Declaration of PPT

Does PowerPoint represent a 21st century incarnation of Gresham’s Law, driving to extinction expository writing and good old-fashioned declarative sentences?

I was thinking about this earlier this week when presentation trainer Jim Cameron (jim@mediatrainer.tv) visited my temple of PR mavens to help sharpen their presentation skills. Thanks a million, Jim, for taking the time and volunteering your expertise.

Jim was cautioning younger staffers against using PowerPoint as a presentation crutch (yes, we are all guilty of sometimes just reading the slides instead of using them as a visual aid) and eschewing the river of text that PR people love to pour onto the electo-slides. “Remember, no more than six lines per slide, bullet points, no full sentences.”

It then dawned on me that it’s been several years since I have read a client’s marketing plan, or a public relations proposal that was actually in “Word” format (will Microsoft soon delete Word from its Office suite of applications?). The 20-odd page-marketing plan has given way to the 120 slide “deck.”

So what’s going on here? Not good things, in my opinion. The grim observation from ten ago that college kids, even graduate students, can’t write seems to have been rendered moot, as the perfect antidote to poor writing is simply not to write; rather, slather a verb and a wimpy object onto a slide, preceded by a “*” or “-“. Then add in a chart, graph or picture as the secret sauce and voila, you are a marketing genius.

Of course, what’s missing is the ability to truly tell a story, to add rhythm, detail and the nuances that only come from a written document. So imagine if the Founding Fathers had access to ppt, in lieu of the quill:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Declaration of Independence could be jump-started with one slide:

Reasons to Say Ciao to Britain

• Sometime it is prudent to dissolve the political relationship that unites people
• But it must be done carefully; and with good reasons that must be clearly explained
• (Obviously) Good government must strive to help provide life, liberty and the opportunity to be happy. These are priorities!
• Good Government must achieve the buy-in of the people…or else
• It cannot achieve these goals (see bullet 3), it’s okay to replace management

Hmm...