One phrase that often jumps out at me from US companies announcements (even for B2B products) is an assertion that people at the company are “excited” about a certain product or service (Google has over a million hits for the phrase “we are excited” and more than half a million for the phrase “we are very excited” , mostly in that context).
As in most cases the subject of the announcement is about adding the circa 545279th comparable item to a class of products and services on the market this appears to me to be noticeably more silly than the usual standard of marketing silliness. I recently read the announcement of Amazon.com’s Amazon Prime shipping pricing offer, in which Jeff Bezos (who is 41 year old billionaire CEO, not a giddy teenager) pronounced himself ‘excited’.
Now English is a foreign language to me, and I might misunderstand the perceived meaning of ‘excited’. I understand it to be a heightened state of mental and physiological arousal, usually in anticipation of something either pleasurably anticipated or dreaded, often accompanied by irrational behaviour, and markedly decreasing in frequency with age. I’d take mature people averring themselves to be ‘excited’ about a mere pricing policy as impugning their own mental health - if a company rep in a business meeting were ‘excited’, in this sense, about his company’s mundane product, I’d eye the route to the door because he might get ‘homicidally insane’ when confronted with our specs.
So my question to Americans is: does this usage register to you as on a par with normal marketing hyperbole, or as a bit jarring (as it does to me)?
I agree with tschild’s take. As a 'merkin, I see this usage as commonplace and growing. But it still annoys me.
I suspect that the root cause is that overall, the maturity of society, and of people, has been sliding downwards as we scrimp on education and other civilizing influences. Even in B2B industrial settings, people are making decisions based on emotions and feelings rather than specifications and facts. As a result, an advertising campaign or press release must appeal on an emotional basis or it’ll never get noticed by its audience.
I recall an ad campaign from 10-ish years ago mocking the then-new trend. It showed an executive getting a presentation of a proposed new artsy-fartsy feel-good advert for his product. He sits though the first few seconds, snarls at the presenter to stop, then barks into the camera “Tell 'em we’re cold & impersonal, but we make a damn good transmission!”
It was funny & memorable precisely because it was so different from the norm.
Finally, one of the side effects of advertising in general is to debase the currency of adjectives. Years ago, items came in three sizes, small, medium and large. Now the same three sizes are labeled large, extra large and giant.
In the same way, companies have to be “excited” about their new XYZ gizmo now since being just proud isn’t good enough any more. Much less merely being quietly satisfied at a job well done bringing the new XYZ gizmo to market.
What QuickSilver said. Most of us, I think, learn pretty quickly to tune out and ignore any and all advertising, unless it’s really unusually annoying.
And of course many of us have had the unpleasant experience of participating in the “Weekly Excite” (inspired by the “Weekly Hate” in 1984," where we corporate drones are herded out of our cubicles and shoved into a conference room well beyond its capacity, there to watch the corporation’s most recent TV ad. To the practiced eye, you can see where its orginal humor was tapered down by the series of committees that vetted its production, until it became the souless banalaty with which we were presented. Still, the more positive-minded, and probably more destined for success in their lives among us laughed and whooped at the video with sheer bliss (female corporate personell seem to excell at this form of ass-kissing, perhaps out of frustrated ambitions as highschool cheeleader aspirants).
Those of us at the back, cursed with critical/analytical thoughtcrime impulses would adopt out best polite smiles and hope to not be singled out as having poor attitudes, while being nagged by our inner work ethic: “why am I wasting my time with this? Why was I pulled away from a perfectly good desk piled with honest work that needs to be done?”
It’s also a way to make meaningless claims that nobody can hold you to. It also makes a big buildup of things that don’t matter. I learned that by reading a book “The Hidden Persuadors” ages ago.
Bizz Bleach Bubbles are better! (better than what?)
It gets the red out! (I don’t care about the red, it fuggin hurts!)
Great taste! Less filling! (it’s just beer fer chrissake, and less filling than maybe concrete?)
New lemon fresh Supersoap! (I don’t care how it smells, the dishes are still filthy)
Super Soft Bath Tissue is softer (I dont’ bathe with it, it’s toilet paper. Furthermore it’s so soft my fingers go right through it. If I wanted that, I wouldn’t buy any at all)
So, it’s an exercise in bull manure.
Most of us ignore it, except as an easy object of ridicule.
It’s pervasive and irritating. My boss was “excited” about our new contract. Yeah, there’s nothing like hooking a new state in the educational testing market to get the motor running…
Yeah but it’s still better than that sandpaper stuff they use in public restrooms. A better example is “Don’t squeeze the Charmin”. Why the fuck not? It’s really the texture, not the squeezibility of an entire roll that matters.
You haven’t lived until you heard a consulting partner talk about a new “sexy” engagement.
Marketers and whatnot try to create a sort of “lifestyle brand” around their products. Basically what that means is that they attempt to make their product so ingrained in the culture that the culture is actually defined by it. Coke or iPod for example or the Ford Mustang. The products are synonymous with soft drinks or mp3 players. The Mustang has a certain lifestyle associated with it. You don’t just buy products you “live” them. They are lifestyle choices, not just a thirst quencher or music player.
The thing is, most of it is bullshit and 90% of these ad campaigns don’t really work. At the end of the day, it’s just sneakers, and underwear. All cars look exactly alike now.
SteveG1 is exactly right. “We’re excited about…” makes the product sound like something special, but doesn’t actually claim anything that the company can be held accountable for.
Personally, I never use it because I think it’s a ham-fisted expression that misses the point: If I’m the one hearing your ad, why should I give a damn about you being excited? You should be telling me why I should be excited about what you’re selling. A more subtle approach would go like this: “Your business depends on speed, flexibility and quality. That’s why you need…” But again, the company hasn’t actually made any concrete claim.
Yes, this is what I do for a living. I lie, mislead, dissemble and prevaricate. How do I sleep at night? On a pile of money surrounded by beautiful women.
It’s all marketing speak. I’m a product development manager, and I decided to look over the press releases for the new products my company released last year. It doesn’t look like we were excited by any of them; we were pleased by a number of them, and proud, and delighted in one case, but not once were we excited.
Back when I was in therapy, my shrink told me that the physical symptoms of fear are almost identical to those of excitement. He was trying to get me to think of my fear (in social situations) as excitement.
So, perhaps Jeff Bazos is really saying he’s scared to pieces.
