Are you addicted to exclamation marks? Many marketers are. There seems to be a trend! toward! use! and overuse! of exclamation points! to try and pump up the volume! of marketing! copy!!!

But there’s hope. 

For just pennies a day, you can help save a marketer from this dreaded overuse of exclamation marks, and in turn, save a marketer from themselves. Help us now, before we have to take the drastic step of removing the ! key from keyboards everywhere. 

Because a bang is a terrible thing to waste.

Okay…maybe not yet, but I can see a day coming where what you just read could be a real pitch for a real organization dedicated to ending the abuse of bangs. I don’t mean to get all Mr. English Grammar Person on you here, but this abuse of exclamations is devaluing a useful tool every bit as much as the words “superstar,” “new,” “fresh,” and “must-see TV.”

Here’s the deal. Unless you go around with your eyebrows taped up to craft a look of Little Orphan Annie-like perpetual surprise, you don’t overuse exclamation points in your interactions with others. Why do it in your ad copy? An exclamation, properly used, should be something that stands out in stark contrast to the rest of your copy. If everything! stands! out!, then! nothing! does!. Period. Think of exclamations like some exotic spice on a gourmet dish. A little dab’ll do ya. 

My particular typographic pet peeve is when marketers try to offset the devaluation of the exclaimation by using more than one at the end of a sentence, as if that would really punch things up. 

Buy a clue. It won’t. In fact, it just makes the writer look emotionally bankrupt. 

If you want to make your copy exciting, write exciting copy. I can write copy, completely devoid of exclamations that uses words to make a point, instead of punctuation. In fact, I can write things that have more punch without a bang than with one. Kind of like in a noise room, it’s the small, still voice that seems the loudest. 

Try it with your marketing. See if you can Ban the Bang and learn to live without typographic hyperbole. Give it a shot for a month or two. I’m betting you won’t miss it. I’m betting, too, that your copy will improve, once you learn to live without that exclaimatory crutch. 

Give it a shot. Today!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.