Posts tagged “buzzword”

Party time (excellent!) like it’s 2009

At the dawn of the new year, Business Week’s Bruce Nussbaum announced that Innovation was dead and that Transformation is the new buzzword. I can’t help but think of a classic Wayne’s World sketch, where Bruce Willis plays Rick, the cool kid at school.

Wayne: Excellent! Excellent! Well, if you don't mean my being so bold, Rick, are you ready to unveil the new cool word for the school year? [ to camera ] I should explain something, alright? Last year, Rick's new cool word was “pail”, or “bucket”.. as in, “So what did you think of the new substitute teacher?” “I think he's 'pail', he's 'bucket'!” And, Rick? Rick, this year the new cool word is..? Go, Garth, go!

[ Garth pounds on the couch as though it were a drum]

Rick: The word is.. [ thinking ] ..Sphincter.

Wayne: Excellent!

Garth: Wow, that's the greatest word I've ever heard in my life, Rick! How do you do that?

Rick: They appear to me, as if in a dream.

Wayne: Unnecessary Zoom!

Forbidden words, 2008

It’s only March but I’m already sick of it and that means it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

The phrase (something) fatigue

As in Bono fatigue
Social networking fatigue
In an online discussion group yesterday I saw a reference to profile fatigue (similar to social networking fatigue above)
Scandal fatigue
Clinton fatigue (1999!)
Katrina fatigue

I think that (something) fatigue is the new (something) rage.

Innovation commodity

h2o.jpg
multicat.jpg

The word innovation continues to be devalued by overusage. Last night I saw two consecutive TV ads for ordinary consumer products using the buzzword right in their advertising: spray paint and kitty litter. We could debate whether these products are or aren’t innovative (and of course that requires the elusive definition of innovation) but my point is more that the word itself is seemingly being used without much discrimination, and of course, is rapidly losing value, being presented now as a commodity.


Krylon has even claimed the word for their corporate slogan. I thought 3M had that one already.

Two Point Oh Meme

Everything is 2.0 nowadays. There’s endless bandwagoneering (and of course punditry and debate) over the leading member of the 2.0 game – at least on the web – Web 2.0. We could talk about it what means, but that’s not the point.

Core77 is running a series of presentations called Design 2.0. Today there’s some references to Advertising 2.0. Indeed, it was a year ago or more than someone referred to Portigal 2.0 when I outlined my early plans for evolving my consulting business. I have to say I was charmed by the term, but, well, yeah. I guess it’s better than ePortigal or iPortigal.

Update: Library 2.0?

Series

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