Tannenbaum's Adjunct.

Bob Hoffman, the Ad Contrarian, had a typically wonderful post yesterday about, among other things, clarity of language--both written and verbal.

Hoffman's Law, if I may call it that, was simple. "If someone is saying something you don't understand...chances are he's full of shit."

You can read the Ad Contrarian's full post here: http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/2012/09/speaking-so-as-not-to-be-understood.html

Despite the Ad Contrarian's thoroughness, however, it occurred to me that there's a corollary to Hoffman's Law that he might have missed. I'll call it Tannenbaum's Adjunct. 

It goes like this: "If someone is promulgating a media you've never used, chances are he's full of shit."

We have heard over the years about all kinds of things that will change everything. I can't keep track of them anymore. Wasn't it just a year ago Google+ was going to clean Facebook's clock? How many hours have been squandered over "syndicated content" no one sees, Facebook ads, the monetization of fucking Twitter.

It's all turned out to be, paraphrasing former Vice President Alben Barkley, a bucket of warm piss.

--

On my flight out to LA I got upgraded to Business Class and had a nice chat with the winsome young ad rep sitting next to me. She worked, she was quick to tell me, for a start-up (highly capitalized) called "Bubbletising." They can imprint in a carbonated bubble two syllables of sound. 

So when you drink a Pepsi, every carbonated bubble as it bursts can chime "Pepsi." Likewise "Drink Coke." "Bud Light," and so on.

"Why," I asked "would this be effective? It would annoy the crap out of me."

She assured me that "this will change everything."