Let’s start 2026 the way we mean to go on. Drop the business BS!
Buzzwords! They arrive on the scene seemingly out of nowhere, start to be used by all and sundry, become over-used, end up morphing into clichés and then fade back into obscurity. But while they are here, boy they are irritating, totally cringe-worthy and above all annoyingly pretentious! Let’s take a ‘not-that-deep’ dive into some of them.
The infiltration of ‘Americanisms’ is inevitable, given social media, the proliferation of American TV shows and the innate human condition which means we want to impress everyone with how much we’re in touch with the zeitgeist.
With the World Cup taking place this year in the US, and America celebrating its 250th anniversary (or as they like to call it – Semiquincentennial!), this situation is only going to get worse, not better!
So, let’s all make a concerted effort this year to stop – just stop! Here are a few we really hope we never hear again.
Normalcy
Do you mean normality by any chance? Or that something is to be expected?
We’ve been surprised how overused this word has become in a relatively short space of time, but then, and we hate to say it, marketing is partly to blame!
Normalcy originates from the 1880s but was popularised by President Warren G. Harding’s “Return to Normalcy” campaign slogan in 1920 to describe the state he hoped the country would regain after World War 1 and the 1918 flu pandemic. The slogan was then used by Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as an implicit promise things would improve post-Trump (first term). Given how much it was bandied around by the media at that time, and as we were post another pandemic, it makes sense it went mainstream. But the irony is, when President Warren G Harding used it originally, he was mocked as people thought he had used the wrong word and actually meant ‘normality’.
We highly recommend the mocking continues!
No notes
Popularised by the show ‘The Studio’, and that episode with Ron Howard, no notes is a show business term meaning something is perfect and needs no improvement. But confusingly, it can also be used when something is unremarkable or just average!
I think we’ll be sticking with ‘no feedback.’
What’s your bandwidth for this project?
Do you have lots of data to transfer over a network? Are you a radio station?
No, you’re not. You’re just busy.
My Bad
Your bad what? If you’ve made a mistake, just say you’ve made a mistake. It’s easy really.
Low-hanging fruit
We all love easy opportunities or tasks we can quickly tick off our to-do list, but no need to refer to them as fruit. If you must use anything at all, use easy wins, and only if you really must.
Give someone the heads-up
What are we, meerkats? If you need to warn someone about something, it’s simples… ‘Just so you’re aware..’
Keep you in the loop
Unless you work on a rollercoaster, there is no need to keep anyone in the loop.
We’re eating our own dog food
If it’s all the same to you, we’d rather not. However, our team are more than happy to use our own products and/or services because they really are that good.
We’re drinking our own Kool-Aid
Ah, there’s nothing like a business buzzword about the death of 900 cult members. Although, what they actually drank was cyanide-laced Flavor Aid and not Kool-Aid, which illustrates perfectly the curse of being a famous brand.
Anyway, this reference to mass suicide is simply a very unfortunate way of saying someone believes too strongly in their company’s strategy or messaging and is in danger of losing objectivity.
Boiling the frog
I’m sorry, you did what?! No, this doesn’t refer to a meal specially created for Halloween, but to managing a change so smoothly, it goes completely unnoticed.
And if you’re wondering why they say, ‘boiling the frog’, it refers to the idea that if you plonk a frog in boiling water, it will jump out but will happily boil to death if you heat the water slowly. Please, don’t try this at home.
Circle back
Or you could just say, “we’ll come back to it’.
Reach out
If you mean email or call, just say email or call – unless you’re in the Four Tops.
Move the needle
On what exactly? A thermometer? A record player? If you want to make a noticeable or significant difference, then say you want to make a noticeable or significant difference.
Touch base
If you want to connect with someone, then just connect with them. No touching required.
Take this offline
How many times have you heard this in a meeting only for whatever was meant to be taken offline never to be mentioned again?
The list goes on and on, but those are some of the phrases that really ‘get our goat’. Oh no…it’s catching!
So, here’s to not using any of them in 2026, but if you do need help ensuring your marketing doesn’t come across as a clichéd mess, please reach out to us! Word. 😉