“Don’t “Bury The Lead”
Don’t bury the key information of a story somewhere in the body of the article — put it first. Newspaper reporters learn quickly not to ‘bury the lead’ and it’s at least equally important for bloggers.” – bloggingforbusinessbook.com
[Caution: buried lead ahead...]
Saturday, 7:55 am.
Ratchet down the baseball cap below the eye line. Take a mildly cleansing breath and breach the thin veneer separating you from the morning sun’s gentle wash. Casually glance in either direction and receive reassuring optical-neural confirmation. The maiden steps forward seem mildly wobbled…or is that just the overstretched sweatpants in centrifugal motion? With hands jammed deeply in pockets, gaze locked onto the twinkling wisps of sand that separate the warming asphalt from the lazy sea grass, your egress appears successful. Considering your coffee-deprived state, the bipedaling is remarkably smooth. As the seaside bungalow recedes in your virtual rear view, your morning fix, housed in a bay side convenience store, reassuringly approaches.
“But wait…cash. Did I forget the godda… ooh, good…a loose twenty! Oops, dropped a quarter…”
Your temples throb slightly as you hunch, then squat and ultimately corner and capture the shiny fugitive. You’re [literally] a big time movie star, but you still aren’t going to let someone else happen upon your coin collection. You continue on, barely noticing a car’s sudden acceleration behind you…
A week later, repeating a similar morning ritual, you deftly take a cautious sip while mumbling your first thank-you of the day to a smirking cashier. But the scalding, inbound coffee abruptly changes direction at the site of a horrific visage — there on the cover of a celebrity rag, in full gory glory, is a spectacular full-moon butt cleavage fit only for a lonely mountain ape. A second glance delivers the blood-draining blow – that’s your lovely lunar moment, captured for all to see.
* * * * * * * * * *
Okay, I’ve just led you down a rabbit hole that ends in a place we’ll call what the hell is he talking about. What I’ve done is over exaggerate the effect of being caught with your pants down, seen in a less than ideal light, ungroomed, overly casual, without regard for appearance… you get the idea. I’m not necessarily passing judgment on those who eschew typical western [world], developed nation, middle-to-upper class urban dress codes. Nor am I suggesting that you don formal wear when getting your morning coffee… on a weekend… while on a beach vacation. And I’m most definitely not recommending you monitor celebrity tabloids. Rather, I’m positing that if you’re going to play the game, any game, do so properly. And by properly, I mean with intent and observance of the game’s rules and pitfalls.
In our fame-laden protagonist’s case above, the omnipresence of the paparazzi is an occupational hazard. Now, should these ersatz photojournalists be lurking, stalking, waiting for your [fill in your color here] ass to emerge from its terry-lined cozy? Perhaps not. Is our victim entitled to some privacy and respite from his established image, his carefully cultivated reputation…his brand? I’d say yes… but if I were the star’s hired handler, I’d maybe have suggested that a pair of tighty whiteys (or boxers, but no thongs…please!) would have been a small style/comfort sacrifice to minimize this sort of exposure, and to protect the breadwinner.
Now you may care nary a whit for the plight of actors, but you’re probably right to assume that hey, these things just…happen, and that they can’t be helped. True, many celebs’ – mostly female it seems – fleshy misproportions are caught on film, ready to evoke a good cringe from idlers in grocery checkout lines. But there’s a good many entertainers who’ve managed to steer clear of such calamity, too. And that’s probably by design (and the luck of being a little less popular) sometimes known as good sense – avoidance of trendy restaurants and nightclubs, maybe the occasional bodyguard or body double. In some cases, an attentive parent can make all the difference. The point is, there’s no free passes or guarantees of immunity in life, and the only thing really standing between your honor and your disgrace is preparedness.
This roundabout rant of mine was brought on by a recent audio/video industry newsletter article. A former employer of mine, (Company A) threatened legal action against another venerable industry player (Company B). A letter prepared by and sent from Company A’s Corporate Intellectual Property Counsel (see Exhibit A) details the offenses.
The details are (yawn) unimportant. But interestingly, Company B handled the complaint with aplomb, calmly addressing point-by point the letter’s key grievances publicly, on the Company B web site (a public relations coup worthy of reportage). At the end of the address, the Company B president provided a PDF scan of Company A’s letter (see Exhibit A, above).
OMG! There, onscreen was letterhead I designed for Company A about 12 years ago, as the backdrop for the legal document in question! For starters, the design itself had been altered over the years. Now, another designer may have been charmed by seeing an old flame on the big ol’ Interweb, but not I! Secondly, the abuse that this letter took at the hands of a word-processing, in-house lawyer was close to what our Oscar-aspiring thespian’s (see beginning of this saga/post) mother must have felt seeing her baby defiled by the media. I’m not saying that my letterhead was beautiful, but it was lovingly conceived once upon a time. This “treatment” however was sloppy – narrow margins that ignore the obvious alignment cues, huge paragraph indents used in conjunction with extra paragraph spacing, bullets a gaping 2 or 3 ems from the text… Times New Roman!! Aaarghh!
I wonder… if Company A knew that one of its own letters was going to be on display for the entire industry (and industry media) to scrutinize, would the organization have treated it more seriously? Could a little preparedness in the form of simple stationery usage guidelines have prevented one team member from embarrassing them all? I mean come on, Company A… you’re a big time player, right? Play the game! You wouldn’t meet the public with your pants falling off or with cream cheese on your tie, would you? Surely your marketing and PR managers — your trusted handlers — should have better shielded you from such a tarnishing of your visual brand, your image and your reputation.
You as a businessperson may speculate that only a designer cares about such [insignificant] details. Maybe you’re right. If that’s true, what else are you not caring about? What other customer, industry and media touch points are you simply leaving to chance? I tell business people that customers or prospects aren’t usually conscious of good design, but they will take notice of poor design or appearance, and vote with their feet. They’ll abandon you in the middle of your pitch. And they most likely won’t give you a second chance, at least not one that’s cost-effective for you.
So choose to work closely with a designer, one whose passion is to care about such things. Let him/her audit your visual branding efforts. Learn about the proper treatment of your visual brand. You may yet close some truly serious loopholes before your public looks through them or your competitors exploit them.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
How awful to see the ways they can degrade our work.
With our first business, Cat’s Eye Group, clients would typically spring for the design of a brochure or web site (that would be my husband and business partner’s area of expertise) and decide, “Oh I can do the writing myself.” (IOf course, that was my area.)
WHY do they always think they can do the writing themselves? Ah, but I digress.
I wanted Bob to put a disclaimer on the back that said, “Copywriting NOT by Cat’s Eye.” Never could talk the client into that.
I think what strikes me here, Bruce, is that those defects are always more glaring to us, the creative artists, than the consuming public. They’re more interested in the content of the letter and the dispute between Company A and Company B.
I loved your mark-up, though! Very funny.
I like the disclaimer idea. I have many many printed samples of past design work that I can’t bear to show, either because of the heartbreaking compromises with the client at the 11th hour, or because the content and the design just aren’t in sync.
I fully agree that defects, like the ones I was illustrating, are more glaring to creatives who are trained observers. But just as poor grammar or sentence structure might not interfere with the a letter’s actual message, poor formatting just as surely will erode the most carefully constructed corporate image.
I also tell clients that ultimately, your brand is only as good as its weakest link. I remember contracting a tradesman who sent an employee to work in our house who got chatty with my wife, telling her about all his trouble with his parole officer…
Okay, apples and oranges… but I’m willing to bet that an organization with a letterhead-formatting blind spot is also a little sloppy in other areas that could be addressed with usage guidelines.
Have you ever seen something that sloppy come out of Apple? Their image is supremely important to them. Few of us are that finicky, but imagine a world where we were!
I get what you’re saying here.
And on the compromises with clients issue, yes, a few finished pieces were substandard enough that we didn’t want our business name connected to them.
A world full of Apples? Hmmm. Wouldn’t that be cool?