Words from the real world

One of the words of the moment in marketing is 'engagement'. Specifically, 'consumer engagement'. What companies mean is that they want to get people to like them, to talk to them, to do things for them - oh, and to keep buying their products.

But it's a word that annoys me. For all our talk of understanding people, of one-to-one communication, too much chat is still around 'how do we engage people'. 

Sure, at a very high level, before we've worked out what people might possibly be interested in if we were to approach them in some way, I reckon you can just about get away with using it. But when you see the word in consumer-facing sites like the new Cadbury's Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR) website, pictured above, it smacks of copy that's been written by a bloke in a suit in a lofty office with no real idea of how people talk to each other.

'We've always been a company people engage with, and that engages with people.'

What the fuck?

I don't engage my friends: I talk to them, call them, listen to them, buy them drinks, laugh with them, at them, or smile grudgingly while they laugh at me.

Please, Cadbury, I can see what you're trying to do, but - for me at least - what promises so much in its name ('Dear Cadbury') and uses a host of pretty colours (despite questionable site architecture),  lets itself down in how it actually conducts itself.