There was an ad for a burger place by DU that said something about how not good the burger was for you (nutritionally). It worked well. I feel like this is a trend that is getting a bit overdone and should be regulated for products that are aimed at a certain generation/crowd. Most of the ads I see today that finally ‘caught on’ to the ‘the ad is your buddy’ concept don’t quite get it right: they look like used car salesmen. Then again, I think MOST ads are condescending.
Oh, I think you did just fine all by yourself 
I guess the flip side of that is do you really want your workplace to be a dry, sterile, institutionalized cubicle farm?
My cynical side thinks that all those idiots who majored in communications or marketing or social psychology because they can’t do math or science or finance have to do something. So they effectively act as cheerleaders, hyping up jobs and tasks and ideas to try and get people on board. The problem is, everyone knows that work sucks no matter how much you hype it up.
My other cynical side thinks that businesses overcommunicate in general these days anyway. Between email, IM, Twitter, social media sites, the corporate web sites and old technologies like TV and radio advertising phone and regular paper mail, there is simply a lot more information going back and forth. So companies try and manage all this as much as they can by making everything seem fun, friendly and personable.
This is a different phenomenon, even if it feels like it’s related to the informal-jokey thing.
The reason companies are going to the Q&A format for delivering information to customers is that it works, and the reason it works is that customers don’t read the fucking instructions.
I know, YOU read the fucking instructions, only stupid people don’t blah blah blah, but the absolute fact of the matter is that a really gigantic mass of people simply will not read what they’re sent unless it’s especially eye-catching and user-friendly. And while it might be a minor thing to you, to a large company, using a Q&A format might reduce customer support calls by tens of thousands, maybe even HUNDREDS of thousands. I assure you that the part where it goes “Q: What do I have to do? A: Nothing” is going to reduce calls in to their call center by a shockingly gigantic amount. As it happens I’ve actually done quality audits on utility companies and a truly amazing number of their customers will call with questions that are answered somewhere on their bills, and quite often are can be answered just with common fucking sense. Eliminating the confusion and reduce ancillary expenses as well, like unnecessary warranty claims.
Putting together communications that customers will read and understand - and like it or not, they have to aim below the mean educational level to catch as many customers as they reasonably can - is one hell of a lot harder than you might thinkg. The Q&A format is, for some things, phenomenally effective.
There’s a few reasons for the jokey, informal stuff:
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It makes products more distinct. Making your service stand apart makes it less easy for customers to swap. Cheerful, natural-language messages are a quick way to do this.
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Specifically for error messages like Chrome, there’s some actual research [citation needed] supporting that people straight up get less frustrated by non-technical, upbeat error messages.
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I’ve heard that a lot of stuff like this comes from placeholder text used internally that “goes live” because they decide it reflects the creators more than the “normal” text you’d expect.
I tend to like the trend, although it bugs me when I see a specific message too much.
It could also have something to do with the fact that as a society, we’re less ‘businesslike’ and ‘formal’ with each other. People don’t say ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ anymore.
Wait a minute, that fish video is from ten years ago? My department only had us watching it a month or two ago! We also had to watch a pickle video a year or two ago (I somehow managed to avoid that one).
Who moved my fish?!
The pickle, with the cheese.
The other problem with folksy “Who Moved My Cheese?” type corporate cheerleading (yes, I had to go through it too) is that it’s trying to do two mutually-contradictory things: it’s trying to present the organization as a group of equals, all in this together, while simultaneously acknowledging that it it a hierarchy, where what the boss says rules. Depending on what your bosses are actually saying, this may work for a while, but sooner or later, the hierarchy wins out. People sense this, and start to feel that the hierarchy is trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and quite understandably become cynical and resentful.
My cynicism about this trend is as follows:
[ul]
[li]Matching the tone to the product or service - yes, it mostly works for Google Chrome to use the jokey familiar tone. We know that Google is all about new and young and hipster (for now). But if the matching is even the slightest bit off, it sounds tone deaf.[/li][li]The “cool uncle” problem - related to the first one, the “cool uncle” in the loud shirt telling off-color jokes comes off like a tool. Companies should avoid trying to sound like the “cool uncle”.[/li][li]The specter of incompetence - If I’m wanting to feel like the company I am communicating with is capable and competent then an overly familiar tone creates some doubt[/li][/ul]
You have to say it in Dr. Zoidberg’s voice though.
I’m I the only one who’s creeped out by businesses giving us MyThis and My That, as though we’re all two-year-olds stuck in the My! Me! Mine! phase?
Ah yes, ‘Give them the pickle!’ about a guy who wrote in to a restaurant and complained that for YEARS he’d been eating at this one restaurant and ordered an extra pickle and for YEARS they’d been giving him the pickle (and yes my mind is just as in the gutter as yours is right now) for free but this new girl had the audacity to CHARGE him for the extra pickle and he was very unhappy.
It was all about going the extra mile, be good to the customer that sort of thing. When I worked retail my training involved watching this video and the FISH! video, because I worked a shitty retail job and needed to know how to be happy and enjoy it when I was just trying to put food on the table. This was about seven years ago or so.
The same results could be achieved with adequate white space and short simple sentences.
I’m busy. I don’t want to have to spend much time reading my bills.
snicker
I don’t know about that - I called get ‘sir’ a lot. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older.
I think the flip side of the OP’s issue is forced formality, which irks me. I started a thread a while ago about eating at Red Lobster and having to endure these scripted speeches from both the hostess and the waitress. Then I had to listen to them repeated word for word with every other person they seated. I would have gladly taken a glib “have a seat, and we’ll bring you a crab”, or whatever. Or at least something different being said to each person. I found myself embarrassed for the staff who were forced to carry out that nonsense.
Word on this.
I would not mind any of it much if I was actually getting better service. But alas the service at a lot of places really sucks. I am not just talking about a restaurant or retail I am talking about the power company, Verizon, etc.
When you have a problem and call their “help” line the first thing they do is apologize for my issue even before they find out what it is I am having difficulty with.
They call it service - just because someone will speak to you on the phone - I call it what it is - Lip Service.
Back on point, it seems to me that some businesses think every transaction has to be a trip to the amusement park. Just check me out and let me leave.
When you give me a 4 hour window to wait around my house for a serviceman then he better well be there as I am taking off 1/2 day of work. And he better have the parts needed too.
Is that too much to ask? I hold my end of the deal up paying for the product you hold yours up by getting me out in one piece.
I am not trying to be too harsh, but they are charging too much nowadays for shoddy service and employees who are overworked and undertrained. (it gets that way with high turnover)
Where does it say that? I’ve never gotten that message from Gmail. Now I feel left out.
If you set the view to “Unread messages first”, then your unread mail goes in a spearate little frame at the top above the rest of your inbox. If you don’t have any, then you get the cutesy message.
I guess the OP isn’t quite enough of an old fart to remember when computer messages were all things like “Error Code C7x. DWNFGI Frm Incpt”
Would you rather have G-Mail say “NWMSGCNT: 0” when your e-mail is all read, or something that acknowledges that actual humans use the software?