Passion Is No Ordinary Word.
Last week, at the Free Agents screening, I heard a producer eulogising about how the show had been a great "job" with which to be involved. This week I heard someone praising an advertising campaign as great "work".
My reaction to both is the same as to those people who spoke of shifting "units" and marketing "product" when I worked in the entertainment industry. If you want customers to care about what you're selling, then think and speak about it in terms of something you care about.
If your language commoditises it, you're half the way to actually commoditising it.
posted by john dodds @ 3:45 AM
6 Comments:
not defending it, but seems some people are still more comfortable with industrial age type jargon.
it is needed by them to add gravitas to their self image and projected one.
units, product, job, work, are scarcity words, that kinda imply that the limited availibility of the actions add value. a piece of work if finite/scarce, can thus projected/perceived to be valuable.
or somthing..
Agreed Niko. The alleged benefit of jargon is a source of great arguments between me and a smart friend. Here i think it stops people from thinking what they're saying.
i hate to say it, but perhaps that person praising an ad campaign was getting confused with describing it as an artwork again. you know how these adtypes get :D
i often speak about beautiful 'work' , but that's an abbreviation of artwork. and, well, an acknowledgment of the effort gone into it.
or then again, maybe she was using the term work, as an extension of something that functions.
however, above and beyond all that - i have one word for you: semantics.
A conceptual artist throwing the semantics accusation at me - now that is ironic ;o)
I'm wondering if the individual creator referring to something as work is acceptable as you say, but the collective efforts of a team/business is not.
Noone's denying the "work" that goes into creating the "art", but work is a given in all areas of endeavour. But the language you use can reflect or, worse still, create a utilitarian mindset.
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Passion - real passion, not the contrived bollocks being shouted by most corporations today - is a competitive advantage. Maybe if they stopped hiring people based on 'filling positions' and allowed the odd person to be employed for their care, hunger, soul and vision - they could see just how financially beneficial 'passion' can be for business.
But Niko is right - a lot of people use these terms because they think jargon helps them 'fit in' rather than it being a reflection of their cold and unmoving attitude towards their category etc.
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