Periods. Overused. Everywhere. The Mad Libs approach to marketing

I spotted this ad for Little People Big World, a TLC reality show, in a magazine recently. I’ll save the matter of the exploitative (or perhaps self-exploitative) nature of the show for another rant. Or not; honestly I don’t really care. What does bother me is the copy on the ad. I mean: The. Copy. On. The. Ad.

I have loathed marketing’s overuse of the period for as long as I can remember. And I do distinctly remember loathing it when I was no more than 10 or 11, at least. In fact, I specifically remember seeing this usage on the billboard that used to be on top of the old liquor store where Oakland Avenue curves and becomes a one-way at 12th St SW, where now there’s a Kwik Trip, in my hometown of Austin, Minnesota. And I complained to my mom about it. Yes, I remember things like this. Forever.

But I think marketing’s abuse of the period has grown increasingly loathsome in recent years, resulting in utterly pointless examples like what you see here. I suppose “Live. Lived. Large.” does, perhaps, convey a slightly different meaning than simply saying “Life lived large.” But, really. Does it ultimately serve any purpose greater than annoying me?

I’ve come to realize, though, that there’s a very easy formula here, suitable to serve as the foundation for a Mad Libs approach to writing marketing copy. Observe:

I suppose I shouldn’t be using the Mad Libs logo without their permission, but come on… they claim it’s “the world’s greatest word game!” (Exclamation point included.) Take that, Scrabble! (I mean, “Scrabble BRAND Crossword Game”) Besides… does the world really need a Space Chimps-themed Mad Libs book?

Got a good marketing tagline using the Mad Lib? Post it below!

I will miss one thing about Sarah Palin…

…when she retreats back into the relative obscurity of the governor’s mansion in Juneau. And that’s Tina Fey’s impersonations on Saturday Night Live. Even the governor herself enjoys them… at least with the sound turned down.

As I was watching the vice presidential debate last week I was already thinking ahead to the skit that would inevitably be on SNL in two days. I didn’t get to watch it live but I just watched it online and it’s probably the most I’ve laughed out loud at anything on the show since “Dick in a Box.” Let’s give some credit to Jason Sudeikis; his McCain-loving, Scranton-detesting Joe Biden was on par with Tina Fey for laughs. I’m just glad I wasn’t the only one who had contemplated a “maverick” drinking game.

(I had to strip out NBC’s Internet Explorer conditional comments to get the video to show up in Safari. I could probably have taken the time to fix their code properly so it will work in all 3 major browsers but, well, I don’t really care about IE. But if you’re stuck with it, here’s a link to the video on NBC’s site.)

Vintage Google

I learned this morning from Daring Fireball that Google has temporarily restored their earliest available index from 2001, allowing you to see what was available back then for your searches.

Kind of cool. But a little depressing for me personally, to see that back then my site was the first result you’d get when searching for John Coltrane. Now it’s 7th, but I suppose I should be glad it’s still on the front page, given my lack of attention to SEO. (Of course, I think SEO is at least 75% snake oil anyway.)