

Yes, I’m look­ing at you, LinkedIn.

It’s essen­tial to have a strategy.

Always put the cus­tom­er first.

Be pro­act­ive and think long-term.

Publish epic content.

LinkedIn’s “carpe diem” busi­ness mafia can­’t get enough of that stuff, right?

Join the Resistance

Yes, get­ting rid of cor­por­ate plat­it­udes is an uphill battle. There are so many fil­ters and so many read­ers who don’t mind.

Still, there are no excuses for giv­ing up. As com­mu­nic­at­ors, we’re catch­ing people’s interest and mak­ing it worth their time. As we fall deep­er into the atten­tion eco­nomy, rel­ev­ance and sub­stance are the only things that can save us.

We might nev­er win this fight, I admit. But even if we can­’t win, we can at least make life a bit more dif­fi­cult for every­one who com­mits cor­por­ate BS.

So, how do you com­bat plat­it­ude sick­ness in cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion?

Make it your mis­sion to find plat­it­udes and des­troy them. And don’t let your col­leagues get away with using them, either. As this becomes a ritu­al, you’ll devel­op an “allergy” to cor­por­ate plat­it­udes — and remov­ing them will make you feel better.

Welcome to the fight. You’re in the army now.

PR Resource: Free Writing PR Course

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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 High Road Tonality: Don’t Be Pushed Around
• 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

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