Quotations

Why are PR quotes so much longer than media quotes?

Mark Twain once defined a sound bite as “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.”

So this quote, from The New York Times’ “Riches to Rags for New York Teenager Who Admits His Story Is a Hoax,” makes a lot of sense.… Read the full article

Get The Peer Principle of Persuasion into your next campaign

“What others say about you and your product, service, or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent.”

— Dan Kennedy, author of No B.S.

… Read the full article

Convey personality, passion and a point of view

Too many quotes don’t even sound human. Instead, they clatter in your ear like a computer spit them out.… Read the full article

Craft a sassy sound bite

When the Federal Trade Commission needed to explain why the agency has decided not to develop a do-not-spam registry — officials feared that spammers would target people on the list — a spokesperson said:

“You’ll be spammed if we do — and spammed if we don’t.”

You’ve got to love that sound bite!… Read the full article

Say it ain’t so

Reporters don’t like news release quotes

“Most quotes in news releases sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons: ‘Wah wah wah wah.’”

— A frustrated PR pro

What’s the least important element in a release — less important even than the dateline or the boilerplate?… Read the full article

Write it like Winston

Make Churchill your muse

Edward R. Murrow said of Winston Churchill: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”

He rallied the British, defied the Nazis and inspired the United States to fight.… Read the full article