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Don’t Fear the Passive Voice

For years now, I’ve watched helplessly as educators have tried to extinguish the passive voice from English writing. Their reasons for discouraging the structure are well supported and agreed-upon: it can be superfluous, confusing, and can make writing seem more… well, passive.

The Passive Voice

Here’s an example of the passive voice and its opposite, the active voice:

Active: I (subject) am going to ace that test (direct object).

Passive: That test (subject) will be aced [by me (direct object)].

In the active, the actor (I, me) is the one doing the action to the object. But in the passive, the object is having something done to it, by the actor. Thus, the passive voice places the focus on the object and the action.

But as I see it, the linguicide of the passive voice is misguided and damaging to the art of communication. For PR professionals and copywriters who write in multiple genres, it’s important not to jump on to the anti-passive bandwagon so easily. Doing so immediately disregards its unique benefits for communicating ideas.

Bare Necessities

A central tenant of linguistics is that linguistic elements go extinct when they cease to serve a purpose to speakers/writers. For instance, some people speculate that the the hyphen is on the road to extinction due to its increasingly diminished use in English writing. It follows, then, that the passive voice exists and continues to exist for one simple reason: it has a unique, useful purpose.

The passive voice isn’t unique to English, either. Many, if not most, languages from different language families all have some form of the passive voice, including German, Arabic, Hindi, Finnish, Spanish, Korean and Farsi. I recall being taught how to write in the passive voice in my German and Arabic classes, later to find red marks on my English-language papers saying that I should never use it. Even Chinese, a language devoid of conventional verb tenses, makes use of the passive voice. In fact, some Chinese are using the passive voice to express tactful protests against government institutions.

My genius is rebuk’d; as, it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar
Macbeth, Act III Scene I

Additionally, the structure has been used by many famous, educated people throughout history. According to the Language Log, Winston Churchill, one of history’s great orators, used the passive voice extensively in his speeches. Barack Obama uses it tactfully, sometimes in a diplomatic manner to avoid placing blame. A quick skim through many famous quotes will reveal how many writers and leaders have successfully employed the passive voice.

The Language Log has also published an expose of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, a book that strongly discourages the passive voice. They reveal that the very sentence used to dissuade the use of the passive voice was written using the passive voice:

Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is or could be heard.
Elements of Style (4th edition, 2000, p. 18) by Strunk & White

Additionally, their analysis of E.B. White’s own writing in the introduction to Letters of E.B. White (1976) revealed that 21-29% of White’s introduction consisted of the passive voice. And so it’s clear: even one of the passive voice’s most prominent critics relies on it every now and then.

A Tool in the Belt

To be sure, the passive voice absolutely has its drawbacks, some of which I noted in the beginning. But critics are often too quick to ignore its benefits. Here are a few things that the passive voice allows communicators to do:

1. To emphasize the verb/action and direct object.
   “During Session A, heat was applied for 1 hour at the 24-hour time point during the 30-hour period.” (via)
   To say “we applied heat” would distract from the premise of the sentence–the action, “heat was applied”–by making “we” the strongest point in the sentence.
2. For desired eloquence and wordiness.
   “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” (Henry Ford)
   If Henry had instead said “I have observed that,” his quote may have lost the eloquent zing that makes it quote-worthy.
3. For generalizations and unknown subjects.
   “Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic.” (John Steinbeck)
   Who has restored it to the highest place? That’s not important for this statement, which John fully intended to keep vague. Sometimes, a high level of ambiguity is both necessary and sufficient.
4. To avoid accusation.
   “Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.” (John Adams)
   John uses the passive voice to avoid accusing a particular group or individual of the “abuse of words.” Diplomats and politicians use this all the time to avoid making accusations on the record. 

As communicators who take oaths with our hands on copies of the AP Stylebook and Elements of Style, many of us have been trained to avoid the passive voice at all costs. But adhering to this maxim is like a mechanic tossing his pipe wrench into a garbage can.

I, like most others, do not condone the rampant usage of the passive voice. But neither do I discourage its use. I simply believe that rather than blindly avoiding this valuable tool, we should embrace it for its communicative utility, and focus on using it diplomatically and purposefully.

Please debate, supplement and respond to this article by commenting below.

Links in this Article

1. Is the hyphen making a dash for extinction? – The Times – By Robin Young
2. Verbal Aspect: Expressing “Tense” in Mandarin Chinese Grammar – The Chinese Outpost – By Mark A. Baker
3. Passive voice employed by ordinary Chinese to call for freedom – Xinhua News English – By Xiong Tong (ed.)
4. Search for “has been” – BrainyQuote.com
5. When men were men, and verbs were passive – Language Log – By Mark Liberman
6. Barack Obama and How I Learned to Love the Passive Voice – Open Salon – By Barbara Falconer Newhall
7. Passive aggression – Language Log – By Geoffrey K. Pullum
8. The pharmacokinetics of transdermal fentanyl delivered with and without controlled heat by Ashburn et al.

More Cupcakes & Maximizing Your Impressions

I’ve always been a fan of consolidation — of achieving multiple effects with one action, multiple tasks with one tool. When used wisely, consolidation allows for the efficient use of both time and resources. Social media tools such as HootSuite and TweetDeck allow you to post updates to multiple social media platforms with one consolidated textbox. Netvibes and iGoogle consolidate web browsing with a wide variety of shopping, RSS, email and social media widgets. And with one consolidated smart phone, you can do pretty much anything.

Blue Birds from the popular game Angry Birds are actually three birds packaged into one. They are prime examples of “killing multiple birds with one stone” (or in this case, multiple pigs with one bird).

However, the consolidation that I would like to focus on is regarding social media strategies. Wrapping multiple types of social media effects up into one user action.

MORE Impressions

Perhaps the best example that I have seen is a campaign run by MORE Cupcakes in Chicago (just the name itself is a delicious call to action). The campaign consolidates three different types of impressions into one user action, increasing the visibility (read: impressions) of that single action.

The campaign is as follows: Every so often, the bakery posts a cupcake photo to their Facebook page. Then, the first 50 people to tag themselves in the cupcake photo receive a free cupcake.

It’s a very simple action, requiring relatively no effort on the part of the user. Yet with one tag, the curiosity-driving cupcake photo appears:

• In the photo ribbon at the top of the user’s profile
• In their friends’ News Feed
• In the user’s tagged photos (and with a longer-lasting presence)

That’s three distinct types of impressions, all packaged into one user action. Roughly three times the number of impressions as a normal wall post, tweet or comment. And here’s a bonus: since the resulting free cupcake serves as a loss leader to lure the tagger into the store for (ahem) more, it’s an almost guaranteed return on investment.

Perhaps an effect of this magnitude is unique to Facebook’s wide-touching photo features. But creativity knows no boundaries, and with the tools available, I’m confident that there are other examples out there. What are some examples of other campaigns that package multiple effects into one action?

Tunisian Tourism: Rebranding a Nation

An unfortunate truism of international news is that people learn the most about foreign nations, government and culture when they are undergoing a crisis. Recently, we’ve learned a few things about Libya. We’ve learned a lot about Japan. And in January, we were introduced to Tunisia.

Tunisian protesters in January, photographed by my friend Connie Lee. See more of her photos.

Tunisia: A peaceful, low-key nation that has received nearly no international attention since its inception in 1956. Yet in a matter of days, they were thrust into the international spotlight by a violent revolution and prospects of democracy. The world watched closely as an unsatisfied nation threw off an unwanted government. For many people, Tunisia stood as a brave symbol of justice and hope. For potential tourists, however, the nation became branded as a land of instability, violence and travel advisories. Not the best place to take the family.

While the dust of revolution has been mostly settled since then, Tunisia’s tourism is now faced with a major problem. As a result of the revolution, tourism plummeted 50% between January and May, and it is expected to remain at such levels through the end of the year.

Tunisia’s Solution

Recently, the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism has deployed an ad campaign to help bring back tourists. The controversial campaign has made worldwide headlines, and includes slogans such as “They say that in Tunisia some people receive heavy-handed treatment,” depicting a woman receiving a back message. Another ad includes the slogan, “They say Tunisia is nothing but ruins,” and depicts Tunisia’s ancient Roman ruins.

Clearly, these advertisements take on a defensive, satirical tone. According to AdWeek, “Creators of the campaign say they were aiming to disarm people by redefining their preconceived notions of what post-revolution Tunisia would be like.”

It would be difficult (or near ineffective) for Tunisia to deploy a tourism revitalization campaign without acknowledging the recent revolution. But is it necessary to be defensive about it? Furthermore, is it okay to make light of a situation as traumatic and paradigm-shifting as this?

Egypt’s Solution

While the Egyptian revolution has caused a similar loss of tourism (projected to drop 40%), its post-revolutionary tourism campaign has taken a different approach. Just like Tunisia, Egypt’s ads have fully acknowledged the revolutionary events. However, take a look at Egypt’s slogans:

• Welcome to the country of peaceful revolution
• Tahrir – a square rocks the world
• 7,000 years of history and a new era

A less apologetic campaign, and thus a much more confident and positive tone. So what’s the lesson for Tunisia?

A Wider Frame

To many Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans, the idea of a people revolting against an unwanted government is a very positive and romantic one. The Arab Spring has captivated, inspired and touched the world on an almost archetypal level, eliciting memories of the American Revolution and world history’s vast collection of coups and liberation. Personally, I remember watching the live celebrations in Tahrir Square as Egypt’s Mubarak announced his resignation, awestruck and touched on a level that I’ve only rarely experienced.

Tunisia’s campaign fails to take advantage of these positive aspects of the revolution, placing full emphasis on defending the revolution’s destruction (“ruins”) and violence (“heavy-handed treatment”). Sure, Egypt’s revolution had much less violence. But they did not frame their campaign around the violence that did occur. Unlike Tunisia, Egypt’s campaign placed its frame around the more meaningful and more positive picture: a new era and the will of the people.

New Attention, New Opportunities

Tunisia’s campaign aimed to be provocative, and indeed, it achieved that goal. But being satirical and defensive would not be necessary if it focused on the bigger picture, tapping into the emotional grip that the Tunisian revolution has placed on the world.

Tunisia has a many positive assets: a vibrant culture, beautiful scenery, a low poverty rate, and now an even richer history. In 2009, The New York Times described it as being famous “for its golden beaches, sunny weather and affordable luxuries.” Now that they’re in the spotlight, they have the opportunity to lure in tourists who were largely unaware of those assets before the revolution. If they embrace this spotlight, maintain control over their brand and flaunt their positive assets, Tunisia’s tourism industry could eventually end up better-off than it was before the revolution.

Please debate, supplement and respond to this article by commenting below.

Links in this Article

1. Flickr: Photos from Tunisia taken by Connie Lee
2. Revenues from tourism sector in Tunisia drop 50% – gulfnews.com – By Deena Kamel Yousef
3. What Revolution? Tunisia’s New Tourism Campaign – AdWeek – By Kari Lipschutz
4. TUNISIA: High death toll challenges claims of smooth transition – Los Angeles Times – By Roula Hajjar
5. ITB: Egypt launches global ad campaign – TravelWeekly
6. TUNISIA: Provocative advertising campaign stirs the pot in foreign capitals – Los Angeles Times – By Alexandra Sandels
7. A Night, and Day, In Tunisia at a New Resort – The New York Times – By Elaine Glusac

Brands & The Aura of Authenticity

Once, while reading through a journalist friend’s nonfiction memoir, I asked him if any parts of his story were romanticized or fictionalized.

“Naw,” he told me. “People want real.”

I’m not sure if he realized how profoundly his seemingly obvious statement resonated with me. He was right: people are attracted to realness. They are attracted to authenticity. Though he meant it primarily in a journalistic context, I have found it equally important to branding, public relations, and the Internet.

In this anarchic Information Age, where information is being produced at magnanimous rates, authenticity is a flag that people seek out to separate the winners from the losers. The web is full of options and forking pathways, and people are going to follow the path that appears the most authentic. For brands, a strong aura of authenticity will help ensure that their path is chosen among the others.

Searching for Authenticity

Walter Benjamin, in his influential 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, gave heed to the increasingly dubious nature of authenticity as a result of technology. Though his essay focused on art, his arguments could just as easily be applied to the concept of the brand.

The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced. Since the historical testimony rests on the authenticity, the former, too, is jeopardized by reproduction when substantive duration ceases to matter.
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

Benjamin wrote this long before the rise of the Internet. He would have been astounded to see how far technological reproduction has come since then.

On YouTube, where there are countless (often illicit) copies of any given music video, I find myself continually drawn towards videos posted by the actual record label. Very often these official versions also have the highest number of total views.

On Twitter, a plethora of phony imitator accounts has created the necessity for “Verified” accounts. Facebook is working towards a similar system by allowing businesses to officially claim their check-in pages. For individuals, Facebook and LinkedIn have struggled to maintain a sense of authenticity by requiring users to use their real names when registering (a feature which MySpace lacked).

It is one of the foremost goals of traditional search engines is to seek out and deliver authentic results from the billions of web pages out there. If I search for “Pepsi,” I want to find Pepsi’s authentic homepage at the top of the list. On Facebook, a search for “Veggie Straws” should bring me to the official, authentic Veggie Straws Fan Page.

With everything becoming digitized, replicated, imitated, spammed and buried, it is clear that the search for authenticity is something that deserves attention.

How to Communicate Authenticity?

There is by no means a deficit of authenticity in today’s world. It is merely the fact that, in a world of information overload, what has traditionally been deemed authentic has become harder to find. As the waters of the Web get muddier with more information, brands are needing to fight harder to stand out above the rest.

Steve Rubel has dubbed the coming era as the Validation Era, in which the flags of authenticity will be raised through a process of validation similar to Twitter’s Verified Accounts. Google’s +1 feature is another example of how validation (in this case user-generated) is being used to help sift the diamonds from the dirt. However, fully conveying authenticity requires more than a simple signpost or tally. Authenticity needs to seep through the pores of the brand.

The following aspects are what I often use, consciously or unconsciously, to identify a brand as authentic:

• Consistency – An adherence to core values, mission and visual brand image. It ensures easy identification, distinction, and predictability. Also, it helps prevent alienation.
• “Truthiness” – To borrow a term from Stephen Colbert, I use it here to refer to how much something actually is what it describes itself as. I’m reminded of the “Authentically Indigenous” merchandise that I saw being sold in Costa Rica, each with little “Made in Indonesia” stickers on the back. If it says it’s Green, it better be environmentally friendly. If it says it’s 100% juice, it better be pure juice.
• Official License – This is a simple one. If a brand is incorporated, a name registered or a product patented, let it show. When my eyes see LLC, Inc., TM or even CreativeCommons, I’m more likely to give my attention to something that is officially protected. It’s the legal version of Twitter Verification.
• Self-Confidence – Not of the individual, but of the brand itself. If Veggie Straws directly or indirectly communicate an unwavering belief that they’re the most delicious snack in the world (which, they are), then I’m more likely to perceive their brand as serious and authentic. Five Guys is perhaps my favorite example: marketing-wise, they are unusually simple, placing full confidence in the experience of their food. And they are hugely successful at it.
• Outside Recognition – Seeing a brand get acknowledged by another entity lets me know that somebody else has already verified it. I think of it as a form of the herd instinct.

At best, the concept of authenticity is a rather hazy one. In our post-modern world, perhaps it’s as much of an ideal as perfection itself. On the other end of things, a lack of authenticity may only feed recent tides of societal cynicism. A sense of authenticity can be powerful and effective. It is sufficient to turn fans into fanatics, likers into lovers, and it enables the most durable and robust relationships possible.

Please debate, supplement and respond to this article by commenting below.

Links in this Article

1. Study: Digital universe and its impact bigger than we thought – Computerworld – By Lucas Mearian
2. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction – By Walter Benjamin
3. Marketers, Get Ready for the ‘Validation Era’ – AdAge – By Steve Rubel
4. Twitter Help Center – About Verified Accounts
5. Everything You Need To Know About Google’s +1 – Mashable – Todd Wasserman
6. Users Revolt Against New Digg – Mashable – By Vadim Lavrusik
7. Five Guys: an America’s Hottest Brands Case Study – AdAge – By Emily Bryson York
8. Beware of Cynicism – By Emmanuel Tchividjian