Catalog of Clichés
A new, free resource on phrases to avoid
Dave Infante just made his “Fingers Buzzwords of the Week” free.1 It’s an essential resource for thinking founders because it catalogs the exact phrases you should never use.
Corporate clichés like “empathy-first” or “rooted in counterculture, craftsmanship, and community” are more than just vapid; they are a crutch for brands devoid of actual connection. When a brand lacks a clear identity, it reaches for a buzzword.
Martin Amis famously noted that “all writing is a campaign against cliché.”2 Branding is no different. To stake a claim on consumer mindshare, you have to kill the corporate-speak.
Beverage brands must avoid the cliché for three reasons:
Invisibility: Cliches turn your brand into background noise. In a crowded cooler, a word like “craftsmanship” is now a synonym for “nothing.”
The Trust Gap: Over-polished jargon smells like a script. Authenticity is found in the specific and the idiosyncratic, not the generic.
Friction: Because buzzwords are so empty, they demand the consumer do the work of translating your “values.” If they have to think that hard, they’ve already moved on.
Brand and their companies need to stop “operationalizing” and recognize that connecting means communicating like a human, preferably one that avoids clichés.
Dave is a prolific drinks business journalist, whose fantastic coverage of the Fawn Weaver-Uncle Nearest saga is my own personal catnip. You can and should follow his newsletter and LinkedIn, as well as his reporting on VinePair. He was also an excellent guest on Guys, episode 161 (“Cocktail Guys”).
As quoted is Amis’ The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000.