Posts
Explore my posts (248 and counting) on how ideas travel and how we interpret information. Here, I like to write about communications and culture, language and learning, motivation and messaging, branding and creativity, media and marketing, audiences and attention – and everything in between.
Why persuasion works best when you talk to both the lizard and the wizard
Picture yourself at the edge of a watering hole or out foraging, tens of thousands of years ago. Suddenly, there’s a noise. You don’t see the source, but your brain senses danger. Your heart races, your adrenaline surges and your muscles tighten. Maybe a saber-toothed...
Flattery isn’t a strategy – it lives in the eighth circle of hell
Have you ever gone up to a colleague or loved one, combed through their fur, and picked out leaves, twigs, debris, ticks or fleas? Likely not. But social grooming does go back to our origins as a species. This is a behaviour where primates clean each other’s bodies....
Trim your writing fat – and 6 more resolutions to get your communications in shape this year
January is a time to make a fresh start on personal improvements, from hitting the gym to decluttering. When you think about it, the same sort of promises can track well when it comes to our work lives. Here are seven familiar resolutions reimagined for writers and...
In the U.S., the rise of the Times New Roman empire
Can a typeface be too woke? In these charged times, apparently even the appearance of letters is a political statement. It sure seems that way to the U.S. State Department, which just ordered a move from Calibri to Times New Roman in official correspondence. That...
When it comes to national stories, money talks
Everyone values their money. But what countries choose to depict on their currency uncovers what they value most. This idea dates back to city-states and early empires. On their coinage, the Greeks and Romans featured mythological figures, deities, heroes, sacred...
The never-ending story of a cubist apocalypse
Who and what communicates the horrors of war most profoundly? Journalists on the front lines try to document it in real time. Authors, filmmakers and musicians interpret the damage in works that endure long after the fighting stops. And painters, too, have made their...
Why we need to communicate with kindness
What sort of role does kindness play in marketing and corporate communications? That question popped into my head when I noticed that this week marks World Kindness Day, held on Nov. 13. It’s a day devoted to celebrating compassion and goodness. This is also the...
How place names are a museum of lost meanings
When the Louvre was robbed in October, I went online to learn more details – but not about the theft itself. Given that we’re talking about crown jewels, I figured the gems were pilfered or extracted through exploitation somewhere along the way. I didn’t care much...
Marketing that gets spooky is no treat
Halloween is built on frights and horror. As usual, companies of all sorts have been getting in on the action, carving out their seasonal face in campaigns. The tie-ins to the spookiest time of the year involve special deals and branding. But I'm also reminded that...
Don’t fly too close to the comments section
Detail from “The Fall of Icarus” by Flemish painter Jacob Peter Gowy, now displayed at the Prado Museum, Madrid Beware of the temptation to become the Icarus of the internet. In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned on Crete. To...