http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/?utm_source=rss Ad and marketing creatives Copyright 2010, Thinkmap Inc. All Rights Reserved. en Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/images/common/logo_on_white.gif http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/?utm_source=rss Search for a word in the Visual Thesaurus word http://www.visualthesaurus.com Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2186?utm_source=rss I've been seeing a lot of You lately. Not specifically you, dear reader, but You, the second-person advertorial. Yes, after years of talking about us, marketers have taken a shine to You. And they're eager to tell You just how important you are to their business. Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2186 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2125?utm_source=rss Neal Whitman's recent column (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2109) on the language of "choice" in education ("Make good choices!") got me thinking about how choice and choose are used in marketing. From the flight attendant's cheery "We know you have a choice when you fly — thanks for choosing us!" to IKEA's "Choose your own entertainment adventure," we're constantly encouraged to select from an array of options. But what does all that choice mean? Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2125 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2086?utm_source=rss I've got a problem with solutions. Well, it's not solutions, per se, but the word "solutions." Actually, it's not even the word "solutions"; it's the notion that all you have to do is throw that word onto your home page and the world will beat a path to your door. Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2086 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2075?utm_source=rss As far as I know, no university has a Department of Nomenclature. I've never heard of an internship in brand naming. So what's an aspiring name developer — or even an inquiring civilian — to do? Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2075 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2042?utm_source=rss It really bugs me when I hear someone use the word "individual" when all they mean is "person." It happens a lot with law-enforcement spokespeople. They also tend to say "vehicle" when they could say "car" or "truck." Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2042 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2035?utm_source=rss You can read it. You can watch it. You can talk about it online with your friends. It's a sort of picture book — or, more precisely, a moving-picture book — but its inventors call it a Vook. That's Vook as in video + book. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2035 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2016?utm_source=rss The passing of New York Times language columnist William Safire has been well noted here (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2000) (by VT executive producer Ben Zimmer) and elsewhere (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/blogexcerpts/2001). The death of Edward Gelsthorpe, who died September 12 and whose Times obituary appeared directly beneath Safire's on September 28, has been less commented on. Yet in his way Gelsthorpe had almost as powerful an influence on the world of words as did Safire. Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/2016 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1994?utm_source=rss Want to avoid using words that "sound somewhat like the ones intended but are ludicrously wrong in the context"? Let our Editorial Emergency team, Simon Glickman and Julia Rubiner, help you to avoid coming off like the reincarnation of Mrs. Malaprop! Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1994 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1979?utm_source=rss Have you heard? This economic slump we're in isn't just a recession: it's a mancession — a downturn that hurts men more than women. The term has been popularized by a University of Michigan economics and finance professor, Mark J. Perry, whose Carpe Diem blog employs lots of charts and graphs to drive home the point that male workers are taking it on the chin. That's bad news. But it turns out there's one sector men in which men are doing just dandy. I refer, of course, to the market in man-words and man-brands. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1979 Candlepower http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1954?utm_source=rss Admit it — you're afraid of semicolons. Lots of folks, even professional writers, will cop to this phobia. No fear? Prove it (or engage in a little immersion therapy) by reviewing the following pairs of independent clauses and identifying the ones that would be better served by a semicolon than the period you see there now. Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EDT http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/candlepwr/1954