Signposts… September 28

On September 28 last year, our Big Story was on the Spikes Asia ‘Advertiser of the Year’ Samsonite. There’s was an interesting story on JWT’s plea to McCann on employee-poaching and of course the Anchor that’s been an integral part of the site every single edition day of the site.

Happy marriage for Samsonite

A strong client-agency relationship is vital for success, says Samsonite president, and sure enough the brand bagged Advertiser of the Year at Spikes Asia.

http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/09/happy-marriage-for-samsonite/

Don’t poach our employees, JWT tells McCann

After losing a dozen staffers to McCann, JWT is said to have written to fast-growing rival

http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/09/dont-poach-our-employees-jwt-tells-mccann-erickson/

The Anchor: Ramanujam Sridhar on 7 ways brands can stay relevant to their consumers

http://www.mxmindia.com/2011/09/the-anchor-ramanujam-sridhar-on-7-ways-in-which-brands-can-remain-relevant-to-their-consumers/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/26/day-confronted-troll

Is cinema dead? No, no, a thousand times no, says The New Yorker. More or less.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/09/the-movies-are-not-dying.html

Are you an upside-downer or a right-side-upper? Apple can find out…

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/09/27/apple_iphone_5 _headphone_jack_is_on_the_bottom_are_you_an_upside_downer_.html

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands, abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I have quotations. Tell me what you know.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
13. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Too many netas (and anchors!) on tv are angry and arrogant at times. Could do with more reason and restraint (all of us!)