I suppose I could change my name to BB CRGL.
And as for my blog, that could be reinvented as NW MKTNG CMNTTR, or some other such cryptic arrangement of letters, sans vowels.
That, at least according to an article I read in the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe (“Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson), would make me hip to what the author characterizes as “a phenomenon that stems from the growing acceptance of shorthand in text-messaging, communication that encourages users to get as much said in as little time and space possible.”
The article begins with the following…
Vwls R so ystrdy.
From Motorola’s SLVR phone to Levi’s DLX jeans, merchants are unveiling new products with compact names that feature as few A, E, I, O, U’s as possible. Vowel free, apparently, connotes cool and modern, and the race to capture that Zeitgeist, marketers say, has spawned Flickrs and Delivrs and even a Broadway show, “Bklyn: The Musical.”
Of course, if you’re an English teacher or a grammarian, I could see where you might look at this new, so-called “phenomenon” as yet another sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
But if you’re a marketer trying to reach young people, I’d look at this as an opportunity to talk to them on their level and wouldn’t hesitate to at least experiment with dropping the vowels in some way, shape or form in one of your campaigns – soonr rathr than latr.
To read “Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson (from the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe) in its entirety, click here.
Tags: marketing direct marketing advertising copywriting branding
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Hey Bob:
Back in the day, when I used to ride the subway, there was a billboard ad that read “if u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb wth hi pay”
It was an ad for a court stenography school – the original “instant messaging”.
Unfortunately, the “instant message” has taken over our culture. I somehow think that our use of language reflacts our use – and abuse – of time.
As an elder in the graphic arts, who has watched the evolution of even the simplest devices – rotary phones to pushbutton, slow turning fax machines that took nearly twenty minutes a page to machines that now transmit and print a page every few seconds, snail mail to email to instant messaging – I’ve also seen a lack of patience and lack of tendency to think projects thru to completion amongst my younger peers. I know that I’ll catch heck for this – but I find myself saying more to others as well as to myself to “slow down” and consider the consequences of the shortcuts we’re taking.
Or as we say in our industry, there never seems to be enough time to do it right, but always time to do it again.
Speed over content, delivery over quality, etc.
– Jeff Kopito
PS – Heck, I’m guilty of it too. When I was searching for a domain name for a web coding service I developed, I settled on Webasx – a shortened name for Web Basics.
Eck – I still have to spell it out for everyone and no one seems to prounounce it correctly, Except for those youngsters that surround me… 🙂