“The Wolf of
Wall Street,” another well-done movie by Martin Scorsese, featured 506 F-bombs
in its three-hour telling of how one man reached the height and depth of Wall
Street. The film is largely filled with scenes involving nudity, taking drugs,
or inhaling drugs off of nude bodies. The dialogue is richly filled with a
curse word every 20 seconds – literally!
Is there a time and place to use blue language to support the promoting, marketing, or advertising of your book, blog, company or product? F**k, yeah.
Is there a time and place to use blue language to support the promoting, marketing, or advertising of your book, blog, company or product? F**k, yeah.
But like any
communications approach, you need to move cautiously and focus your language to
meet your targeted audience.
Which words,
phrases, or terms will resonate with and influence them? Which ones will offend
and turn them off?
If your book in
any way involves cursing, or your book is about things like erotica, violence,
and family dysfunction, there’s a likelihood that you need to use certain curse
words for legitimacy and authenticity. You can’t discuss someone being an
asshole without calling them one, can you? Nothing is an adequate substitute
for words that push our buttons and cut to the chase without any ambiguity or
uncertainty as to your intent.
Language and the
strategic use or withholding of words is the arsenal at hand for the talented
writer. It’s okay to curse when the circumstance permits or demands it.
Some people
never curse in public – the Pope, the President, Jerry Seinfeld – and they are
highly successful. Some people curse all of the time – Jon Stewart, Howard
Stern, and Eddie Murphy – and they are highly successful.
It comes down to
context and impact. Frequency of the use of a cuss word is also a factor. When
in doubt, don’t chance cursing or resorting to language that could alienate
others, but at the same time, recognize there are settings, conversations, or
social media opportunities when not only is it okay to curse, but it seems
needed.
The one word I
never put in my social media and blogging is a word that rhymes with ham and
starts with “s,” simply for fear that having that word – in any context – will
get me penalized by Google’s search engine. I’d sooner write about pornography
than sp_ _.
Feel liberated
to know you can and should curse, but select your moments, and if your mom is
reading your blog, you may want to think about what she’ll think. Otherwise, go
for it!
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and
ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media
Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This
is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.
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