There is no better way to begin this list, than with David Meerman Scott’s words:
Oh jeez, not another flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge product from a market-leading, well positioned company!
If this cat looks annoyed, imaged a “leading” journalist reading a press release with the following words.
5. Leading, and all its suite
Someone should slap some sense into every “leading” company out there. Unless you are the absolute top in your industry (and you will need to provide proof of that), you cannot describe yourself as a “leading” company. The same goes for “industry-leading”, “market-leading”, “leader in”, “global leader” (really?) and so on.
4. Excited
We are excited to report that if you use “excited” in your press releases we will not be publishing your news. Seriously. Don’t push it.
3. Proud to announce
Take a look here: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Do you know what these are? Well, it may not be a sin to be proud of your accomplishments, but the expression “proud to announce” is annoying enough to make its use in a press release tabu.
2. Groundbreaking and cutting-edge
These may not be as used as their predecessors on this list, but they are nevertheless among the top most annoying words to use in a press release.
1. Today announced
Press releases are dated, so the winning phrase in the most annoying category is “today announced.” If you don’t publish a press release for something that you announced yesterday (in which case don’t expect much media coverage, as no journalist likes to report yesterday’s news), or something that you will do in the future, “today announced” makes you look like a complete idiot. Stop using it.