Fewer Ideas, Em Dashes Where They Belong, No More "Got?" and 17 Other Hopes for 2010

PART RANT, PART INTROSPECTION, PART ASPIRATION, the following are my wishes about communications, creativity and living a life of ideas that I hope come true next year:

1. I hope writers learn (and apply) the difference between a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash.
2. I hope people stop using “creativity” and “innovation” interchangeably.
3. I hope communications consultants can finally agree on the difference between “digital” and “social” media.
4. I hope more people will give clients reasons to believe “creative” and “smart” are not mutually exclusive.
5. I hope anyone who thinks “Got (fill in the blank)?” is an all-purpose creative line that is just as smart, clever and insightful for them as it is for the milk industry turns their creative work over to a professional.
6. I hope we learn to worry less about how many ideas we have and more about how many insights we have.
7. I hope plan-writers stop confusing objectives with strategies and strategies with tactics.
8. I hope for a cultural shift toward the civil exchange of ideas in politics, media, town hall meetings and online forums.
9. I hope more RFP writers realize providing a budget doesn’t “limit our creativity” and actually tell us what they have to spend.
10. I hope airlines stop insisting there’s no way to address hours-long delays on the tarmac and actually put some creative thinking behind bringing relief to stranded passengers, or stranded passengers to relief. I’m happy to lead the brainstorm …
11. I hope blogger disclosure guidelines simply become “communicator” disclosure guidelines because integrity and transparency shouldn’t be medium-specific.
12. I hope more organizations embrace the idea that the greatest way to earn attention is to do something real.
13. I hope fewer PR people practice “spin.”
14. I hope more people realize that real PR is about “truth well told.”
15. I hope I’m never ever again asked to provide advertising equivalency for PR activities.
16. I hope the upcoming generation of communications generalists learn the meaning of “kerning,” “leading,” “ascender,” and “descender.”
17. I hope, once and for all, PR folks stop calling a mat release a “matte” release.
18. I hope more writers learn how to use “comprise” correctly.
19. I hope to finally get all the way through Daniel Boorstin’s “The Creators” and other books on my “waiting to be read” list.
20. I hope to take time to experience at least three of the following: SXSW, Burning Man, The Magic Castle, Monterey Jazz Festival, CPSI conference, New York City, Sicily, Yoga classes, drum lessons with Peter Erskine.

 

© 2009 John Armato