How to fake authenticity

A recent email from a small and well-run nonprofit (which will remain anonymous) opens like this:

There is a saying in Central America: "If you impact a man you have transformed an individual. If you impact a woman, you have transformed generations to come."

C'mon! Does anybody in Central America (or anywhere else) walk around uttering anything as clunky as that? What on earth would cause you to claim that they do?

I doubt it's an outright lie. It sounds more like a bad translation: PC-speak, combined with nonprofit-speak and bureaucratese, rendered something people actually say into a mouthful of jargon.

Real sayings as uttered by real people are short, easy to remember, and punchy. Like Waste not, want not or Measure twice, cut once.

When you write something, you have to do a "gut check." Does that sound real? Because when it doesn't, you've all but put a big sign around your neck that says FAKE.

These days, people are so over-assailed by marketing messages, they're learning to tune out and ignore the stuff that's not real. If you don't seem real, you get the same penalty as those who aren't real: You get ignored.

I was thinking I'd paraphrase that saying like this: Teach a man to fish, and he'll hang out in the woods every weekend. Teach a woman to fish, and it's seafood for everyone.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, copywriting

Comments

[Goli]

Hey,
That was really nice. I liked eat, teach a women to fish and you would have seafood :)

[Bill Kennedy]

How about: If you impact a man you have a bar fight. If you impact a woman you get arrested? :-)

Great post!