AMERICAN NEWSPEAK is hoarded at http://www.scn.org/news/newspeak/ Celebrating cutting edge advances in the exciting field of Doublespeak! Written by Wayne Grytting

Advertisers Becoming Literate

Major advertisers are "changing the rules of magazine publishing," reports the Wall Street Journal, by breaking down the walls separating ads from editorial content. Now a number of corporations are demanding written summaries of articles before submitting their ads. Recently, Chrysler sent out a letter to Esquire and 100 magazines informing them, "In an effort to avoid potential conflicts, it is required that Chrysler Corporation be alerted in advance of any and all editorial content that encompasses sexual, political, social issues or any editorial content that could be construed as provocative or offensive." I particularly like that "could be construed" part. Really professional. Countering critics who worry about freedom of the press, Pentacom CEO David Martin points out the reasonableness of advertisers' demands because, given ads that cost $22,000 a piece, "you want it surrounded by positive things." Esquire certainly agreed. After receiving their letter from Chrysler, they canceled a scheduled story with a gay theme by author David Leavitt. (WSJ 4/30)

Nike Worries About Indonesia

13,000 workers in Indonesia protested against Nike subcontractors for failing to pay the minimum wage of $2.50 a day. Nike responded by pointing out an even greater danger threatening these employees. Jim Small, a spokesman for the attitude company, noted that wages have increased three fold in Indonesia in the past two years. "There's concern what that does to the market," said Small, "whether or not Indonesia could be reaching a point where it is pricing itself out of the market." Do remember that the cost of producing a $120 pair of Air Jordans is almost $4. Regardless, Nike is very concerned about the welfare of these employees, which may help explain their innovative campaign to save the $2.50-a-day employees from the sin of greed. Nike is refusing to pay more to its factories as a result of any wage increases. Meanwhile, Mr. Small has planned a seminar to explain what he and other Nike PR Representatives are doing do to deserve more pay than their Indonesian co-workers. (WSJ 4/28)

Che Guevera Makes a Comeback

Cuba's major revolutionary export, Che Guevera, is back in vogue with a best selling memoir, and several biographies and movies coming out about him. This is a result of the fact that, to quote the NY Times, "his image has become more vivid, complex and commercial." For example, Raichle Molitar, distributors of Fischer's Revolution Skis, is holding a Che look-a-like contest to sell their skis. Explained spokesperson Jim Fleischer, "We felt that the Che image--just the icon and not the man's doings--represented what we wanted: revolution, extreme change." This corporate pursuit of revolution, just the icon and not the reality, is also helping to sell Swatch watches and even ash trays. All of this commercialization has left Cubans somewhat mystified, but then they don't live in the "free world." (NYT 4/30)

The Out of Date Vocabulary Dept.

Paper shredders will be working overtime thanks to word from the International Monetary fund that the label "industrial countries" is now out. An IMF report issued by Robert Rowthorn and Ramana Ramaswamy announced that wealthy nations will now be called "advanced economies" instead, because they are all so busy deindustrializing. Fortunately, the dismantling of factories by "advanced economies" and the transfer of the old activity of actually producing anything to the "non-advanced" (?) world, is good for us. The report shows how, "contrary to popular perception, deindustrialization is not a negative phenomenon..." Even so, the IMF does recommend training programs to help "the losers adapt to change." Even the Wall Street Journal felt compelled to add that deindustrialization has coincided with a rapid rise in income inequality as those losing their manufacturing jobs took 19% pay cuts in their new "advanced economy" jobs. (WSJ 4/28)

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