“The New ‘Star Wars’ Movie was Planned like the Normandy Invasion”; “Being Beached on a Sludge Bank of Corporate Puff”--Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize Something

Here are some recent examples of articulate people using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making their assertion indelible--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative use of the language, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• During a discussion of the new “Star Wars” movie on the Dec. 22 edition of “The Diane Rehm Show,” film critic Kenneth Turan saying: “This is a landmark in commercial filmmaking. I mean, this thing was planned like the Normandy invasion, you know, from beginning to end, and it succeeded, just like the Normandy invasion did…” [Turan then goes on to agree with a caller who was disappointed with the film because “it’s a complete remake of the (1977 original) plot point by plot point; even some of the lines are the same…”]

 

• During a discussion of Chipotle’s travails on the Dec. 8 edition of PBS’s “Nightly Business Report,” when brand expert Dean Crutchfield was asked what the company should do to repair the damage to its brand as a result of recurring outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, he said: “I haven’t seen enough to satisfy me regarding Chipotle’s response. I believe all channels of communication should be wide open. And the CEO should be speaking a lot more without being beached on a sludge bank of corporate puff. Basically, it’s about communicating to everybody in every way, from…” 

© Copyright 2015  V. J. Singal