Media Tech Business

Once upon a time, delicatessen was a “ten-dollar word.” Many letters, tricky to spell, born somewhere in our Saxon past, it’s easier and tastier when simplified to “deli.” Techs and web titans love big, ugly words, especially when they’re misspelled and coupled with “it’s” instead of “its,” and vice versa. With economic and academic inflation in this business, we’ve entered the era of the “ten-billion-dollar word.”

For example, a principle tenet of ad networks and media exchanges is that markets require liquidity in order to achieve efficiency. You use words like these all the time, though they have absolutely nothing to do with media, technology, advertising, publishing, business or what your mama raised you up to do.

Then there are people with too much education in the wrong subjects who inflict political correctness on our language in order to exert control over mortals. We can no longer say, “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife,” for fear that this oft-mangled David Ogilvy observation may offend morons or consumers. Or wives. Maybe even women. But someone with a fifth-grade education can get the point. That’s communication.

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