Mad Bull Disease

Here’s a book title that’s hard not to love: Why Business People Speak Like Idiots. As a bonus, Love is the Killer App author Tim Sanders recommended it in a recent newsletter he sent out.

Idiots is the brainchild of the team that developed Bullfighter, the downloadable Word plug-in that hunts for corporate jargon and provides a welcome reality check. There’s also an online version called Mystery Matador (you only need to preview some text and not send it, like the site implies, to get some value out of it). I played with Matador and entered an upcoming column, and then also evaluated the copy of a search engine marketing firm’s website. Mercifully, the column was nearly jargon-free, while it considered the site a big load of cowpie. If you write web copy, press releases, business collateral, or anything remotely corporate, prepare to be humbled.