Corporate Voice Meet Shiny Plastic Food Tray
“No, you know what, screw it, we love it man.”
Recent conversations set me to thinking about corporate voice. Clients uniformly want to be heard with bold authority but then the lawyers and regulators find the [fresh/spicy/freaky] copy and emasculate it with sharp strokes.
But let’s not just point at lawyers and regulators, let’s admit that bold is a dangerous position. Bold words might fail. Or be seen as stupid. Bold words may pin me to a promise: uncomfortable!
Voice has always taken courage. Being heard has always been a risky endeavor. Especially when what you have to say goes against the grain. Think Elijah calling fire from the heavens. Think John the Baptist nailing the authorities as vipers. Think Richard Branson. That’s right: He of the airlines and music and phones and whatever else his Virgin Group encompasses. He of the bold statements. Maybe Sir Richard Branson is no Elijah or John the Baptist, but his company did produce this airline tray mat, which is at least a tiny voice crying in the wilderness of corporate voice.
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Image credit: Kirk Livingston
conversation is an engine 
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