The Gulf oil spill has given the world a taste of oil industry jargon.
Jargon is something that we deal with and take for granted every day in the tech PR world. It is sometimes interesting and fun to see families and friends chew on unfamiliar terms as related technologies start to enter the mainstream – e.g. I have had to explain blogging and Twitter to my dad, who is almost 80.
With the Gulf oil mess, the language used to describe potential fixes seems almost designed to capture attention.
The whole episode reminds me of scenes from the old TV show Get Smart – the ones where Agent Smart, played by Don Adams, tries to get out of difficult situations through hollow threats, each one prefaced by “Would you believe…” Such as (when a KAOS agent is holding Smart at gunpoint and it is pretty clear that the cavalry is not coming to save him) “Would you believe this building is now surrounded by angry boy scouts?”
They say that laughter is the best medicine (and I would laugh if it weren’t so sad), but just for yucks I thought I’d imagine a riff on oil spill cures tried so far – and one additional cure: would you believe a wad consisting of all the paper created by all press releases that are cast aside could plug that hole?
