Writing and talking without clichés is easier said than done. Nowadays, clichés come a dime a dozen, and personally, I’ve had it up to here with hearing clichés in the media.
That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, but the buck stops here.
We’ve reached a point where a huge lack of creativity leaves many to resort to the ever-popular, undying cliché. The unceasing, mind-numbing content we absorb leaves us between a rock and a hard place.
And yes, I realize that writing about clichés in a cliché-titled column is a bit hypocritical, but there are bigger fish to fry. Besides, it has a double meaning. There’s a reason for everything – except the things mentioned below.
Clichés are everywhere you turn. We, as the future brains of this country, need to step up to the plate and point the finger at the bigwigs.
Politicians and their obsession with “change” are really the straws that broke the camel’s back in recent months, making their TV presence as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party.
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are beating a dead horse with the use of that word. Props to Sen. John McCain for avoiding it like the plague.
The candidates have been using clichés to tell us what we want to hear. Little do we know, that’s not good enough for us. Clichés aside, we don’t want to hear what we want to hear – we want to hear why we want to hear it.
If I had a nickel for every time I wrote “hear” in the above paragraph, I’d have a quarter.
Super Bowl commercials proved a lack of creativity as well, taking the better-safe-than-sorry approach and leaving the viewers bored to tears. Those ads from just one night represent what we see on television day-by-day.
The ultimate goal of an ad is to sell the product – it’s all about the dollar. The sky’s the limit with minds in the advertising agencies.
Instead of thinking outside the box, advertisers are resorting to exaggerated, over-dramatized scenarios to sell products. For example, Burger King is wasting ad money on “unscripted” reality trashiness in their commercials.
Even if one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, the treasure is still technically trash, isn’t it?
Celebrities are their own rare breed of cliché. But by making their own catchphrases, many celebs are barking up the wrong tree.
Time will tell if Paris Hilton’s “That’s Hot” will end up in the encyclopedia. And it’s too little too late for Chef Emeril Lagasse to do anything about his enthusiastic “Bam!”
Since they have used these phrases for so long, it’s not just cliché for celebs to say them anymore, but it is humdrum chatter when anyone says them. But the stars won’t change – damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
In the news business, no news isn’t necessarily good news. But when it rains, it pours. As writers, we’re trained to bite the bullet and tell it like it is.
It’s time for news directors to wake up and smell the coffee. Enough with the exaggeration, the melodrama, the corniness. Time is of the essence in the news business, but haste makes waste.
But I might as well be talking to a brick wall. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and surely, reform takes just as long. Or longer, since this advice is coming from someone with little experience and no college degree. Touché.
Sure, I may be preaching to the choir. After reading this, you may never want to use another cliché again, and I don’t blame you. In fact, that was one of my goals, come hell or high water.
Talk is cheap, and so are clichés. You have your pick of the litter here, but this is really just a sight for sore eyes. I challenge you to come up with the next great idea that’s the best thing since sliced bread.
After all, there’s a first time for everything.
Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.
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