No. It Isn't.

There's a lot of language used in our business that makes absolutely no sense. However, because we hear it so often, we've not only stopped noticing the absurdity of the words we're hearing, we start using that language ourselves.

Often, I suppose sadly, I'm asked either by an agency I'm working for or a client, to sit in on a meeting with their larger client organization. They ask me so I can lend gravitas to the procedure, or to explain something that writers have a particular POV or expertise about.

I'm on one of those calls right now as I type this. And I've been listening to someone presenting an ad that is smaller than your iPhone--maybe it's two-inches wide by three-inches tall. 

What struck me about this particular ad is that the person presenting this ad kept referring to it as a "thought-leadership ad."

That very phrase send me into a free-fall. It reminded me of how much of the language we use is used absolutely without thought, and worse, without real meaning.

For instance, when the founders of what used to be amerika, the original Declaration of Independence was 28 1/2 x 22 1/2-inches in size. 

The bible has 783,137 words.

The communist manifesto is about 50-70 pages long.

These communications have heft. They might reasonably "lead thought." As might these ads:

This is not a "thought-leadership" ad, no matter what people call it.

You can call this photograph an asset.

This is garbage.

This is a call to action. 
In that the words might make you want to act.

This is wishful thinking.

My point is pretty simple.

If you want to lead thought.
If you want your designs to be regarded as "assets."
If you want your work to get people to act,
it takes more than just doing something small and cheap and repetitive and exclamation-pointy.

It takes stature, it takes risk, it takes size, presence, assertiveness, originality.

There is no cheap way to lead thought, create an asset or impel someone to act.

We can call things by these words, but we should question the language we use.

Saying something doesn't make them so.