Last December, police in Windsor, Virginia, stopped the Black Army medic Caron Nazario in uniform as he was driving his brand new car, and then pepper-sprayed him. Now the town has released a statement about what happened. The statement is notable in that it talks about many things that happened, but hardly any of the…
Even if you feel a need to make your favorite magic words more important, don’t capitalize them in running text. It makes prose look uneven — and makes you look like an eighteenth-century pamphleteer. Do you write to impress? I edit a lot of prose intended for that purpose — including “thought leadership” blogs, business…
So many people have sued the Boy Scouts of America over childhood sexual abuse that the organization has filed for bankruptcy. The organization made one official statement and one heartfelt statement. While what happened is terrible, their communication about it is intriguing. Let’s start with this. Childhood sexual abuse is horrifying and awful, ruining lives….
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona attracts 100,000 international attendees. The organization that runs it, GSMA, just cancelled it due to coronavirus health concerns. Their announcement isn’t at all helpful. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic and the withdrawal of some key exhibitors, the mobile operator group GSMA had to cancel the Barcelona show….
When you have a difficult decision to share, it matters a lot how you communicate it. Sonos proved this by annoying its customers with a message about obsolescing products, then turning around and making things better the next day. The original Sonos post was offensive Here’s the hard fact: technology products become obsolete. After a…
Last week, the Hallmark Channel pulled ads for the wedding planning site Zola that featured two brides kissing. Yesterday, it reversed itself. No matter what happened in this episode, Hallmark was going to be at the center of controversy and lose viewers. At that point, you might as well do what you think is right….
There are press releases. Then there are out of body experiences. Cryptography firm Crown Sterling announced a new product called Time AI. It leaves ordinary buzzwords like “seamless” and “omnichannel” in the dust, reaching instead for a heady mix of mathematics, quantum computing, mysticism, and privacy handwringing. Let’s take a look. Commentary is mine. Crown…
Capital One suffered a data breach. Its explanation of how many and which customers were affected is quite confusing — and it has an odd obsession with reporting on what wasn’t stolen rather than what was. According its About page: “Capital One is . . . serving approximately 45 million customer accounts.” So how many…
Back in January, I was ecstatic to describe how Lora DiCarlo, maker of the innovative Osé sex toy, responded to the abrupt and unexplained withdrawal of its CES (Consumer Electronics Show) innovation award. Four months later, the Consumer Technology Association has reinstated the award. But did they cop to being sexist prudes? Let’s take a…