Moving Forward
If there’s one thing I really detest (in addition to the over and inappropriate use of the words really and very) is the expression “moving forward.” It’s another disturbing trend of society; crappy euphemisms. “Challenges” instead of “problems” or “moving forward” instead of “in the future”.
I was originally going to write this entry about WestJet and it’s downward spiral, especially after this morning’s article in the Globe & Mail about how WestJet’s employees hated the new ad campaign. But as I was reading the article, I noticed that my favourite expression was used… in writing. Bah.
”These specific ads did not hit the mark with consumers and I have made the difficult decision to pull them until we are confident in moving forward,” Sean Duffy wrote. What the heck does that mean? Mr. Duffy is vice-president of marketing and sales. Doesn’t he have a communications department to help him write “stuff”? Now, I’m not a communications major by any stretch (though I am married to one), but I do know that Mr. Duffy’s comments make no real sense and are basically an effort to hide the truth; that WestJet is pulling the ads, most likely indefinitely, ‘cause someone made a poor decision and accepted ads that sucked.
Luckily, this brings me full circle. Remember when WestJet Airlines first started in the late nineties and Transport Canada was on the verge of grounding the airline for a technicality of sorts? And remember that WestJet grounded themselves instead and told everyone so? Yes. Remember when WestJet was a company that didn’t hide behind sales and marketing speak? I do. Of course, I wasn’t a huge fan of the airline then either because I believed (and still do) that if you want professionalism anywhere, it’s in a multi-million dollar aircraft at thirty-thousand feet.
Tue, 10 May 2005 14:27 Posted in General
