Choosing Positive Language for Pandemic Communications by Gina F. Rubel
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t is hard to believe that we have been living through the coronavirus pandemic since the early days of 2020. For many, these past few months feel more like a decade. Some of that weariness and strain is starting to show in the language that people and companies are using. As communicators, though, we know that meaning is conveyed not just in what you say, but in how you say it. The same situation, event or idea can be perceived differently by your audience depending upon the way the message is conveyed; words and phrases can convey positivity or negativity, and sometimes all it takes is a different vocabulary choice to achieve a different tone. Still, deliberately choosing positive language to communicate during a pandemic can take energy and awareness. So, we reached out to members of the Legal Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America Counselors Academy to solicit input on language choices for communications today. We also tossed out an informal survey on social media for examples of words and phrases that most of us are tired of hearing. While some of these words and phrases may have been well received early in the pandemic, now it’s a different story. Many people wish the following words and phrases could be stricken from our current lexicon: • Constraints • Difficult times • Herd immunity (noting we are not wild animals) • High risk individuals • Isolation • Locked down • New normal • Now more than ever • Person under investigation • Presumptive positive
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Attorney Journals San Diego | Volume 203, 2020
• The unwell • Quarantine • Uncertain times • Unprecedented times The dislike of “unprecedented times” is widespread. But these days and events really are unprecedented, so what’s a communicator to do? To help find other word choices, MarketingProfs published 30 Creative Alternatives to Unprecedented. We didn’t see this phrase on the list, but Gina would add “Steven King-like” as an effective adjective phrase to describe the past few months. Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching was a guest on the podcast On Record PR. After discussing how to be an amazingly effective leader, he noted that he doesn’t “call these times ‘challenging,’ because that creates a vision that has some negativity built in.” Instead, Jacobs thinks “in terms of ‘unchartered waters.’” He believes that phrase helps us shift quickly into opportunity mode and encourages us to find clarity and spur action. Many consumers also share a disdain for companies that say “we’re all in this together” in their marketing and other communications. Gina admits that she is guilty of that one herself. She does believe that we’re in this together. But since she recognizes that not everyone feels the same way, she has shifted to saying, “Together, we will get through this.”
Positive Language Alternatives for Pandemic Communications Words matter. Every successful communicator knows that, of course, but science is showing us that word choice matters even more than we may have thought. In their book, Words Can Change Your Brain, Dr. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman describe how a single
