TO BE OR NOT TO BE

If you can force yourself to listen to the worst sales messages on radio- and believe me there are a lot of them- you might hear the client's business advertised as "THE place to be."

To be WHAT?? To be parted from your money? To be arrested? To be welcomed and pampered? We don't know, because the client has not told us. They assume the listener will know; but we all know what assumptions lead to.

Maybe fifty years ago, emphasising the article was considered chic and fashionable, as in "Dahling, you must call him, he is simple THE decorator to have!!" Meaning, I suppose, the Definative..the person whose work defined the standard for every other in that category. That's quite a large boast. It comes with the understanding that the listener considers himself to be a sheep, and if everyone else is using said product or service, then I will too, or else I shall be out of touch.

Apart from a 14 year old girl, do you know anyone who really thinks that way? Then to WHOM is the advertiser talking? The verb "to be" is an irregular verb anyway. It needs another idea attached to it. To be is simply to exist. Do you want to be known as the place to simply exist? Using that kind of lazy writing in your sales messages will cause your story to be un-memorable. Too much of that, and your business will cease to be.

--Thanks for reading.