Jim Armitage: When card sending becomes a joyless affair

Outlook “Have you sent your social expression stationery yet for the winter holiday season?”

I expect that is one of the most irritating sentences you’ve read for a while? It’s written in the language used by the marketing robots at International Greetings. Translated into English, it means: “Have you done your Christmas cards?”

For a company whose cards and wrapping paper (sorry, “giftwrap”) are mostly bought by people to celebrate fun events (condolences aside), why do they use such joyless language?

Presumably it makes them sound professional and management-y. But it’s more likely to foster a culture that breeds the kind of banal cards we associate with these global manufacturers.