Show, don't tell makes up the basic framework of any brand tone of voice. And it's something us seasoned copywriters preach and can pick out with hawk-like precision.
You can't bullshit and bullshitter. We write marketing copy for a living. We pride ourselves on being able to sell snow to Eskimos. So when we see brands use trite statements like, "fresh ideas", "new and improved" and "the best", we shake our heads in quiet derision.
Everywhere you look, you see examples of brands and people telling and not showing. You just need to sift through a pile CVs to see person after person describe themselves as proactive, project managers and have great attention to detail.
That's all well and good, but how about showing an example of when you've been proactive, when and how you've managed a project and the methods you use to check the detail. Why is it a fresh idea, what's new and improved about it and why is it the best? I spend 90% of my reviewing time saying "but what does this mean?"
We get taught to write tales in school. We can make grand claims and not substantiate them. We're allowed to litter our work with meaningless statements. Here's my favourite:
"Energy the way it should be"; how else should it be? Perhaps electricity that smells of meadows, that would be handy. I flick a switch and the lights come on - that's how it's worked with every supplier I've been with. Have I been doing it wrong all these years?!
"Fresh ideas"; will it be delivered by a swan or some bare-chested hunk on horseback? There's only so many things you can do with electricity and all of those have been done, like smart meters, apps and tariffs - what could it be? Especially if it will make the onerous task of plugging in my phone or having to press the on button easier. Or opening an envelope/email. Or reading a meter.
And award-winning Bristol service?! How does that help me in Reading or those people in Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Anglesey or the Highlands? I read this webpage and think, "so what?"
It's not just brands who are guilty of this selling without saying anything. The Twitter trial of Toby Young illustrates the beauty of the understatement. The badly judged appointment of Toby Young to the board of the Office of Students (OfS) highlighted, not only his woeful views but his inability show and not tell.
He's a self-styled maverick, but as comedian Stewart Lee points out in his Guardian piece, you shouldn't really call yourself a maverick. It's for everyone else to brand you as that. I like to think of myself as an intellectual, but I wouldn't dream of adding that my bio, it's for my Twitter followers and the people around me to come to that conclusion, as my ex-boss recently did by telling me that I was definitely on the "intellectual spectrum" before launching into why he thought that.
It's like your friends and family on social media who keep labouring the point about how happy, in love or perfect their lives are. You can bet you arse the reality is loneliness, vicious arguments, unmanageable debt, job unsatisfaction and the rest. If you go around labouring the point, you tarnish the integrity of the point you're trying to make - as people are smarter than that and will not believe it.
Basically, telling people you're amazing doesn't make you amazing. Showing people why you're amazing will lead people into drawing to that conclusion on their own. Steve McQueen didn't go around saying he was cool and Marylin Monroe didn't call herself an icon - we did all that because he is ridiculously cool and she's an unparalleled icon.