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Owns plasma TV, but still a racist

Photo of accommodation poster

This poster advertising share accommodation in Sydney is pretty typical of the genre — a list of features, tear-off tags with phone numbers, and the notice that you’d be the fifth person in a 3-bedroom apartment.

But there are two features worth pointing out.

1. Boasting that “Nobody sleeps in the living room!!!!!” reminds us that it’s now normal to over-crowd CBD apartments. These buildings were designed with a certain occupancy, so may the gods help them all in the event of a fire.

2. Saying “Europeans, North- and South Americans or Australian applications preferred” is just a coward’s way of saying “No blacks or Asians” — which is a bit rich for someone choosing to live in Sussex Street, right next to Sydney’s Chinatown.

Owners of mobile phones 0415 520 775 and 0403 220 688, you may well own a plasma TV and “really nice furniture”, but you’re still racist turds.

If it wasn’t for the fact that doing so might count as harassment, I’d suggest that we all phone you and say so.

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The Pointlessness of News

When I posted about the astronaut attempted kidnapping story the other day, I hadn’t realised it had already become a major global story. Now Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner asks: Why?

I realize the story represents a sort of perfect storm of media stickiness — a female perp and a female victim, lust, revenge, NASA, pepper spray, and of course the diaper — but I have to confess that I am overwhelmed that this has become such a round-the-clock story. Who cares, and why? They were even talking about the story on the two ESPN shows I saw pieces of last night (SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption); in each case, the anchors sheepishly acknowledged that the story had zero to do with sports but… they simply couldn’t resist.

With 63 comments so far, there’s plenty of interesting ideas. Well worth the read. The highlights for me…

Continue reading “The Pointlessness of News”

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Say what you mean!

Most businesses are incapable of communicating clearly. They’re almost paranoid in the way they avoid short, direct statements.

Compare these two “positioning statements” from British companies, both in the business of writing.

Metia is a global provider of integrated marketing services and technology-based marketing solutions. We deliver services, programs and solutions that are relevant, smart and repeatable — and that generate measurable value for our customers.

And:

Our passion is communication. We help businesses talk about technology.

The second is from Articulate Marketing. Who would you pick to work on your communication?

I discovered this thanks to Matthew Stibbe, proprietor of Articulate Marketing. His blog Bad Language (“writing about business, technology and marketing”) is extremely readable.